[SOLVED] Intel i5 7600 fan: high pitched screeching/whining at specific RPM

[Max_Pare]

Hey everyone. So,
in the past few weeks i've noticed my CPU fan has been spinning a little faster than usual and the temps have overall gottne higher. Not a big deal, i took cpu & fan off, and got a bunch of dust out of the heatsink and carefully cleaned the actual fan, then, i cleaned heatsink and cpu from the old thermal paste and put everything back together. Everything is technically fine, the temperatures are excellent with the new paste (MUCH better than before) because i also spreaded it evenly with a credit card so that i wouldn't have to take it off again in case it didn't spread with the pressure from the heatsink. So, i turn on the pc, everything is good, temperatures are good during stress tests but i noticed one issue; when the fan is spinning at a specific speed (i would say around 30 to 50%) it makes a very high frequency whine, and it is so high pitched that i can even hear it through my headpones with loud music playing. If the fan speed goes below or above this speed it stops making this sound, but still, it is quite annoying and it's not probably not a good thing, even though the fan and cpu themselves seem to be fine. I've mounted plenty of stock intel fans in the past 2-3 years but this is the first time this happens. Perhaps (even though it's very unlikely), there might be a tiny cat hair stuck in there and it hitting the fan makes that noise?

There proably no point in sharing this detail but since i know it i might as well, the sound is about 7500hz, so yeah, it's pretty annoying.

Thanks in advance.

 

[feelinfroggy777]

Sounds like something is wrong with the fan. I would just get another stock cooler for like $10 if the noise is that annoying. The cooler itself is not really worth trying to repair as it is basically a consumable.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-OEM-...001617?hash=item2cd10f4bd1:g:ViIAAOSwTQtaSqr8

 

[velocityg4]

Could be a bearing going out or when you dusted it something got stuck deep inside the motor and is rubbing. Unfortunately, given how cheap Intel heatsinks are constructed. You can't just simply replace the fan with an aftermarket fan. I'd just get a cheap aftermarket heatsink. How much is your time worth trying to fix it vs spending $15 to $20 on a new heatsink which can handle an i5-7500.

 

[Max_Pare]

Could be a bearing going out or when you dusted it something got stuck deep inside the motor and is rubbing. Unfortunately, given how cheap Intel heatsinks are constructed. You can't just simply replace the fan with an aftermarket fan. I'd just get a cheap aftermarket heatsink. How much is your time worth trying to fix it vs spending $15 to $20 on a new heatsink which can handle an i5-7500.

i mean...i got nothing to lose, worst thing that can happen is that i break a crappy intel fan and get a new one, so i might aswell look into it and see if i can find what's causing the noise. Plus, i have a super tiny atx mortherboard and finding a fan that would fit would be a pain.

 

[Max_Pare]

Sounds like something is wrong with the fan. I would just get another stock cooler for like $10 if the noise is that annoying. The cooler itself is not really worth trying to repair as it is basically a consumable.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-OEM-...001617?hash=item2cd10f4bd1:g:ViIAAOSwTQtaSqr8

UPDATE: Apparently, it is not the cooler itself, it seems like it is something on the motherboard that i vibrating and making that noise (somehow..?). I noticed because i went into the bios and set the cpu fan speed to exactly the speed at which i started hearing the noise, and when i tried pushing the ram with my finger the noise stopped, same with anywhere near the cooler, if i put my finger anywhere near the cooler the noise stops, so i probably have some little cable or something that is causing this...i'll try to figure it out.

 

[Max_Pare]

Ok so, the issue just fixed itself, i litterally just touched the fan and it hasn't made that noise since. Uuuuuuuuuh problem solved i guess.