Loud Vibrating/ Noisy fan on HD 4870 (please look)

[thorox]

Hey, I've had my HD 4870 1GB for about 2 1/2 months now, and everything's been fine until the last few weeks. I have had really loud noises coming from Video card and a lot of vibrations. I have thought of just taking the plastic outer cover off and Re-seating the fan or putting some sewing machine oil on it to see if that helps. My problem is is I think i may have to remove the 4 screws on top holding the head-sink and I don't want to have to put thermal paste blah blah blah just to fix a fan.. Also I would'nt want to RMA because that just takes too long.

-Any help is appreciated, thanks 😀


here is the card I have:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150394

 

[dokk2]

Well now ,, if you do not want to RMA it ,, you are going to have to take it apart ,, eh what??
Besides that will give you the opportunity to check the quality of the OEM TIM ,would hope for AC5 or better..Unless of course ,,you still have your previous card to use whilst RMA ing...

 

[hunter315]

What speed is the fan running at? The fans get significantly louder as their speed increases, my 4850 is near silent at 70% but super loud at 80 and above.

Also as its an XFX if there is actually a problem you can just return it under warranty for a replacement. It is possible the bearings on the fan are going, but its unlikely.

 

[thorox]

well the problem isn't fan speed its the fan itself I believe the bearing are going out and I might call XFX l8ter about that. How exatually do you re-package and send it back for RMA?



EDIT: oh yea, forgot to mention that I took card out of case, and spun the fan with my finger. It made a rubbing sound of noise and the fan wouldn't spin freely like you would expect.

 

[wsupduck]

i dont really think xfx cares as they have such terrific customer service

 

[EXT64]

Yeah, I agree contacting the manufacturer is the best bet, as it is unlikely you will be able to fix it. And XFX is pretty good in the service area too. I know it is a pain, but it is the safest and cheapest thing to do, as the next alternative is probably a whole new cooler.

 

[thorox]

I submitted a ticket with XFX, we'll see what happens. I might just buy another HD 4870 and then xfire when the new RMA'ed card comes back, because I had planned on going xfire anyways. I payed for the xfire features on this motherboard, so I might as well use them. My problem with that is the new dx11 cards are out, and I'm confused if I should buy another $150 HD 4870. Or go with one of the new dx11 Cards.

-Thanks for the advice 😀

 

[jay2tall]

Yeah XFX is really good with their warranties. They are really one of the best as far as their double lifetime warranty. However, I hear your dilemma. I had a 4870 and rather than selling to upgrade to a DX11 card, I bought another 4870 off ebay. The crossfire worked great, however I ran into SEVERE heat issues. On my motherboard there is only one slot between the two PCI-E slots so the cards were very close. The bottom card was fine, however the top card trapped heat from the card below and ran at 100% when gaming. In Crysis it would hit 100C+ and crash my video drivers. I ended up selling both, taking a small hit with ebay and paypal fees, but bought a 5870. BEST choice I could have made. I just wish i thought about that before buying the 2nd card. This card idles at 35C and on load I've seen no higher than 73C. I love it and less headache. Just my experience with xfire. If you have 2 slots between your 2 PCI-E slots you are much better off. However, if you only have one you may have heat issues. I could have used a 120mm fan and zippy tied it right over them, but I wasn't going to rig up a cooling system for them. Just my thoughts. OTHERWISE, the performance of them in xfire was AWESOME.

 

[thorox]

Yeah XFX is really good with their warranties. They are really one of the best as far as their double lifetime warranty. However, I hear your dilemma. I had a 4870 and rather than selling to upgrade to a DX11 card, I bought another 4870 off ebay. The crossfire worked great, however I ran into SEVERE heat issues. On my motherboard there is only one slot between the two PCI-E slots so the cards were very close. The bottom card was fine, however the top card trapped heat from the card below and ran at 100% when gaming. In Crysis it would hit 100C+ and crash my video drivers. I ended up selling both, taking a small hit with ebay and paypal fees, but bought a 5870. BEST choice I could have made. I just wish i thought about that before buying the 2nd card. This card idles at 35C and on load I've seen no higher than 73C. I love it and less headache. Just my experience with xfire. If you have 2 slots between your 2 PCI-E slots you are much better off. However, if you only have one you may have heat issues. I could have used a 120mm fan and zippy tied it right over them, but I wasn't going to rig up a cooling system for them. Just my thoughts. OTHERWISE, the performance of them in xfire was AWESOME.

Hmmm. I really need to use the capabilities of this board though. I might just do as you did with the xfire and see how that works out. idk...