Loud-ass Mobo fan

[AmishSlayer]

Okay...I've had my computer since the middle of last summer and after a rocky start everything worked out fine and it kicks ass no problems.

Just today when I was playing a game I heard what sounded like my cell phone vibrating. I took off my headphones and realized it was from my computer. It sounded like a wire was bumping a fan or something. I shut down the game and computer and took a look. No wires or anything were touching any of my fans. Fine...I close up and fire up my PC again. Noise comes in after a few seconds. WTF. I open it up while it's running and blow air at each fan (not smart I know but whatever).

I found out it's my NorthBridge Fan on my mobo (because I heard the noise and fan slow down a bit when I blew air at it. I shut down my comp again and cleaned off the fan (I have to take out my gfx card to get at it) and closed up my comp and tried yet again.

A few seconds in and no sound I thought I had won. Then I moved to my chair and bumped my comp a bit and the noise kicked in again.

I opened it up yet again and cleaned it as best I could again and closed it up this time being sure I didn't bump the comp after starting it up.

Now the sound hasnt kicked in yet but I'm betting it will sometime. I'm not sure but I think my comp may be louder than it was before too... Maybe it's just because I'm actively thinking about the fans and whatnot..I dunno.

Anyways...any clue as to wtf is going on with it?

Oh, and my mobo is a K8N-Neo4

 

[VirusType2]

What part of "you need a new fan" can't you figure out?

What are they like 10 or 20 dollars? You have to consider if 10 or 20 dollars is worth it to have peace and quiet.

I had a fan go bad. It was making horrible vibrating noises that kept begging me to rip the tower from its position and throw it from my window.


It was a cheap fan I later added thinking it would help keep the computer cooler.

When I removed it, it practically fell apart revealing its rudimentary design with absolutely no shaft. It just has friction points to hold it in place.

My father always says, "You get what you pay for." Not terribly original, but he seems to find a reason to say it quite often, and I hear this repeating in my mind as I look at the pieces of what looks to be a computer fan mirroring the quality of a neatly piled lumb of shit.


I saw some fans at Circuit City the other day. I also saw some contraption that makes the fan quieter. I didn't really have the interest to see exactly what it was.

 

[AmishSlayer]

Well I may be moderately hardware illiterate but not THAT hardware illiterate. The fan is like completely attatched to the mobo and I see no way of taking it off for replacement.

 

[Codcommando]

I dont see the problem, I like the sound of my computers fans, kinda like the sound of a sports cars engine purring . Im tired,ill try and post a solution tommorow,that is, iff I can think of one.

 

[Asus]

First figure out how it comes off. If it's a pad, twist a bit and pull. If it is mounted in 2 holes on the board then you might have to take the board out.
Then buy one of these. No fan.

 

[AmishSlayer]

First figure out how it comes off. If it's a pad, twist a bit and pull. If it is mounted in 2 holes on the board then you might have to take the board out.
Then buy one of these. No fan.

Well unfortunately MSI decided to be bastards and put the NB fan right below where I have my gfx card in the pci-e slot so as it is right now there are a few milimeters of space between the video card and the fan so heatsinks are out pretty much... I need a tiny fan for this damn thing.

 

[Asus]

ah, fun :X
Same thing just one with a fan then.

 

[Barney Fife]

Ah! NVM.

 

[AmishSlayer]

When I search for Northbridge on newegg I don't come up with anything small enough. All heatsinks and stuff that's way too big for that tiny space...

Is there a way to manually slow down the NB fan so maybe I can make this go away? Heh...how much do I really need the NB fan anyways? I have like 3 other fans total (top case, back, cpu fan). Right now my board idles around 100F

 

[3ssence]

You don't want to be removing all nb cooling. I had this same problem on my asus sli premium mobo, as the graphics card dual slot cooler overlaps with the nb footprint. In the end i bought one of the zalman nb coolers, and removed some of the pins/fins where it was overlapping so that it would fit, and then fitted it to the mobo. All is dandy since, may be an idea for you to try.

edit: see if you can find one of these on a us site: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/copy_of_Akasa.html (the one at the top)

looks very low profile to me and might just fit.

 

[giant384]

cant you just call the maker of your motherboard and ask for a new one? im sure they will send you a new one

 

[el Chi]

I dont see the problem, I like the sound of my computers fans, kinda like the sound of a sports cars engine purring . Im tired,ill try and post a solution tommorow,that is, iff I can think of one.

There's few things more annoying when you're trying to get suckered in to an eery silence or some good dialogue in a game, or watch a DVD than the noise of a hundred pissed off bees caught in a vaccuum cleaner coming from your computer.