Fan dieing on 4870 stock cooler.

[Nick89]

My fan on one of my 4870s is dieing. When it was set to 70% fan speed before it would have an RPM of around 2950 RPM now it only gets to 2500 RPM at 70%fan speed. The fan on my other 4870 still spins at around 2950 RPM @70% speed.

The dieing fan is also making audible noise and vibration. What I've done so far, I've tried to clean the dieing fan but it seems to be something wrong with the bearings.

I have two T-Rad2 coolers but I cant use them until I get fans for them, but I cant find any slim fans for them. The fans I need can only be 12-15mm thick. Unfortunately I cant find anyone who carries 92x92x12-15mm fans. Or even slim 120's.

[Jstn7477]

You might be able to extend the life of, or even repair, the fan with just a couple drops of motor oil. Whenever I have a fan become noisy, I peel the sticker on the bottom of the fan off, drop some oil in until it nearly reaches the top of the empty space, then put on or tape the sticker back onto the base of the fan (be careful not to drip oil outside of the well). When the fan runs, the oil should seep into the bearings and lubricate them again. This trick has worked on most of the fans that I have owned (at least the ones that ran out of oil).

[Zubasa]

Dust and dirt is a big problem for blower style coolers.
You can remove the fan from the cooler and clean it.
After that apply some lubricating grease to the bearing.

Motor Oil is fine, buy I usually perfer the thicker white stuff that are used in fans and plastic.
I don't even know what it is in english.

[heky]

How old is the card? If you havent messed with it in any way, you could just RMA it.

[Nick89]

Originally Posted by Jstn7477

You might be able to extend the life of, or even repair, the fan with just a couple drops of motor oil. Whenever I have a fan become noisy, I peel the sticker on the bottom of the fan off, drop some oil in until it nearly reaches the top of the empty space, then put on or tape the sticker back onto the base of the fan (be careful not to drip oil outside of the well). When the fan runs, the oil should seep into the bearings and lubricate them again. This trick has worked on most of the fans that I have owned (at least the ones that ran out of oil).

I used some WD40 but it seems its the bearing itself that is the problem, as it is still vibrating. (I've used this method before to repair a Scythe fan). Its gained about 200RPM from the WD40(2700 RPM) but I don't think it will last long.

Originally Posted by Zubasa

Dust and dirt is a big problem for blower style coolers.
You can remove the fan from the cooler and clean it.
After that apply some lubricating grease to the bearing.

See above.

Originally Posted by heky

How old is the card? If you havent messed with it in any way, you could just RMA it.

Newegg doesn't carry the card anymore.

[Zubasa]

Originally Posted by Nick89

I used some WD40 but it seems its the bearing itself that is the problem, as it is still vibrating. (I've used this method before to repair a Scythe fan). Its gained about 200RPM from the WD40(2700 RPM) but I don't think it will last long.

See above.



Newegg doesn't carry the card anymore.

DO NOT use WD40 as lubricant
It is meant for cleaning and for greasing of seldomly moved parts.
Using WD40 on fans can actually kill it faster.
WD40 is simply too runny and volatile to be use as for lubricating fans.

WD40 basically drys out very quickly, and you are left with a card's fan with its bearing grinding aginst itself.

[rewindlabs]

Originally Posted by Nick89

Newegg doesn't carry the card anymore.

You do realize computer parts come with warranty's from the manufacturer right?

[Nick89]

Originally Posted by Zubasa

DO NOT use WD40 as lubricant
It is meant for cleaning and for greasing of seldomly moved parts.
Using WD40 on fans can actually kill it faster.
WD40 is simply too runny and volatile to be use as for lubricating fans.

I don't have anything else on hand, and the fans I have used it on still work fine. But I'll heed your advice.

[Nick89]

Originally Posted by rewindlabs

You do realize computer parts come with warranty's from the manufacturer right?

Yes, but theres nothing wrong with the card itself, just the fan. I hate RMA'ing as I might actually get a bad card next time.

[crazyeyesreaper]

dosent matter if newegg has them or not there XFX cards correct thats dbl lifetime warranty get XFX on the horn or on email w/e and get the card replaced u have 2 cards so u lose some over all performance but for a few weeks of downtime u should get A) a new card B) full replaced cooling fan or unit either way win win

[Nick89]

Originally Posted by crazyeyesreaper

dosent matter if newegg has them or not there XFX cards correct thats dbl lifetime warranty get XFX on the horn or on email w/e and get the card replaced u have 2 cards so u lose some over all performance but for a few weeks of downtime u should get A) a new card B) full replaced cooling fan or unit either way win win

How well does XFX check RMA'ed cards? Cause I've taken the cooler off this one to oil the fan already.

[crazyeyesreaper]

make sure all stickers are intact make sure none are broken make sure if u flashed the bios to flash them back other then that get them on the horn and ask what there rma service is has to be better then sapphire lol i had to talk Newegg into refundeding me for my dead 4870x2 cause sapphire took forever to get back to me


also give newegg a CALL talk to a rep see what they can do for you no joke they gave me FULL retail refund on a dead 6 month old ati 4870x2 so you never know just gotta make a bit of effort in either direction

[crush3r]

You can use T-Rad 2's passively with great results on 4870's

[Nick89]

Originally Posted by crazyeyesreaper

make sure all stickers are intact make sure none are broken make sure if u flashed the bios to flash them back other then that get them on the horn and ask what there rma service is has to be better then sapphire lol i had to talk Newegg into refundeding me for my dead 4870x2 cause sapphire took forever to get back to me


also give newegg a CALL talk to a rep see what they can do for you no joke they gave me FULL retail refund on a dead 6 month old ati 4870x2 so you never know just gotta make a bit of effort in either direction

Its 2:32 AM, I'll do it tomorrow.

Originally Posted by crush3r

You can use T-Rad 2's passively with great results on 4870's

No I cant I tried, that seems to be a vast overstatement. Passively they become heat soaked very fast. And passively there is nothing to cool the VDDC's which are almost required to have active cooling. Without good cooling the VDDC's would go straight up to 130C.

[Hayder_Master]

Originally Posted by Jstn7477

You might be able to extend the life of, or even repair, the fan with just a couple drops of motor oil. Whenever I have a fan become noisy, I peel the sticker on the bottom of the fan off, drop some oil in until it nearly reaches the top of the empty space, then put on or tape the sticker back onto the base of the fan (be careful not to drip oil outside of the well). When the fan runs, the oil should seep into the bearings and lubricate them again. This trick has worked on most of the fans that I have owned (at least the ones that ran out of oil).

Originally Posted by Zubasa

Dust and dirt is a big problem for blower style coolers.
You can remove the fan from the cooler and clean it.
After that apply some lubricating grease to the bearing.

Motor Oil is fine, buy I usually perfer the thicker white stuff that are used in fans and plastic.
I don't even know what it is in english.

+1 best way for clean fans im always use it , it really work

[AsRock]

If you use WD40 you need to clean the WD40 off after as it's a stripper meaning what grease is there will be broken down which makes the issue worse if you don't oil it after.

Sowing machine oil is pretty good to use.

I have a old 2900 fan hanging around some were if ya need although not sure if it would fit.

[Nick89]

OK, I went to the store and got some 3in1 oil. I cleaned out the WD40 with some compressed air. and then applied the 3in1 oil. I think the bearings are shot because its still making the same grinding noise. Its up to 2800 RPM but the noise has not gone away. I know its this fan cause the noise goes away when I turn it down to 20% and comes back when I ramp the speed back up to 70%.

[Zubasa]

Originally Posted by Nick89

OK, I went to the store and got some 3in1 oil. I cleaned out the WD40 with some compressed air. and then applied the 3in1 oil. I think the bearings are shot because its still making the same grinding noise. Its up to 2800 RPM but the noise has not gone away. I know its this fan cause the noise goes away when I turn it down to 20% and comes back when I ramp the speed back up to 70%.

You might have damage the bearing while running the fan with basically no lubrication.
So I guess its RMA time.

[Nick89]

Originally Posted by Zubasa

You might have damage the bearing while running the fan with basically no lubrication.
So I guess its RMA time.

No, the fan was run not even an hour with that.... I'm not explaining.

[Zubasa]

Originally Posted by Nick89

No, the fan was run not even an hour with that.... I'm not explaining.

Well.... an hour @3000 RPM is still a wooping 180 thousand rotations
Anyways, that fan is busted.

[cadaveca]

Originally Posted by Nick89

How well does XFX check RMA'ed cards? Cause I've taken the cooler off this one to oil the fan already.

XFX's warranty covers changing the stock cooling(I have this in writing). You just must return the card to it's stock form before sending it in...that means even bios flashes are covered, provided you can flash the original bios back to the card. It even tells you to do these things on the RMA form. XFX is the one company where overclocking DOES NOT void your warranty.

I did not have a good experience with XFX RMA. I sent in two cards, after asking for a bios fix to adjust fanspeed to correct overheating cards. They insisted that I send the cards in.

The cards they sent back(4890s) performed worse than 4850s. One card artifacted in bios randomly.

The second set of replacements I got works flawlessly though, and they did pay for the shipping to return the first replacements, so I guess the ydid a good job, but the total turn-around time was two months, from initial ticket, to me getting properly working cards.


That said, many others have had fantastic RMA experiences...so amybe I jsut had some bad luck...noone can be 100% perfect, and they did also replace one card with a higher-clocked model.

You might even be able to get them to send you just the fan itself...wouldn't hurt to try.

[crazyeyesreaper]

this is why i told him to talk to newegg they may be willing to give him a refund say sell the other card get full refund on the other and upgrade to dx11 maybe its what i did thanks to newegg being extremely reeasonable

[Nick89]

Originally Posted by crazyeyesreaper

this is why i told him to talk to newegg they may be willing to give him a refund say sell the other card get full refund on the other and upgrade to dx11 maybe its what i did thanks to newegg being extremely reeasonable

Hmm, I just remembered that the first card did not come from newegg. XFX RMA here I come. This is the one with the fan.