08-18-2011, 02:35 PM
Early last year I bought a graphics card for the new PC I was building. All was well and good, and it blew the pre-built one I'd been managing with out of the water.
However, the fan always made such a terrible racket at seemingly random intervals. Moving the PC slightly seemed to fix it, and resting anything of any weight to be considered on the case could potentially set it loud again.
I thought nothing of it, and the person who built my computer couldn't seem to source it, so we just left what wasn't broken.
Problem is, now it is broken.
From a restful 60 degrees celsius, it will gradually work its way up into the 80's. When the fan starts spinning at between 85-100% to cope with this temperature, it will suddenly just stop. Then it will start again for 5-ish seconds, then stop again. Repeat ad nauseum. While it's doing this, my GPU gets hotter and hotter. If I don't hear the fan's alternating silence and whirring, it will escalate to about 115 degrees celsius, whereupon my computer will auto-shutdown in what I presume is a defensive measure to avoid frying the hardware.
Also, when I first boot the PC, the fan makes a horrid jarring sound and can stutter(starting and stopping rapidly) for 3-4 minutes after startup.
I've searched high and low for an answer as to what could be wrong, and narrowed it down to a few things I think it could be:
1) Faulty power supply, not delivering enough power to the GPU fan:
But if this is the case, why are my GPU, harddrive and other two fans working fine? It's 550w, it should and always has been plenty of power for the rig.
I also have no way of testing this, since I can't put the card in another machine.
If I bought a new graphics card and the same thing started to happen...
2) Faulty GPU:
It's what I suspect, but don't want to believe. It's out of warranty, and even if I could send it back to the manufacturer, I don't have a spare computer to use in the meantime. Plus, I think AMD would have me pay for S&H.
3) Bad GPU fan:
Again, I've got no way of testing this. It would be the cheapest and easiest route to fix, but I don't have the knowledge to do it, nor do I ever know if this is the case. It's not as though I've an assortment of PC components to switch out and replace.
Ah, what else...
OS: Windows XP Media Center Edition
GPU: ATI Radeon HD 4800 (489X says the serial) Series
CPU: Intel Core i5 CPU 750 @ 2.67GHz (Quad core)
RAM: 3.49GB
PS: Corsair VX550w
...and if it matters any...
HD: 465GB
I regularly take the whole thing apart and dust it out with compressed air, so it's nothing to do with fluff getting caught in there (and that was a suggested fix at one point).
So, if there's nothing I can do by way of a DIY fix and the card needs replacing... any suggests on an upgrade?
I'd rather not have to replace anything else if I can help it, so keeping to my specs if possible.
However, the fan always made such a terrible racket at seemingly random intervals. Moving the PC slightly seemed to fix it, and resting anything of any weight to be considered on the case could potentially set it loud again.
I thought nothing of it, and the person who built my computer couldn't seem to source it, so we just left what wasn't broken.
Problem is, now it is broken.
From a restful 60 degrees celsius, it will gradually work its way up into the 80's. When the fan starts spinning at between 85-100% to cope with this temperature, it will suddenly just stop. Then it will start again for 5-ish seconds, then stop again. Repeat ad nauseum. While it's doing this, my GPU gets hotter and hotter. If I don't hear the fan's alternating silence and whirring, it will escalate to about 115 degrees celsius, whereupon my computer will auto-shutdown in what I presume is a defensive measure to avoid frying the hardware.
Also, when I first boot the PC, the fan makes a horrid jarring sound and can stutter(starting and stopping rapidly) for 3-4 minutes after startup.
I've searched high and low for an answer as to what could be wrong, and narrowed it down to a few things I think it could be:
1) Faulty power supply, not delivering enough power to the GPU fan:
But if this is the case, why are my GPU, harddrive and other two fans working fine? It's 550w, it should and always has been plenty of power for the rig.
I also have no way of testing this, since I can't put the card in another machine.
If I bought a new graphics card and the same thing started to happen...
2) Faulty GPU:
It's what I suspect, but don't want to believe. It's out of warranty, and even if I could send it back to the manufacturer, I don't have a spare computer to use in the meantime. Plus, I think AMD would have me pay for S&H.
3) Bad GPU fan:
Again, I've got no way of testing this. It would be the cheapest and easiest route to fix, but I don't have the knowledge to do it, nor do I ever know if this is the case. It's not as though I've an assortment of PC components to switch out and replace.
Ah, what else...
OS: Windows XP Media Center Edition
GPU: ATI Radeon HD 4800 (489X says the serial) Series
CPU: Intel Core i5 CPU 750 @ 2.67GHz (Quad core)
RAM: 3.49GB
PS: Corsair VX550w
...and if it matters any...
HD: 465GB
I regularly take the whole thing apart and dust it out with compressed air, so it's nothing to do with fluff getting caught in there (and that was a suggested fix at one point).
So, if there's nothing I can do by way of a DIY fix and the card needs replacing... any suggests on an upgrade?
I'd rather not have to replace anything else if I can help it, so keeping to my specs if possible.