OT - computer fans rattling
ColemanRugh
Posts: 511
My Poser computer's fans have started rattling louder and louder over the past month. After watching a bunch of 'how to' youtube videos - hah - I took the computer on the porch and used compressed air to blow out all the dust.
I started the computer back up... still a little fan rattling but not as loud as before. I'm thinking the fan rotors all probably need to be lubed...???
What's got me 'rattled' ( boo hiss ) is the CPU/heat sink fan is the one making the most noise.
I have almost a terabyte of Poser content on this computer. I backed it up 6 months ago so I wouldn't lose everything... just I'd lose any new character variations I've made in the past 6 months. So, I wanted to do a current back up of all my Poser content on an external hard drive before I fiddle with the computer anymore and break something :P
1) I have a tall standing room fan. Can I take off the computer case door and have the room fan blowing ( like two or three feet away ) into the computer while it's backing up the Poser content?
2) Do windows computers come with CPU thermostats or is this something you have to add yourself> I've seen on youtube folks being able to see on their monitors how hot their CPU is running.
Thanks for any help!
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Comments
Dunno about the CPU fan but the other fans are pretty cheap to replace, I got mine done by a shop but as far as I can tell they just plug in and have a few screws to mount in the box.
If an Intel chip, you can check your CPU temps with RealTemp http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/
There is also Coretemp, which I think works for AMD CPU as well:- :- http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/
Both are free.
The heat from the cpu is very localized. A room fan is not much help there. You probably need to replace the cpu fan. It's not hard to do, or you can get Geek Squad to do it. Case fans should be ball bearing fans. Sleeve bearing fans all die with horrible screeching noises at some point. Just to put the fear of Crud into you:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/26/ventblockers_2?page=3
It won't do any harm but it is no replacement for the fan on the heatsink - that's the one that makes the air whisk the heat away. If the CPU fan looks and feels like it's running OK (airflow!), you should be able to progress with caution with your backup.
The CPU itself has a built in "thermostat" that will throttle the chip speed back or shut it down completely if temperatures get too high. It won't necessarily save you from disasters like suddenly removing the heatsink whilst the CPU is at full power, but it can save the chip if the fan slows and dies.
Your computer hardware doesn't know what operating system you're running on it (i.e. Windows), and (depending on your motherboard) the BIOS (basic in out system) may tell you the CPU temperature. Indeed, you can work on your PC hardware and run tests without the hard drive in the case at all. As well as the backup, this is a way of keeping the data safe. If you do handle your hard drive, don't do so while it's running. Transfer it if possible into an anti-static sleeve a.s.a.p.
As part of your fan replacement job, you might want to consider running your case with "positive pressure". The basic idea is to have more fans pulling air into the case than are pushing air out, and to filter those input fans. This makes the air pressure in the case higher than in the room and means that air sneaks out of every opening, small or large, in the case - instead of sneaking in and bringing dust with it. The simplest arrangement is one filtered case fan bringing air in and passive exhaust. With positive pressure all you have to do is clean your fan filter/s every month or so and the case will remain mostly clean inside.
CPU fans and heatsink combos can come in many variations. Unless you're know what you're doing and carefully research the situation, it would probably be safest to go to a trusted computer shop.
The case fans on the other hand are pretty standard and there are just a couple of size differences. Be sure to follow the wires from it to the motherboard and note whether it is two or three wires and two or three pins on the connector, and make sure your replacement fan has long enough wires to reach the distance otherwise you'll have to cut/splice/solder to make them longer. And for god's sake don't forget which pins and which orientation on the motherboard the fan connector plugs onto. Also make sure the replacement fan has the same connector type, there are just a couple variations.
As noted in post above, pay for the higher quality fans with ball bearings instead of sleeve bearings unless you want to revisit this problem in a couple years.
A modern CPU running without a heatsink will burnout like a fuse in just a few moments. The heatsink and properly functioning CPU fan are critical.
An external fan blowing into an open case works OK for keeping memory and hard drive temperatures down but doesn't help the CPU & heatsink all that much, it takes a lot of concentrated air volume per second to keep that heatsink cool.
A small, desktop fan will be more efficient/better than a big box fan. It will allow you to direct the flow of air more like the heatsink fan is doing...
Thanks a lot all!! Great advice!
I think I will try to get new fans.
Thanks for the help!
Fans that "get noisy" are usually in the process of failing. It is not true that noise is OK as long as they still spin. If a fan has sleeve bearings going bad, what will happen is that the fan spindle will rattle in the sleeve, resulting in the fan spinning at VERY reduced speeds. If the cpu fan stops spinning suddenly, the cpu can die before the thermostat kicks in to save it. If the cpu fan is struggling to keep up, you might get a thermal shutdown. Fans are cheap. Cpus are expensive.
It is true if you're trying to nurse the system into a recovery, as the OP described. Context.
The OP has had noisy fans for a month. Noise isn't instant death. So long as it is established that airflow is still occurring, there is no reason not to progress with a backup - with caution and monitoring.
No one is suggesting that anyone should just carry on as normal with a faulty fan. Fan replacement has been the main theme of the responses.
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there is a program for windows which monitors cpu temperature called 'speedfan', works with all cpu's.
free to download and use, search on google for it or try softpedia.com.
speedfan has a notifier in the taskbar so you can monitor temps real time
hope this helps
rochdale
I appreciate the help.
Thanks a lot all !