Video card acting up?

**imax** · 07/23/2007 10:56:27

This question is more of a hardware problem than an MxO problem. Performance wise, nothing is wrong and everything works fine. But recently the fan on My ATI X850 Video card started making quite a bit of racket. Its a constant hissing noise basicly as if there is some sort of friction going on. Its turning, and my temp gauge shows no sign of over heating, but the sound of the fan on the video card both worries me and can be quite annoying.

Anyone know if this is a bad sign? Its obviously not a good sign, but is this a sign of the card going our maybe? Like I said, I havnt noticed any over heating or graphical issues, so maybe is there somthing can be done to make this thing stop hissing? Or is there a bigger problem in the near future for me?

**phi**

The fan's bearing is wearing out, the only fix is get a new fan for the card.

What happens is the fan bearing wears out over time as little bits of dust get in and abrade the bearing, then the bits of worn off bearing amplify the effect until the whole bearing gets loose. You will find that the noise is actually the fan blades scraping on their housing. As long as the fan can still spin it won't affect performance. You just have to put up with the noise. Of course when the noise stops theat's when it becomes important, because that means the fan is stopped and not doing it's job.

**imax**

Ok thanks for the info. Any idea where I could go to get a new fan for my card AND have them fix it? Becasue I know I cant do it. I'll screw somthing up.

Today I wasnt really paying attention, but the fan wasnt making any noise and I was playing EVE all the sudden, bad things started to happen... video wise. So I shut everything down, opened it up. took a look, in side, the card felt kinda hot. So I stared the computer back up, and sure enough the fan wasnt turning. So I tapped on it, and it immedatly started turning again, but still making the noise.

SO!!! This leads to the conclusion that somthing definitly needs to be done. Any idea where I could go to get a new fan for my card AND have them fix it? Becasue I know I cant do it. I'll screw somthing up. Would I be able to take it to your average computer shop and have them do it? Or would it be better to just get another card? A card roughly the same quality of mine costs around $100 u.s.d. SO would I be better off just getting a whole new card all together?

**phi**

The fans only cost about $0.30 - $1.00 but need to be purchased from the manufacturer in bulk (minimum order 100 typically).

Option 2 is take it down to your local PC store and get them to fix it. Chances are they won't have a replacement and there is the labor charge as well.

Finally now that the fan has failed and the card is over-heating there is a good chance the card has heat damage.

My opinion: Buy a new card. It will save you time and hastle if nothing else.

**imax**

phi wrote:

The fans only cost about $0.30 - $1.00 but need to be purchased from the manufacturer in bulk (minimum order 100 typically).
Option 2 is take it down to your local PC store and get them to fix it. Chances are they won't have a replacement and there is the labor charge as well.
Finally now that the fan has failed and the card is over-heating there is a good chance the card has heat damage.
My opinion: Buy a new card. It will save you time and hastle if nothing else.

cool, thanks for the help man SMILEY