Noise from the fan [ Edited ]

[sanjuro]

Hello,

I have a HP Pavilion Slimline s3050.sc (Core 2 Duo E4300 CPU) that I bought in June 2007. I have been extremely careful with it, vaccuuming around it weekly to avoid dust deposits and so on.

Once in a while (more seldom than often), and already since the first days after I purchased it, when turning on the computer the fan made a loud, strange noise. After 5-10 minutes or less it generally disappeared entirely.

Yesterday evening however, right after booting up, the fan started making this shrill noise again like a small drill and it did not go away ever since. I turned it back on this morning and it did the same. So I unplugged it, opened it and carefully removed the dust inside with a vacuum cleaner but to no avail: the noise is here as I type.

I've googled around and seen several threads with users reporting abnormal noises from their computer's fan though I can't say yet which fan is the culprit in my case (it might be the video card one). I will open it again later today for additional cleaning and checks. I had some very important work to do today at the computer so this is coming at an extremely inappropriate time and I'm afraid the whole thing breaks down, though so far there hasn't been signs of it.

I am also wondering, could it be that the fan is spinning too fast ? I checked the BIOS at startup and the temperature is 31-32 degrees with 2504-2521 RPM for the system fan. Is it normal? How can I check the speed of the other fans?

Usually the computer has been able to return to normal, this is what confuses me, I still hope the sound will eventually stop. If you have any more suggestions/advice on what I should try to do to fix it, please submit them to me.

UPDATE: I verified and it does come from the video card's fan. What are my options?

I may be wrong, but it seems the fan is running at full speed and that would be why it's making so much noise (from the powerful vibrations). It seems to be incapable to lower its speed, though that's just an assumption. I don't know how I check the GPU fan's speed.

UPDATE 2: This noise is really awful... it's giving me a headache. I installed two different programs to try to just check the fan speed, RivaTuner and SpeedFan but none of them worked, they could not display anything about the fans. The video card is a nVidia GeForce 7300 LE. The driver version is 7.15.11.6230 from August 2007 but seems up to date. Any tip would be strongly appreciated!

Message Edited by sanjuro on 02-19-2009 05:39 AM

[dago517]

See the warranty. If you can return it; do. If not, take it apart and see what it's hitting against maybe you can fix it. If no, off to the store you go for a new card.

[RoyalSerpent]

7300 is not a very powerful GPU.  Depending on the model, you may be able to replace the OEM fan with an aftermarket unit.  You can also purchase another GPU with passive heat sink (no fan).  Make sure that the card will fit in that PC.