# Very loud ASUS fan thing.



## andrewset (Sep 17, 2007)

Hello,

My computer has been louder than usual recently, and I thought it was a hard drive because it sounds like the chirping of a hard drive when it's very busy, but when I went to get the hard drive's serial number, I found that the noise was clearly coming from somewhere else. From this ASUS thing:

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc273/AndrewAnimation/fan.jpg

I'm not sure what it is. Can I get any recommendations for how to quiet the fan a bit? I proved the noise is coming from there because sticking a soft eraser into the left fan causes the noise to stop for a bit. It's very very loud. It's mostly continuous, but it fluctuates sometimes. When it calms down for a second, it's like ahh..relief. Then starts up again. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Thank you


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## blackduck30 (Sep 7, 2004)

Well it could just be dust built up inside your video card heatsink/fan. You could try to get a can of compressed air and try blowing it out.

Worst case scenario, replace the heatsink with a zalman cooler

something like this for example

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118116

Please this is only an example and i do not know if it is compatible with your video card as zalman make different coolers

Zalman web site 

http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/eng_index.asp


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## andrewset (Sep 17, 2007)

I'll get a can of compressed air and try blowing into the fan to see if that helps. Right now I have a thin eraser stick (for mechanical erasers) lodged into the fan to keep it still, as it was just too annoying. I hope my whatever-that-is will be okay with just the rightside fan. I think it's a video card or something, because I noticed it's what the monitor is connected to, but I'm not an expert on this stuff. I'll try to get the can soon.

Thanks


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## blackduck30 (Sep 7, 2004)

Yes that is your video card.

It could also be the fan hitting on the gold shroud


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## stompiegsi (Apr 7, 2007)

my one mate had 3 industrial fans blowing inside his pc and because they were so strong they would force wind onto the other fans inside and cause them to spin faster than they were designed to therefore casing the bearings on the fans on the processor and graphics card to make noise after a while, just thought id put this out there, gotta share my experiences


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## andrewset (Sep 17, 2007)

I just got a can of compressed air but I read up on it first, to make sure it's safe to use, and it sounds pretty scary, such as one site saying that spraying it into a computer fan can cause damage or 'back voltage.'

What's the proper way to clean the fan with compressed air?

And if I get a can of UM40 oil, how do I use that on it, exactly?

Again, here's the photo of my graphics card:
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc273/AndrewAnimation/fan.jpg

Thanks


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## Tumbleweed36 (May 14, 2005)

The can of air is safe if you don't tilt it on the side while blowing. Make sure the can is upright and point in in there and clean all of that dust out. Make sure you get it off the heatsink and each fan blade. I like to hold the fan blades still and then blow the dust off them.

It would be quite hard to put oil on that contained area. However, not knowing the situation, what I do is put a slight bit of oil on a toothpick and then put that toothpick on the fan shaft and let the oil on the toothpick run on the fan center shaft.. You may have to do that two or three times or so, since you don't get much oil each time, but that does solve it some times. 

If you just try to drip oil on it from a small can tip or something like that, you will have that oil all over everything so I would not attempt to do that. I always wipe off any excess oil on the outside of the shaft, because oil attracts and collects that dreaded DUST! Just go easy or you could cause more problems than you are solving and that is why I recommend the toothpick transmission method. I have done that for years with no bad results.

BTW, I use WD40 for that stuff and it does pretty well.


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