cooling fan runs nonstop

[wiskyfog]

when i first boot up my pc, it is quiet but as soon as I play AH or look at videos the cooling fan kicks in and it is annoying. the only way it will stop is if i put it to sleep or shutdown.

[captain1ma]

have you tried blowing out your case with air, or is it a laptop? even with a laptop you need to clean out the cooling fins now and again. if its a tower, open it up and blow it out. DO NOT USE A VACUUM to suck it out. it creates static electricity and can fry your machine. that might help keep it cooler. also if the cooling fan is on, that means the processor is hot. i wouldn't just shut it off while its hot, I'd stop playing and just let it sit idle til it cools down.

[Skuzzy]

Which fan is it?  CPU, video card, or power supply?

If it is the video card fan, there may not be much you can do about it, other than cleaning the heat sinks up and that may not do it.  Some video cards are designed to kick the fan into high speed once they go into 3D mode.  Video cards do run quite a bit hotter, when in 3D mode.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

have you tried blowing out your case with air, or is it a laptop? even with a laptop you need to clean out the cooling fins now and again. if its a tower, open it up and blow it out. DO NOT USE A VACUUM to suck it out. it creates static electricity and can fry your machine. that might help keep it cooler. also if the cooling fan is on, that means the processor is hot. i wouldn't just shut it off while its hot, I'd stop playing and just let it sit idle til it cools down.

I'd say that especially laptops need to be regularly cleaned as they gunk up fast - especially if they're used as their name suggests. A screaming fan can be an indication of other problems too, such as badly applied or missing thermal paste in the CPU - or badly aligned heatsink/fan.

Wiskyfog: Did you install the CPU cooler yourself or has the computer undergone any maintenance lately which involved removing the heatsink? Did you perhaps adjust bios settings for overclock? The added heat can be too much for your stock cooler.

[The Fugitive]

Maybe its a fan going bad. It may have run all the time before, but now the bearings are going and it starts making noise after it runs for a bit.

[Bizman]

Maybe its a fan going bad. It may have run all the time before, but now the bearings are going and it starts making noise after it runs for a bit.

IMHO worn out bearings are loud at startup and when they warm up the lubricant starts working again. The OP said his puter is quiet at start but starts screaming when stressed.

I'd say that especially laptops need to be regularly cleaned as they gunk up fast

^That! Unfortunately many laptops are designed so that removing the fan to manually clean the cooler grill is extremely toilsome.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

^That! Unfortunately many laptops are designed so that removing the fan to manually clean the cooler grill is extremely toilsome.

True but it's worth the effort. I once removed a ball of lint the size of my thumb from my wifes laptop. She keeps it on top of a wool cloth because it gets hot from the bottom - and all that lint gets sucked in the vents. Now I bought her a laptop stand with an integrated usb cooling fan. I recently blew a huge amount of dust from my macbook pro - 8 bars of compressed air goodness through the back gets rid of stuff too

[Charge]

Remember that when using either a vacuum cleaner with a small nozzle or pressurized air to blow the dust off from cooler do NOT let the cooler run on high RPM. It will destroy the bearings quite fast or shorten their life significantly. Put something between the blades to prevent it from rotating and then clean the cooler -also rememeber to remove the obstacle after you have finished.

-C+

[Krusty]

Going back to Skuzzy's question: It helps to pinpoint WHICH fan. Many times in the past I've had a loud fan that started failing. I could zero in on which fan by opening the case and listening. If I wasn't sure, I could ever so slightly tap the hub of a fan I suspected and see if the buzzing changed pitch for a moment. If so, I had found the fan.

Some fans are easily replaced if that's the problem.

On the other hand you may have no problem. Your system may simply be idle, thus quiet. Running a demanding game will put your fans on high (sometimes MAX depending on hardware/drivers) to cool it down when under heavy load.

My old video card did that. Sounded like a freaking tornado whenever I ran games. There was software that allowed me to manually specify fan RPM vs GPU temps on a curve, and that helped a lot. On another card I removed the loud fan and put on an aftermarket one (more of an advanced move, don't undertake it too lightly) and that greatly reduced noise even at full load.

So it's best to see if it's a failing fan, or just a fan that's working normally but really fast. The first is fixable. The second is doing it for a reason.


EDIT: Yes I realize I'm somewhat repeating what skuzzy typed. Woops. My intent wasn't to marginalize, but to elaborate.

[Krusty]

IMHO worn out bearings are loud at startup and when they warm up the lubricant starts working again.

My current NZXT case has a fan RPM control bank on top. One of my secondary cooling fans has a slight wobble or is starting just barely to wear out the bearings, but it doesn't always start out making the noise. I've found that sometimes moving the RPM slider to min for a moment, then to max for a moment, will often get it back to normal sound levels. Not sure why it works, but it seems to knock it out of the rhythm that it was falling into. Just a tip in case anybody else has similar problem.

[zack1234]

My hd6970 sounds loud and my pc does, I wear headphones so only notice it when I log.

[Bizman]

when i first boot up my pc, it is quiet but as soon as I play AH or look at videos the cooling fan kicks in and it is annoying. the only way it will stop is if i put it to sleep or shutdown.

Back to the issue: is it a desktop or a laptop? There's not much advice for a laptop after all the good advice above.

But if it's a desktop, the possible solutions add on. If the fan is intact but is only running at max speed to keep things cool enough, adding a large exhaust fan to the case can significantly reduce the noise. Not to mention the importance of keeping all cooling fins clean.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Back to the issue: is it a desktop or a laptop? There's not much advice for a laptop after all the good advice above.

But if it's a desktop, the possible solutions add on. If the fan is intact but is only running at max speed to keep things cool enough, adding a large exhaust fan to the case can significantly reduce the noise. Not to mention the importance of keeping all cooling fins clean.

Also the question is did the fan always behave like this or did it start only recently. If it has always done this the cooler may be too small or installed wrong. I once had a laptop that came back from certified service having the cpu cooler installed improperly. The fan would start screaming right from the bootup. I discarded the laptop, then a couple years later my grandfather needed a laptop so I thought I could try to see if I could find the problem. The heatsink was pinned against some other component so that it made virtually no contact to the CPU. After removing it, cleaning and applying arctic silver the laptop worked like new again.

[Krusty]

My hd6970 sounds loud and my pc does, I wear headphones so only notice it when I log.

The one I put aftermarket cooling on was a 6970 also. The issue is you have to have a space below the card. If you have another card in the slot immediately beneath it, aftermarket coolers may take up more room than you have clearance for.

[Dragon Tamer]

My parents keep their computer in a cabinet to keep it out of sight of the guests.  The problem is that if you run any program that is CPU intensive, the temp inside the cabinet quickly skyrockets and the fans can be hear roaring away furiously trying to cool it.

Here is an extremely ghetto but likely effective way to remove any hot air from the computer if it is in a cabinet:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1642510

Most likely though the computer needs to be cleaned.  I try to clean mine every month since it runs so much.  Here is a video that simplifies how to go about this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFNI0q7YeOo

Something not mentioned in the video is that if you hold the can away from the fan a bit more, you don't need to worry about blocking the fan since the air won't be powerful enough to rotate it anyway.

Also, instead of a can of freon, you can use a standard air compressor.  If you already own one, it is much cheaper and safer.