Gigabyte GPU Fan is ticking

portach king

Hi lads,

Built my first PC over 2 years ago thanks to the help from some of you guys on this forum. Really appreciated it at the time, and now I'm hoping to get some more advice today.

The GPU I was recommended at the time was the R9 290 OC and it has been a terrific card. However, in recent days, the third fan, the fan furthest from the display ports, has begun clicking/ticking, at first quietly but occasionally very loudly when gaming.

I removed the card and did a thorough job on it with a compressed air canister, removing any old dust from the heatsink and fan blades, etc. That's when I noticed the third fan wasn't spinning as easily as the other two, but after a gently bit of pressure I gave it another spin and it was fine. Delighted with myself I put it back inside, but lo and behold 20 minutes later the clicking is back.

Basically, I'm looking for some experienced people's advice here because building gaming rig was one thing, and this feels like a whole new world. I bought the card from, the now gone, hardwareversand.de, so I can't pursue them and I've emailed Gigabyte, but I'm not sure how far that's going to get me. Any feedback would really be appreciated.

Update: The fan fell out of its place this morning, so no more clicking! *he says sarcastically* I pushed it back in but it fell out again after spinning for about 5 seconds.
I'm going to turn my system upside down for now. Gravity might at least let it stay in and prevent overheating.

Eoinmc97

Well, wait for Gigabyte's response first. They might accept it for an RMA, but because the 200 series is discontinud, they might just repair the fan solely, or send a replacement fan. Hopefully you can reinstall a fan easily.

ED E

Keep the fan out for now, the card will survive with two fans but if the loose one were to shoot out it could cause more damage.

Sounds like the bushing just wore out, weird for it to go so quickly but nothing catastrophic.

portach king

Thanks for the really helpful replies so far guys. Waiting for a reply from Gigabyte is sensible, so hopefully they'll be back onto me tomorrow.
As for the bushing... Is that a repairable job? I couldn't find much online, though I only did the one Google search on it so far.

Eoinmc97

Wouldn't know myself, but if you want to continue using your GPU, you could set your fan profile to 70% and that would undoubtedly keep the temps in-line.

portach king

Eoinmc97 wrote: »

Wouldn't know myself, but if you want to continue using your GPU, you could set your fan profile to 70% and that would undoubtedly keep the temps in-line.

Well, at the moment my system is sitting upside down so the fans are facing up and number three is chugging away like there's no issue, so for a temporary fix, it's working.

I have the fans set to automatic, and honestly they rarely go above 50% when gaming as it is. I'm running Witcher 3 at the moment, ultra settings and it's barely whispering.

I'm hoping to install a side panel panel fan when all of this gets fixed. It's been on my to do list for ages, all I have at moment are the front and back fans that came with the case, which has worked out fine, but I think this may have taught me a hard lesson on procrastination.

portach king

Hello,

Sorry our warranty is not global. If the item is EU sourced, item needs to go back to that seller or Gigabyte EU RMA centre for assistance. The UK RMA centre only deals with UK sourced goods from our official UK dealers/sellers only and the customer also lives in the UK too. If you return the item to the UK RMA centre, it will be accepted for repair attempt only but not replaced if non repairable. If you go ahead with this option but still live in the EU, you will need to send in the item and collect again at your cost.

Here are the details for the Gigabyte German RMA centre:

Service Center
Graphics Cards : GIGABYTE Germany Branch (GBT Technology Trading GmbH) Address: Bull Koppel 16, 22047 Hamburg TEL: + 49-40-25 33 040

If you wish to send to the UK RMA centre for repair attempt only, please forward serial number of the item (see attached).

Regards

Returns Admin Dept

Hmmmm. I guess an RMA attempt is the best course of action here, right?
I'll email the German RMA centre seeing as the Uk & Ireland centre apparently don't cover Ireland

portach king

As a side-note... Because I've just read Gigabyte's RMA process can take up to 6 months (!!), if I decide to get it repaired, where in the Dublin area would you guys recommend if I decide not to RMA it or try and fix it myself.

Xenoronin

I have nothing to add other than the fact that I find the "I turned my system upside-down to keep the fan in" hilarious. Even more so the fact that it works

portach king

Well, I'm kinda shouting into the abyss here, but anyway, in case anyone is interested in hearing my story; it seems RMA is now out of the question. Gigabyte support is absolute pants.

So I'm left with one real reliable solution from what I can see. Replace the stock cooler.



TBH, this is something I considered doing before this all kicked off anyway because of the noise and well, it's interesting.

So, the question now is do I go with an aftermarket fan cooling system like the highly reviewed, though highly complicated looking Accelero Xtreme IV, or go all-in and water cool the yolk with a G10 from Kraken and a Corsair H55?

Or am I taking too an extreme a course of action here? Advise please! :cool:

ED E

Why are you so quick to discount Gigabyte?

portach king

I'm reading a lot of stories of poor customer support online. They seem to spend weeks, if not months, holding onto the hardware before repairing it. Not sure I want to live that long without a GPU.

Not to mention that I'd have to incur the cost of postage and packaging both ways to and from Germany.

ED E

RMA goes well, unlikely to post about it.
RMA goes poorly, very likely to post about it.

Very strong chance of a reporting bias here. Contact them yourself and see what they'll do.

portach king

ED E wrote: »

RMA goes well, unlikely to post about it.
RMA goes poorly, very likely to post about it.

Very strong chance of a reporting bias here. Contact them yourself and see what they'll do.

I hear what you're saying, but the overwhelming number of bad stories that come up when you Google Gigabyte RMA is unsettling