Asus ROG Crosshair VII Impact - Grinding Noise (Heatsink/VRM fans?)

Big Boss94 · 23 Dec 2021 at 00:09

Morning all,

I'm having problems with the above motherboard which I purchased approx. 6 months ago from here.

A month or two ago I noticed that occasionally, on a cold boot that I would hear a grinding noise coming from the rear of my case, towards the CPU socket.

Now, the problem occurs almost every time during a cold boot.

I've systematically disconnected all of my Noctua Case and CPU cooler fans, checked that it wasn't the GPU or PSU and it isn't any of them, I'm fairly certain its either one or both of the onboard motherboard fans - perhaps a loose bearing?

I've read numerous reports of this online concerning Asus X570-I boards and the occasional VII Impact which is shocking QC for such an expensive board - has anyone experienced this before or have any recommendations to a fix other than RMA? Having to perform a complete tear down and be without the system for 28 days (which is a daily driver for my work) is a real problem.

I'll attach below 2 video which demonstrate the issue occurring as well as a latter boot, any help would be greatly appreciated.

https://youtu.be/3Fx8bqm6pPc - Grinding noise (ignore me treading on a bag in the background midway through)

https://youtu.be/RXCL1HZoIok - Fan rattle?

Thanks in advance,
Joe

Mr Mcgoo · 23 Dec 2021 at 16:39

From the video it looks to be the gpu fan maybe. The sound times perfectly to it. Try holding something like a pen in the gpu fan before you power on then power on and listen for the sound again?

Big Boss94 · 23 Dec 2021 at 17:45

Hey Mr Mcgoo,

cheers for the suggestion!

Sorry, I should have clarified and I will update my original post to so:

I have stalled the GPU fan during startup and it is not that causing the noise. I have also checked the PSU and which spins up momentarily on boot and it is not that either.

Mr Mcgoo · 23 Dec 2021 at 18:17

Big Boss94 said:
Hey Mr Mcgoo,

cheers for the suggestion!

Sorry, I should have clarified and I will update my original post to so:

I have stalled the GPU fan during startup and it is not that causing the noise. I have also checked the PSU and which spins up momentarily on boot and it is not that either.

have you tried stalling case fans before boot to see if that stops the issue?

random_matt · 23 Dec 2021 at 18:39

Tons of people end up replacing the thermal pads on that mobo. Wouldn't surprise me if there were other issues.

EsaT · 25 Dec 2021 at 13:46

Never been fan of those always running tiny fans since having such for chipset in AMD board of Asus 15 years ago...
Replaced chipset cooler twice, with replacement HSF's fan starting to make grinding noises even faster than factory installed, before just installing proper passive heatsink of Zalman.