5850 grinding fan

CH3 · 28 Oct 2009 at 17:54

Well I waited all day for my Sapphire 5850. Arrived at 5pm. Installed + drivers. Is the fan supposed to vibrate/grind intermittently at the lowest speed?

hyperst · 28 Oct 2009 at 18:05

i doubt it

CH3 · 28 Oct 2009 at 19:26

Oh well. That's a day sat in waiting for the courier wasted. I'm shocked at how poorly made it is.

Monkeynut · 28 Oct 2009 at 19:32

From the reports of them failing etc there seem to be some real QC issues with this card!

CH3 · 28 Oct 2009 at 19:40

Just reinstalled my old 38 series. Bliss! No grinding. No fan noise other than what one would expect. Maybe the vapor series will have decent quality fans on them..

Magnum_Force · 28 Oct 2009 at 19:42

No this sounds silly, but try pushing the fan down a few times. Did that with my old 2900XT (basically the same fan design) and it stop making that noise.

Probably just a ball bearing that needs to be losened up abit.

Jakus · 28 Oct 2009 at 20:24

Check the Fan is not hitting the surround, that's the normal intermittant noise

CH3 · 28 Oct 2009 at 20:44

Thanks. Whatever I do it starts, it stops, it starts again. I'm feeling very down.

Naff8000 · 28 Oct 2009 at 20:44

When I bought a 8800GTS 320 all those years ago it came with a rattling fan. I couldn't find a way to fix it so sent it back

CH3 · 29 Oct 2009 at 10:56

think you're right. Maybe one of the forthcoming non-reference designs will have a decent non-grinding fan on it..

Ghengis · 29 Oct 2009 at 11:08

......... Just RMA'd a 4870X2 - worked fine fan-up , but when I installed in in a new mobo/case PCB side up & fan side down, the mechanism constantly contacted the plastic casing. Supplier took it straight back - doubt I'll be getting a replacement 4870X2 though - don't seem to be any left.

CH3 · 4 Nov 2009 at 10:45

Well they say it's not faulty, despite sending a link to an mp3 that clearly shows how the card sounds when it rattles and when it doesn't! Oh well, looks like my days shopping here are at end. The fan is hitting the casing one min, then not the next min and this is not faulty? Well...

Domi · 4 Nov 2009 at 10:56

I have the saphire 5850 and have no such issue with mine.

Funny enough it just replaced a powercolour PCS 4870 that famously had a similar issue but that was global with every PCS card this issue I definately do not have with mine.

CH3 · 4 Nov 2009 at 11:19

http://rapidshare.com/files/302263639/5850.mp3.html

200k mp3 file. Can be downloaded 10 times it seems. Noise of fan followed by what happens if I move the tower case slightly and becomes quiet at least for a moment.

reflux · 4 Nov 2009 at 11:22

My PC has been making a strange noise on start up now and then recently - wonder if I'm having the same problem. It stops completely when the PC finishes loading Windows though.

Masoody · 4 Nov 2009 at 12:06

CH3 said:
Oh well. That's a day sat in waiting for the courier wasted. I'm shocked at how poorly made it is.

Welcome to ATI, hence why there so cheap in my opinion. Poorly made but with good performance. nVidia well made but crappy performance and expensive.

Jakus · 4 Nov 2009 at 12:26

CH3 said:
Well they say it's not faulty, despite sending a link to an mp3 that clearly shows how the card sounds when it rattles and when it doesn't! Oh well, looks like my days shopping here are at end. The fan is hitting the casing one min, then not the next min and this is not faulty? Well...

Well, that was a very poor recording, I can hear the problem but I doubt most people would ! I have had them Much worse than that after I modified some special 3850 coolers to fit 4850's and to clear Caps etc I machined away some of the supporting base plate.

You can heat the fan with a heat gun and "true it up" but it may not work for long if the card gets hot and the Fan relaxes back to its original shape
or You could cut some of the top surround away so the fan can not touch it
Third option is to shim the fan with a thin washer so it cannot lift as high as the surround

The basic problem is the Fan is buckled (as most slightly are) Yours has just run out of clearance tolerances Fan-bearing-mount-cowling

You have more than enough reason to demand a new card, but If You are happy with it it might be worth fixing it, I doubt You have the tools to trim and rebalance the Fan so I would cut the Cowl aperture to the fans diameter, that will not require as much precision

CH3 · 4 Nov 2009 at 13:05

MP3 player recording just to show the difference. Don't have 5.1 mic handy!

I asked for a refund and for them to contact me if there's any issue with this. So they just emailed an automatic email saying they are sending it back. I didn't just write the cover note for my own entertainment! Anyway, I called up and they stopped it going out to the courier. It shouldn't rattle like that on and off (at the same speed). Hopefully common-sense will prevail at some point..

reflux · 4 Nov 2009 at 18:31

Yeah, confirmed, mine's doing the same thing. Only at 40% speed or higher though, which thankfully it doesn't reach under normal usage.

kylew · 4 Nov 2009 at 18:37

Masoody said:
Welcome to ATI, hence why there so cheap in my opinion. Poorly made but with good performance. nVidia well made but crappy performance and expensive.

This whole post smacks of complete and utter misinformation.