Grinding Noise Fan/Radiator after sudden shut off

WatcherOfFadingLight · 9 Nov 2018 at 07:05

So I was playing a game last night and the game crashed (this is not unusual for this game) and I was unable to kill the thing through task manager so I did a forced power off. When I rebooted this grinding sound started coming from the radiator and it is very loud. Sounds kind of oscillating. I thought it could be the a fan but the sound doesn't appear to come from any of the 3 fans I have on the radiator, only the radiator itself.

Here's a link to a video I made of the sound although it doesn't pick up the grinding noise very well.
I am just dealing with it at the moment as it doesn't seem to have affected performance, but the sound is highly annoying and scary sounding.

The entire set was bought from EK. I'm not 100% sure of the radiator model offhand I can look it up later, the fans are the Vardar fans.

Any suggestions on what this could be or to fix it would be appreciated. It just seemed weird to me it happened right after a forced power off and haven't experienced that kind of correlation before.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1n5R33bvAzquIajknxeHOAWIGxhtYLniW

Thanks

Vexr · 9 Nov 2018 at 18:51

Are you 100% sure it's not a fan? That sound is similar to when the fan on my Corsair Hydro H55 had a blade that pranged upward and was making contact where it shouldn't.

See my thread here: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/t...-mm-fan-replacement-recommendations.18835441/

The timing of something is sometimes a coincidence. With mine, I turned my PC off one night having just used it all evening and putting it through a good few demanding sessions with no sign of any problems. Next morning, turned it on and was greeted by the grinding noise, and then had a fan blade fully snap off on 'palpation' (to borrow a Doctor's term) when investigating.

Meddling-Monk · 9 Nov 2018 at 19:23

Also think it's more likely a fan issue. Had a recent one also, an older fan before I swapped out for some newer Noctua 12x25's in the main rig, was also producing similar noise, except much worse. In my case it was the bearing (the bit in the middle). Took off the sticker, removed the lid cap, put some machine oil in, replaced lid cap, replaced sticker, plugged it in and no noise. How old are the fans in that unit?

:: edit ::
An easy test to see if it is the fans causing the noise is to simply unplug each one one at a time. If at any point any of the attached fans is removed and the unit no longer produces that sound, you have found your culprit.

Glanza · 9 Nov 2018 at 20:18

If you tip your case from side to side does the noise get louder or quieter?

WatcherOfFadingLight · 10 Nov 2018 at 04:59

Meddling-Monk said:
Also think it's more likely a fan issue. Had a recent one also, an older fan before I swapped out for some newer Noctua 12x25's in the main rig, was also producing similar noise, except much worse. In my case it was the bearing (the bit in the middle). Took off the sticker, removed the lid cap, put some machine oil in, replaced lid cap, replaced sticker, plugged it in and no noise. How old are the fans in that unit?

I investigated this morning and it was indeed a fan. It was just being amplified by the radiator/case when screwed into the radiator. When unscrewed the noise was actually almost inaudible. It was a bottom fan that I actually was able to just unscrew and leave sitting up against it and the dust filter on the other side with gravity and seems to still be cooling just as effectively without the noise. It does appear to be the bearing in the middle. When I have more time I may try what you did with the oil to see if it solves the problem.

Thanks for the replies.

Edit: I built this rig about 8 months ago so the fans aren't that old. I've heard that the Vardar fans don't have the best lifespan or quality control though from searching around.