Intel fan blades are touching the heatsink when case on its side (rotor is loose) any fix?

whiteknights · Jan 5, 2018

I have an intel CPU stock fan. a while ago I started to hear a rattling noise and this noise doesn't go away until I tilt my case 30 degrees on its side > (CPU fan forward).

so I opened my case, put it on its side >(backward) and I've noticed that fan blades are kinda touching the heat sink slightly, when I spin it by hand it doesn't spin freely and makes a rattling sound due to the contact its making with the heatsink. it looks like the impeller that holds the fan blades up is kinda loose.

however when the case on its feet the fan spins freely by hand. but when my PC is powered on after a while I hear this rattling noise, doesn't go unless I tilt the case.

so my question is..
1- does tiling the case consider to be a permanent solution for the noise? or it will come back again and get worse?. it has been two days since I titled my case and no noise until now..

2- is there any fix for that problem except replacing the fan? oiling it maybe?, or oiling the fan has nothing to do with the rotor being loose?.. recently I've replaced lots of things, so I'm looking for a different solution.

USAFRet · Jan 5, 2018

Replace the fan.

jr9 · Jan 5, 2018

If the fan is having rotor issues and the blade is touching the heat sink I would just replace the cooler. If it's sliding down on the axle like that it the fan has physical issues. There may be a special repair trick I've never seen before to get more life out of a failing fan, but 100% of the time if I see a stock CPU cooler fan doing this I just replace it with a cheap aftermarket one like the Hyper 212 that runs cooler and quieter. Older stock intel fans can be a pain to find and they aren't as good as aftermarket ones.

whiteknights · Jan 5, 2018

jr9 :

thank you.. unfortunately even aftermarket coolers here are hard to find and things are expensive, so i was thinking of replacing the cooler on the summer like after 5 - 6 months. I'm just not sure if my problem worth replacing immediately or it can wait?..

as i mentioned the blades only touching the heat sink when the case on its side. and after tilting the case the sound comes rarely and quietly. when i took a look during that sound i noticed that the blades aren't touching the heatsink, so I'm not exactly sure whats the source of it.

but its definitely coming from the fan or mobo, I'm just not sure is it because that physical problem of the fan, or something else maybe fan bearings..

jr9 · Jan 5, 2018

I'd just replace it. The fan is failing and eventually it may just stop spinning altogether or get louder. $30 USD gets you a cheap CPU cooler on Newegg or an OEM replacement fan (harder to find). It is a physical problem that is generally solved with cooler replacement. You shouldn't have to change the case orientation to accommodate the CPU fan by no means.

If you dig around online you may find some obscure guides to repairing the fan assembly but pretty much everyone will tell you to replace the cooler.

whiteknights · Jan 6, 2018

jr9 :

thank you.. i guess i have no choice but to try looking for a cooler at Ebay or Amazon. i just have last two questions..

- if i bought a new CPU cooler I'm thinking of making use of my old one by fixing it on my GPU (as even my GPU fans are going bad). i have a gigabyte H61m-s2p motherboard. so if i plugged the 4 pin cpu fan to my 3 pin sysfan on the motherboard, will i be able to control the speed? or it will run at full?.

- if i bought the stock intel cooler from the internet, i've heard that i don't have to apply new thermal as the cooler comes pre-thermal applied, is that right?.

jr9 · Jan 6, 2018

- You can't really physically install a CPU cooler onto a GPU board. You wouldn't have any holes to mount the cooler to. Assuming you could, the CPU cooler isn't designed at all to handle a GPU chip. It's a different size and a very different heat output and regular thermal paste wouldn't work. I think if you tried that the GPU chip would just fry instantly. They really are only designed to run with their stock preassembled cooler built into it or a water block.

You can plug a 4 pin fan into a 3 pin motherboard header it spins but losing that 4th pin means the motherboard can no longer control the fan speed is all. This however would be absolutely critical for a GPU as they change their fan speeds drastically. Also I don't think a CPU cooler could actually spin fast enough and the heatsink couldn't dissipate the heat fast enough. Graphics card run hot and sound like jet engines sometimes for a reason.

- When you buy an Intel cooler you're buying it from some guy. Intel doesn't sell their CPU coolers, they come with select processors. It depends who you buy the cooler from. You'd have to read the description. This cooler for example does have thermal paste/pads included so you can pop it on the CPU out of box:

https://www.amazon.ca/Intel-Cooler-LGA1150-1155-E97378-001/dp/B00BQ1C4SS

If I'm buying the cooler from some random guy in Portugal that he dug out of a box somewhere to ship to me, it may not have any paste on it at all or even some of the previous paste. If it doesn't say it has paste or pads preinstalled I would assume they aren't there. Worst case scenario a small tube of thermal paste is like under $10.

You also have to make sure you are buying the right cooler if you are getting a stock intel one. Unlike aftermarket ones, Intel ones only work with specific sockets. As your board is LGA1155 you would specifically need a cooler that fits it, like the one in that link for example does

whiteknights · Jan 7, 2018

jr9 :

thanks for your big help i really appreciate it.. most of them don't say if the cooler is pre- thermal applied, i just know from the picture.. like i've bookmarked this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/INTEL-Copper-Core-i3-i5-i7-CPU-Heatsink-Fan-E97379-001-Cooler-LGA-1155-1156/382186701849?hash=item58fc1a4419:g:Rd0AAOSwz-5ZhEfx

and this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-E97379-Core-i3-i5-i7-Socket-LGA-1150-1155-1156-NEW-CPU-FAN-HEATSINK-C0155-/322414665538

its not written in the description but from the look of it i can see its pre-thermal applied.

by the way before my both fans on the gpu gone bad i used to run the gpu with only one fan spinning. and actually one fan seemed to handle the temps pretty well. but now after its also dying i fixed an 1000 RPM case fan on the GPU and temps at idle is 28c.. so if i fixed another 2000 RPM case fan for example i imagine i will get good temps at full load. maybe even better than the stock ones.. i wouldn't have any holes to mount the cooler but i have zip ties, it actually works..

but unfortunately it sucks that the cpu cooler will run at full speed if i plugged it to motherboard. i guess i might try plug it to the gpu fan connector, i don't know if it will work though.

update: actually from the picture of my motherboard i can see it has 4 pins system fan.. i guess i got confused because I'm plugging a 3 pin case fan to it.

jr9 · Jan 7, 2018

With GPU fan failures I generally just replace or rather upgrade the card. Most of the time it's happens on older cards that aren't under warranty anymore sadly; if they are they get sent back. It's an enormous pain to replace the cooling solution on the card as it's all one prebuilt unit. You sadly can't generally just pop in new fans on those, they are designed for the cooler the card has. For DIY people, you can buy a heatsink/cooler salvaged from an identical card and install it with special non-conductive thermal paste, not worth IMO and if you do it wrong the chip fries. If you can get a CPU cooler to work on a GPU board that would be an eyebrow raiser for sure. If it doesn't you should smell burning followed by a pink or black screen.

Those CPU coolers do look like they have the original thermal pads on them. Pictures are also useful though I still don't trust them 100% more like 90%. You can also just ask the ebay seller to be 100% if you are paranoid.

whiteknights · Jan 7, 2018

jr9 :

if you think about it my Dual-X GPU fans runs 3000 RPM at their max. when fan speed was at 50% they would run around 2000 RPM and temps were at 70'c with those speeds.

so if i attached an 92mm CPU cooler along with 120mm Case fan on the GPU heatsink, set the CPU cooler to run at 2000 RPM and buy a decent case fan running at 1500 - 2000 RPM.. thats 4000 RPM. you can do the math.

i know its not only about RPM, its about the size of the fan and the amount of airflow it can deliver, but the Dual-X GPU fans are crap anyway plus they are 85mm.. CPU cooler is 92mm + 120mm case fan.

my sapphire 7870 XT is getting old anyway but still doing the job in most games so i want to enjoy it as it last (haven't overclocked it yet).

nothing to lose from a creative experiment with that old card:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yQHAMz1v5g

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Intel fan blades are touching the heatsink when case on its side (rotor is loose) any fix?

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