Solutions for Gigabyte Windforce fan hanging from the card

[chefreinhold]

 

Hi guys,

A few years ago I built my first machine with an R9 290 OC Graphics Card. As you can see from the link, it has a Windforce cooler with three fans. A while ago the fan furthest from the display ports began to rattle a while ago and then one day I heard a clunk sound. I looked inside and found that the fan was hanging from the GPU by the wire. I pushed it back up again onto the shaft and it was whirring again, and without any unusual noise, but within a day or two I heard the clunk and it was hanging again. I pushed it back up again. Wait, rinse and repeat. I've attached pictures below.

Pictures of the fan hanging

 

Unfortunately, it looks this is going to be a DIY job. I have been in touch with Gigabyte and RMA is not an option. Because the card was bought from a  German-based shop (which has since gone out of business), the card would have to be returned to Germany from Ireland where I live. I was willing to do this but then they informed me that "our service centre has confirmed we have no stock left for the fan sink or other materials of this model."

Is there anything I can do? I have asked a friend and his attitude has been to leave it, two fans are more than enough. This makes me feel uncomfortable though, it's a hot card to begin with (temperatures of 49-53c at idle), and besides the additional volume of the two fans compensating for the missing third one goes against the reason I bought this quiet card. 

Here are my questions:

• Can the existing fan somehow be placed back to stay in place?
• Can I buy a replacement fan? I have seen some on eBay, but honestly, I can't judge the reputability of these sellers and I'm not even that sure of which fan I need to buy.
• Do I need to go down the Aftermarket cooler route? I know there are some incredible ones out there, and I am willing to go this way, but it's a last resort in terms of preferences.

 

Thank you, everyone. All advice is appreciated.

[Godlygamer23]

Shouldn't it be screwed into the mounting location?

 

EDIT: It looks like it is, but it's not staying there(fan basically falling apart). You might be able to get a replacement from Gigabyte.

[chefreinhold]

3 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

EDIT: You might be able to get a replacement from Gigabyte.

 

First of all, thank you for helping me. I really appreciate it.
I tried to contact Gigabyte but as you can see from my post, they said that "our service centre has confirmed we have no stock left for the fan sink or other materials of this model."

[Godlygamer23]

8 minutes ago, chefreinhold said:

First of all, thank you for helping me. I really appreciate it.
I tried to contact Gigabyte but as you can see from my post, they said that "our service centre has confirmed we have no stock left for the fan sink or other materials of this model."

Does the motor still function after the blade housing falls off? I wonder if you could basically glue it back together.

 

The issue with leaving only two fans is you are reducing cooling performance because as I remember(based on my 970), it's basically three heatsinks underneath each fan.

[manikyath]

wait, gigabyte cards still do that? i had that issue with my HD5770, just ended up finding a different fan that fit on my card, and bodging in the connector.

 

also, when shopping for replacement fans, be creative, i ended up buying a gelid cpu cooler, that appareantly had the *exact* same fan on it.

 

 

 

heatsink was cheaper than buying a fan seperately, and appareantly used the exact same fan size as the gigabyte card.

in hindsight, however, i'd rather suggest noctua's 92mm slim fan. (noctua's the only one making a 92mm slim fan, for some odd reason)

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Does the motor still function after the blade housing falls off? I wonder if you could basically glue it back together.

I was just gonna type that. Just use hot glue or a doublesided tape to secure the fan.

[manikyath]

2 minutes ago, Almostbauws said:

I was just gonna type that. Just use hot glue or a doublesided tape to secure the fan.

3 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Does the motor still function after the blade housing falls off? I wonder if you could basically glue it back together.

 

The issue with leaving only two fans is you are reducing cooling performance because as I remember(based on my 970, it's basically three heatsinks underneath each fan.

if he's having the same issue as i had on my HD5770, glue wont do you much good, its a bearing issue (or rather, a bearings being attached to things issue)

 

EDIT: upon closer investigation, yes, completely the same issue.

[chefreinhold]

1 minute ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Does the motor still function after the blade housing falls off? I wonder if you could basically glue it back together.

 

The issue with leaving only two fans is you are reducing cooling performance because as I remember(based on my 970, it's basically three heatsinks underneath each fan.

 

 

The motor does function. In fact, I pushed it back in this afternoon and it's spinning absolutely fine right now. It's only a matter of time before it falls out again.

Realy interesting, I didn't notice, but your right, it is three separate heatsinks. 

 

manikyath your suggesting I get the noctua 92mm slim. How would I hook this up? Do you think I can connect it to the GPU? From what I can see it looks like each fan has its own power header. Or would I need to try and power it this to the motherboard? 
Also, simply the remove the old fan and strap it onto the shroud over there the one was?

Thanks for all you patience guys. Never modded a GPU before. My first build was about 4 years ago and I have no plans to upgrade for at least 18 months.

[manikyath]

4 minutes ago, chefreinhold said:

 

manikyath your suggesting I get the noctua 92mm slim. How would I hook this up? Do you think I can connect it to the GPU? From what I can see it looks like each fan has its own power header. Or would I need to try and power it this to the motherboard? 
Also, simply the remove the old fan and strap it onto the shroud over there the one was?

Thanks for all you patience guys. Never modded a GPU before. My first build was about 4 years ago and I have no plans to upgrade for at least 18 months.

what i did with mine at first was make a bracket to hold the fan on its bearing, with a little 'tip' at the very center of the fan hub, to keep friction as low as possible, but eventually you'll need to either replace the card or cooler all together, or get creative.

 

and to get a standard case fan onto a GPU, you'll need to get very creative

[chefreinhold]

29 minutes ago, manikyath said:

what i did with mine at first was make a bracket to hold the fan on its bearing, with a little 'tip' at the very center of the fan hub, to keep friction as low as possible, but eventually you'll need to either replace the card or cooler all together, or get creative.

 

and to get a standard case fan onto a GPU, you'll need to get very creative

Ok!  So, first of all, I really appreciate your help. I'm wading into unknown territory here so the help is great!

Now pardon my ignorance here, but what do you think I should do? You mentioned the noctua, and I see Amazon has one I could have by Tuesday. What do you think I should do with it if I get one?

 

I'm also open to aftermarket cooling, but I'd like to avoid liquid cooling, and space is a bit tight above and below the gpu, so I'm not even sure I could fit one into my system.

 

[manikyath]

Just now, chefreinhold said:

Ok!  So, first of all, I really appreciate your help. I'm washing into unknown territory here so the help us great. Now pardon my ignorance here, but what do you think I should do? You mentioned the noctua, and I see Amazon has one I could have by Tuesday. What do you think I should do with it if I get one?

 

I'm also open to aftermarket cooling, but I'd like to avoid liquid cooling, and space is a bit tight above and below the gpu, so I'm not even sure I could fit one into my system.

sensibly, i cant recommend you to buy the noctua and bodge it on, because it will be quite an undertaking to get it to work, which will all be up to you to figure out. in the worst case it may even be necessary to get a soldering iron out.

 

the most "reassured" method would be to find a compatible replacement fan, which i'm sure you'll find somewhere in china.

 

if the windforce cooler wasnt already very good, i'd say an aftermarket cooler may be in place, but the windforce cooler minus one fan may be better than aftermarket.

that said, just removing the fan may be an option as well. it'll reduce cooling performance (and thus, probably gaming performance), but it cant really do anything unpredictable, and it cant do more damage than has already been done.

[chefreinhold]

OK, thank you! This has cleared up many questions that I've had and at last, I feel like I have a path to follow in solving this for once and for all. 

 

You're right, the windforce cooler is great, and it's why I bought this model. I'd rather take my time now to fix this properly than waste my time on a hodge-podge project that'll likely confuse and frustrate me. It's late here right now, so I'm logging off but tomorrow I'd like to come back with some info on the damaged fan. Some guidance on buying a Chinese fan would be really great if that not too much to ask?

[chefreinhold]

1 minute ago, CUDA_Cores said:

You could just say f*ck it, remove everything and do this:

 

I've considered it! 

[chefreinhold]

Hi guys, so I had a chance to remove the fan today and have a look at the back. I've attached a photo of this.

 

I searched that model number and it looks like there are a bunch of sellers on Aliexpress selling them: https://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-t128010su.html

I've never used this site before though. Is it reputable?

[danlong]

Hi all - I am one of potentially thousands of others who have experienced the same quality issues with Gigabyte Windforce graphics cards. I have created a petition so something is done about it - manufacturers should not be able to get away with selling products that are clearly not fit for purpose.

I was unlucky enough to purchase over 100 of these graphics cards for my IT business to sell and I have had over 50% of the fans completely fail - some within 4 weeks of purchasing! Gigabyte have since denied any refunds to me and even had the audacity to accuse me of using them for crypto mining when that wasn't the case at all. They repaired the graphics cards and sent them back, but my customers are still experiencing these issues. I have spent the past year processing warranties for my customers and now my business has suffered detrimental losses as a complete result of this.

 

The ACCC won't do anything for me because I am not a consumer, so I am perusing with legal action.

 

Please sign and share this petition! http://chng.it/X4WtPRSjpn

I really appreciate it!

Dan