Weird sound from gpu fan

[VladusD]

Hello,

 

I bought a Gigabyte GTX 1080 G1 Gaming a few weeks ago and since about yesterday, I have been getting a strange noise from one of the GPU fans, like a squeak. The sound is pretty mild, so I cannot hear it with my headphones on, and it is not very loud in general, but it is still there. I opened the chassis and looked at the GPU fans and they look ok, with nothing standing in their way. The only thing that I noticed is that one of the three fans seems a little bit looser that the others, and when I press a bit on one of its fan blades, a small click can be heard which does not happen with the other fans. Otherwise, it spins fine from what I can observe and GPU temps are good.

 

It only happens when the GPU load is at or near 100%. When I alt-tab the game and the GPU core load drops to 0%, the sound disappears immediately, although the GPU fans RPM (in HWInfo) appears to stay about the same for several seconds before slowly decreasing. One thing to mention is that this has been happening since I calibrated all my fans inside the BIOS and set up different fan profiles, although I though that didn't apply to GPU fans. It probably is unrelated.

 

So my question would be: what should I do? Ignore it since it doesn't sound that bad? If I do ignore it, can the loosening get worse and do actual damage in time? Can I (and should I) unscrew the GPU plastic thing that encompasses the fans and try to tighten the screws on the fan? Thanks.

 

 

[Slottr]

Probably coil whine. If so, no there isnt really much you can do about it

[VladusD]

3 minutes ago, Slottr said:

Probably coil whine. If so, no there isnt really much you can do about it

So you're saying that trying to tighten it might not solve it? I would like to emphasize that I've had the card for weeks and it only started doing it yesterday. 

[Slottr]

3 minutes ago, VladusD said:

So you're saying that trying to tighten it might not solve it? I would like to emphasize that I've had the card for weeks and it only started doing it yesterday. 

I can't say for sure what it is through your explanation, but if it is coil whine, theres nothing you can really do about it.

 

Could be something else though, so no harm in trying to see if it is that fan

[VladusD]

Update: I took my GPU off and tightened all 3 fans a bit. They all seem to be fine. Unfortunately, I still have that squeaking/scratching sound. Since it is only in GPU-intensive games and not very loud, I am inclined to leave it like it is unless someone tells me that it could be dangerous somehow to leave it like that.

[mxk]

49 minutes ago, VladusD said:

So you're saying that trying to tighten it might not solve it? I would like to emphasize that I've had the card for weeks and it only started doing it yesterday. 

Like @Slottr said, nothing you can really do. I'm sure theres something you can do but it would involve a stupid amount of work, probably because it would involve taking your card apart and tinkering with it.

[Slottr]

15 minutes ago, VladusD said:

Update: I took my GPU off and tightened all 3 fans a bit. They all seem to be fine. Unfortunately, I still have that squeaking/scratching sound. Since it is only in GPU-intensive games and not very loud, I am inclined to leave it like it is unless someone tells me that it could be dangerous somehow to leave it like that.

I'm confident its just coil whine then. Annoying squealing sound? Coil whine.