Zalman 700cu VGA fan making...clicking noise?

aolforbroadband · March 10th, 2007, 09:09

A month or two ago my Zalman 700cu VGA cooler started making this slight clicking noise when it spun in "silent" mode. It's actually pretty annoying because I can hear it over the other fans in my case.

I bought a Zalman Fanmate 2 in hopes that it spinning at higher RPMs would stop the clicking, but even at high speeds you can still faintly hear it when the case is closed. Plus, the loud fan noise would defeat the purpose in which I got it for.

Any thoughts? It's not very dusty at all, as I've already tried cleaning it. If worse comes to worse I might just buy ANOTHER vga cooler, perhaps the Thermaltake one(the Vantec one disappointed me already.)

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Smooth Criminal · March 10th, 2007, 10:09

hmm if u want a silent colling technique the i reccomend water cooling coz nearlly all fans out there in the bussineess start making strange noise once a old by a year or two

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aolforbroadband · March 10th, 2007, 11:11

Water cooling isn't cheap.

And yeah, fans have their lifespans, but this thing isn't even close to being half a year old. It didn't click like this the first 2 months.

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StriderVM · March 10th, 2007, 11:38

I think that issue is normal, it's because it switches between slow and fast speeds by lowering the voltage on the fans...... I don't remember the source of that, I'll try to find it.

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skoreanime · March 10th, 2007, 15:13

I always liked Arctic Coolings Silencer VGA coolers. Bit bulky, but they're really quiet and gets the job done right. And they're pretty easy to set up, took me 15min with one screwdriver

. For your card, I believe it is the NV Silencer 6 Rev.2.

S.SubZero · March 10th, 2007, 17:06

It could be a dud. The fan electrics may have developed a problem. If the clicking is loud and unacceptable, check into getting a replacement.

I've had very good luck with my Zalman fans. My old P4 rig has a Zalman CPU cooler and it ran perfect the entire time I used it (three years). My new rig has a Zalman 9500AT for the CPU and a vf-900cu for the 7950GT. Works great so far.

^^Edit: I used to like the Arctic Cooling stuff, but their products for newer cards are kinda weird. They actually don't have ANY product that they specify is for the 7900GS (or 7950GT). In fact one place I know used to retrofit those coolers onto 7950GT's and it involved cutting away some of the plastic. That's not for me really. I prefer that method of getting air out of the case but they just don't offer it for my card.

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-SSZ

**refraction** · March 10th, 2007, 18:41

clean out any dust n make sure the wires underneath (or above) arent touching the fan.

not much else you can do short of getting a new one.

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**cooliscool** · March 10th, 2007, 21:01

You can take the zalman logo sticker off and put some WD-40, or some plain old cooking oil on the bearing area if it turns out friction is the issue.

__________________

**RPGW1ZaRD** · March 10th, 2007, 22:41

This varies from fan to fan when/if you will encounter extra noises with fans, my VF700-CU didn't get such noise even after 5months+ usage, I cleaned it maybe twice. But fans in general usually get louder/extra noises after a while, that's very normal. If you clean the fans then do it very carefully, putting too much pressure on a fanblade for example can cause such noise for example.

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aolforbroadband · March 11th, 2007, 05:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by cooliscool

You can take the zalman logo sticker off and put some WD-40, or some plain old cooking oil on the bearing area if it turns out friction is the issue.

Cooliscool! I've missed you.

How have you been?

Anyway I'm going to try and lube it up and see if it'll stop making noise, good suggestion. I was wondering where the little hole on this fan was..

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**cooliscool** · March 14th, 2007, 15:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by aolforbroadband

Cooliscool! I've missed you.

How have you been?

Anyway I'm going to try and lube it up and see if it'll stop making noise, good suggestion. I was wondering where the little hole on this fan was..

Good, how about yourself? See ya built yourself a C2D system, very nice. My GPU is still faster!

__________________

aolforbroadband · March 15th, 2007, 07:11

I've been alright.

And yes! Haha, I built it with 1 of my Circuit City paychecks.

I didn't get the highest end stuff, but for what I do it's more then enough. And yes haha, I had to skim a little and get the 7900GS instead of GT.

Don't mean to go anymore off-topic but, any upgrades for you in the future?

__________________

March 10th, 2007, 09:09	#1
aolforbroadband Registered User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Washington D.C. Area Posts: 1,839	Zalman 700cu VGA fan making...clicking noise? A month or two ago my Zalman 700cu VGA cooler started making this slight clicking noise when it spun in "silent" mode. It's actually pretty annoying because I can hear it over the other fans in my case. I bought a Zalman Fanmate 2 in hopes that it spinning at higher RPMs would stop the clicking, but even at high speeds you can still faintly hear it when the case is closed. Plus, the loud fan noise would defeat the purpose in which I got it for. Any thoughts? It's not very dusty at all, as I've already tried cleaning it. If worse comes to worse I might just buy ANOTHER vga cooler, perhaps the Thermaltake one(the Vantec one disappointed me already.) __________________ Core 2 Duo E6600 \| 2GB Corsair XMS2 \| eVGA 8800GT AKIMBO 500GB Seagate 7200.11 \| Antec Sonata II \| OCZ Modxstream Pro 500w Acer 23" Widescreen LCD \| Logitech G5 Mouse

March 10th, 2007, 18:41	#7
refraction PCSX2 Coder $refraction's Avatar$ Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Plymouth, UK Posts: 10,037	clean out any dust n make sure the wires underneath (or above) arent touching the fan. not much else you can do short of getting a new one. __________________ http://www.pcsx2.net Intel i7 920 @ 3.4Ghz, POV GTX 570 1.3Gb, 1.8Tb HD space, 6Gb OCZ Reaper PC3-14400 Triple Channel Dont PM me for help, use the forums, thats what its for! My Chip16 Emulator RefChip16 http://code.google.com/p/refchip16/
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March 10th, 2007, 11:11	#3
aolforbroadband Registered User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Washington D.C. Area Posts: 1,839	Water cooling isn't cheap. And yeah, fans have their lifespans, but this thing isn't even close to being half a year old. It didn't click like this the first 2 months. __________________ Core 2 Duo E6600 \| 2GB Corsair XMS2 \| eVGA 8800GT AKIMBO 500GB Seagate 7200.11 \| Antec Sonata II \| OCZ Modxstream Pro 500w Acer 23" Widescreen LCD \| Logitech G5 Mouse

March 10th, 2007, 11:38	#4
StriderVM Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Philippines Posts: 2,849	I think that issue is normal, it's because it switches between slow and fast speeds by lowering the voltage on the fans...... I don't remember the source of that, I'll try to find it. __________________

March 10th, 2007, 15:13	#5
skoreanime Your resident reaper... Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Canada Posts: 6,031	I always liked Arctic Coolings Silencer VGA coolers. Bit bulky, but they're really quiet and gets the job done right. And they're pretty easy to set up, took me 15min with one screwdriver . For your card, I believe it is the NV Silencer 6 Rev.2.

March 10th, 2007, 17:06	#6
S.SubZero Windows 8 Pro Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Bay Area, California Posts: 1,144	It could be a dud. The fan electrics may have developed a problem. If the clicking is loud and unacceptable, check into getting a replacement. I've had very good luck with my Zalman fans. My old P4 rig has a Zalman CPU cooler and it ran perfect the entire time I used it (three years). My new rig has a Zalman 9500AT for the CPU and a vf-900cu for the 7950GT. Works great so far. ^^Edit: I used to like the Arctic Cooling stuff, but their products for newer cards are kinda weird. They actually don't have ANY product that they specify is for the 7900GS (or 7950GT). In fact one place I know used to retrofit those coolers onto 7950GT's and it involved cutting away some of the plastic. That's not for me really. I prefer that method of getting air out of the case but they just don't offer it for my card. __________________ -SSZ

March 10th, 2007, 21:01	#8
cooliscool Global Moderator Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: SC, USA Posts: 7,231	You can take the zalman logo sticker off and put some WD-40, or some plain old cooking oil on the bearing area if it turns out friction is the issue. __________________

March 10th, 2007, 22:41	#9
RPGW1ZaRD PCSX2 & O/C Addict Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: My Computer Posts: 2,841	This varies from fan to fan when/if you will encounter extra noises with fans, my VF700-CU didn't get such noise even after 5months+ usage, I cleaned it maybe twice. But fans in general usually get louder/extra noises after a while, that's very normal. If you clean the fans then do it very carefully, putting too much pressure on a fanblade for example can cause such noise for example. __________________ « Feel free to browse through PCSX2 screenshots on RPGWiZaRD's Putfile.com section » Intel® Core™2 Duo E8400 @ 4.0GHz «-» Gigabyte P35-DS4 «-» CellShock 2x1GB @ DDR2-1200 5-5-4-10 «-» JetWay 8800GT 512 MB @ 705/1750/1015 MHz «-» Thermaltake ToughPower 750W «-» Sony Multiscan G400 19" CRT «-» OCZ Vendetta 2 «-» Creative SoundBlaster Audigy «-» Logitech X-530 5.1 «-» Sennheiser HD 212 Pro «-» Logitech MX™518 Gaming-Grade «-» Razer Mantis Speed «-» Windows XP Pro SP3 «-» Windows Server 2k8 XSOS 3.0 BETA

March 15th, 2007, 07:11	#12
aolforbroadband Registered User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Washington D.C. Area Posts: 1,839	I've been alright. And yes! Haha, I built it with 1 of my Circuit City paychecks. I didn't get the highest end stuff, but for what I do it's more then enough. And yes haha, I had to skim a little and get the 7900GS instead of GT. Don't mean to go anymore off-topic but, any upgrades for you in the future? __________________ Core 2 Duo E6600 \| 2GB Corsair XMS2 \| eVGA 8800GT AKIMBO 500GB Seagate 7200.11 \| Antec Sonata II \| OCZ Modxstream Pro 500w Acer 23" Widescreen LCD \| Logitech G5 Mouse