My XFX 6600gt 256mb's stock fan is making a terrible noise. It seems that the fan is, well, unstable! It whobbles! Causing the temperature to rise 10C! Is there anything I can do to fix it? Your help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks.
hi , are the plastic pins that fix the fan to the card pushed through properly ? i'd advise getting a new arctic cooling cooler.....much better cooling , quieter and not to expensive
If it's a PCI-Express card then yes, that would be a good idea, AGP is a no-go though, I've got an AGP XFX 6600GT and the PCI-Express to AGP Bridge chip means that Arctic COoling haven't got a cooler for the card as the heatsink on the bridge chip gets in the way. The Vantec ICEBERQ 5 Premium VGA Cooling Kit I've got is extremely quiet and does the job nicely.
As a last resort I'll check out what coolers I can get. (I live in South Africa and thus have a limited choice) The whole heatsink-fan is clipped in properly. I think the bearings are shot! The fan heats up! And something is causing severe friction as the fan immediately stops spinning when the pc is shut down. In Black & White 2 the temperature rises to 110C!
You can't replace the bearings. Well I guess you could but thats too much work for a cheap fan heh. What you'd do is replace the fan on the card, and possibly the heatsink too.
Sorry, I edited my post after reading that you actually meant I should replace the fan, not the bearings. And this after you replied, but before I read your reply. I spent a potload of cash on this damn card! Paying even more to keep it from killing itself is making me angry. I tried to find out as much I can about XFX - who they are, can their hardware be trusted etc. etc. (I should've gone for the asus model) But, anyways, my only option seems to be getting a new cooler. There's no way that I'm going to go through the hassle of returning the card and waiting for a new one or for a repair. That would take to long. So, thanks for all of your help, I really appreciate it!
AND.... The core speed is 300Mhz!?! According to Rivatuner! When I click on the 'Manual overclocking' button in my display settings, the core jumps up to 500Mhz in rivatuner, and when I put it back on 'No overclocking', it sinks back to 300Mhz! XFX just isn't worth it
I've used it's 'Detect Optimal Frequencies' option, and it now sits on 524Mhz core. But rivatuner still reads it as 300Mhz!?!
That 300MHz will be the 2d Performance settings, 3d performance settings is 500MHz - make sure you select the right one. XFX cards are good for overclocking, I've had mine at 600MHz Core and 1200MHz Memory running fine with no artifacts
Awesome! I must've missed a setting somewhere. I've been having a look at the Zalman coolers, any advice? They don't cost allot, and they look sufficient for overclocking. Here's the site: http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=150&code=013
No with the Vantec ICEBERQ5 Premium VGA Cooling Kit (I didn't put the RAM-sinks on though) it idles at 50*C and on load when playing a game it doesnt hit more than 55*C, it's got a high idle temp but the load temperature isn't much higher so I've no need for concern.
A conclusion has been established: The graphics card sat in the shop for too long, causing the fan's lubrication to dry up! I've applied a cooking oil and thermal grease mixture to the fan's bearings which caused the fan to operate normally again! No more 105 C with Black and White 2!! But now a high, yet lower 80 C! Idle temperature sits at 56 C, instead of 70 C. Thanks for the replies!
