graphics card noise

Seeking the help of those more computer savy than me. I have a PC I made myslef (with a good bit of help, as I'm not very experienced). After I moved a month or two ago, I noticed a clicking/grinding noise (basically sounds like when you put a baseball card in the spokes of a bike and ride it). My natural thought was that there's something contacting one of my fans. After opening my case and isolating the sound, my best guess is that it's from the graphics card (though this is still just a guess, as I can't get in close enough to tell). I have cleaned my pc many times and made sure that there is nothing contacting anything that moves/spins/vibrates, but I cannot figure out how to stop the noise. It's a very powerful and quiet pc, but this added noise is quite a nuissance. It is clearly audible in my room, and is there any time my machine is on. Any experienced this before, or have any thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

right, if it sounds like its coming from the GFX card, its probably the GFX fan... The worst GFX cards for fans getting stuck/slowing down/making noise are ATI..
Specifically, Radeon, 8500, 9600, 9700, 9800... These shipped with basic fans, fine for cooling them, but not very reliable..

If you want to try it, (and this is dangerous mind..) Just stop the fan for 2/3 seconds with your finger whilst the machine is turned on... if the noise stops, then its the fan, if it doesnt, then its something else..

the other possibility is the power supply fan, because the power supply has a huge ass fann on the back end (some have 2 or more fans) it sucks through alot of dust and crap, i would suggest turning your pc off, un plugging it, and using a can of compressed air and blowing it into your power supply fan and power supply, try and clean out any stuff in there...

Failing that, it could be your hard drive, or grasping at straws... your cd/dvd rom lazer "ticking" (trying to read when theres nothing/damaged disk in there) or it could be something more serious like an arc from your main board to your case due to a bad earth..

If you try all these and none work, and if you even swap out your power supply (as the compressed air might not get it) and its still making a noise, i would suggest either taking it to a local shop to take a look, or dismantling it all piece by piece, and building it up from scratch, doing this may stop the sound and you may never find out what it was (its happened to me before) or you may find something in there you over looked thats causing it..

Hope this helps..

First off, thanks for the ideas. It is indeed an ATI Radeon. X800XL to be precise. I have tried the compressed air treatment on every part of my computer multiple times over the weeks, and no dice. Also, I thought about stopping the fan physically, but did not want to undertake that risk on the motor. I avoided physically removing and stopping parts, as my system still works great.... it's just an annoyance factor, and I don't really want to spend extra money on parts, damages, or taking it somewhere for a repair, when it is just an annoyance, but not a real problem.

ive had this happen to my old ati gfx card. it was the fan, i removed it from the card and unscrewed all the small bits and cleaned it.

depends on the type of card, the fan type ect, but try getting a thermaltake replacement fan, or a sheath...

i have had 3 cards, one of which was a Ti card, go belly up on me because of fan bearings.
thats what has gone, or is going, from the sound of it, and Gustav and Ghozer are right.
cleaning the fan part can sometimes help, but it depends on how bad it is as t how much good a clean will do, realy.
when i cleaned my Ti cards fan out, i got about a month more out of it befor i had to keep starting it up with my finger 0.o
it looked vaguely obseen, me winding my finger up on the fan, i'll tell you ^^
looked into the sheath thing, but i got lucky a friend gave me his old Ti card, same make and one model up, casue he had bought a spanky new turbo job for playing Farcry on max graphics, and didnt need his old card

otherwise, consider asking for a ner card for the holidays..and try to make sure it hasnt got a fan^^ thats what i started doing. no fan, no bearings to go squshy on me

You could always go out and buy one of thoes GFX Card fan packages, they come with a new fan, and Ram heat sinks... Just follow the installation instructions and you'll be fine...

I had a horrible drumming noise coming from my PC too. I opened her up and got the vacuum cleaner and a paintbrush to it.
I had a hell of alot of dust in my fans/circuits and heatsink. It's now almost as quiet as when i bought it.

[note to self - must use a duster in my room]

o_0 !!! OMG! You actually used a Vacuum Cleaner, INSIDE a PC??? o_0

For thoes who are thinking of doing this, Done.. Whats the main, big thing that can ruin a PC??? STATIC!! and what do Vacuum Cleaners Generate??? STATIC!!

Your VERY Lucky not to have broken anything.....

tuperwho

take a NONCONDUCTING item (plastic ruler etc) and gently touch the fan housing while listening for a change of pitch in the noise and/or a vibration to be felt

check to see if the card is still under warranty then contact customer support

Are you sure it's coming from the graphics card? Clicking noises come from hard drives a lot right before they die

Maybe Im just getting too picky, or maybe im just over obsessed with this..

But a plastic ruler can generate static.. Havent you ever done it??? I used to do it all the time, and I know people who have done it without meaning to...

Use something like a wooden spoon handle, or a wodden chopstick or something like that... (no lead/graphite pencils)

Alright, had a few free min. at lunch, and built up enough courage to try some of this out. I opened my case while running, and tried to locate the noise again. Definitely sounded like it was coming from the "bottom" of my case, below the harddrive and even from under the graphics card. There is nothing else in this area, other than motherboard, so I am pretty confident that the GC is the culprit. I then turned off my machine, unplugged it, grounded myself, and removed the graphics card. I tried to tighten all the screws I could (except the stupid teeny ones that I didn't have a screwdriver to fit), and used my air can on the whole thing. I spun the fan with my finger, and did not hear the noise. I then noticed that tapping on the plastic that houses the fan produced a noise. So my thought was that the fan was creating a bit of vibrating, causing these 2 plastic peices to hit. I then re-assembled and turned it back on.... armed with a peice of cardboard. While running (and clicking), I pushed on the plastic GC fan housing, and there was no change in the sound, even over the area I had identified as what I tought was it. Then, accidentally, while applying pressure, the cardboard slipped and stopped the fan briefly. It seemed to stop the noise, but I am too scared to do it again to confirm.

So, I'm pretty much reserved that it is indeed the GC fan. As of now, there are no performance issues with this, and since I do not have the time to be on hold with the company or fool around with things, I will probably just keep an eye on it and leave it alone. Thanks a lot for all the advice. The way I see it is it's working for now, and even if it breaks, I just bought all the parts from Newegg this June, so it should still be under warranty, right?

yes but it is best to take care of it before it melts, shorts everything else on its way out .

one quick way to be sure is to remove the graphics card and start the machine .

you wont have graphics but you can truly determine if the noise is gone.

if it is the card it is probably a manufacturers warranty not a newegg warranty.

get a RMA before you take the chance of (small) nuking the whole system

Wouldn't have ever thought of doing that... I have much to learn still

You're right, and what's an RMA?

RMA is like the manufacturers returns number, if something needs returning you get an RMA to return it (like a reference number)