Is my 5850 dying?

Enmity · **Is my 5850 dying? -** 06-16-2012, 10:47 | posts: 1,091 | Location: New Zealand

Been running these 5850's for a few years now and they've been great - however just recently i've been having an intermittant problem with my secondary 5850.

from a cold boot - the system boots up and immediately I hear a horrible sound, its difficult to describe but its almost like something is stuck on the fan of the gpu or something. This will only happen once in a while, and its only when the computer firstly fires up - once I get into windows I use afterburner to just ramp up the gpu fanspeed for 30 seconds or so, slow it back down and the noise is gone. Also, it seems to make this noise more so on a cold morning, or evening (whenever I decide to fire up the PC) but if its been a warmer day it appears to not have this deathly sound. Perhaps it's just coincidence.

Now, i've determined its the secondary 5850 as I had the side panel off on one of the first occassions so i put my finger on the second 5850's fan to stop it from spinning, the noise was gone, as soon as i let it go again the noise would come back so it's definitely to do with the fan of my gpu. Is this what it sounds like when a gpu fan is dying? lol..I've never had hardware fail on me before.

temps have been fine, performance hasn't degraded and I haven't noticed anything else that's strange. I've taken the pc apart n blown all the dust out of both of the gpus using compressed air but the problem still exists.

I want to sell my current gear in the coming months but wouldn't want to sell someone a faulting gpu so want to get it sorted firstly.

How difficult would it be for me to pull the cooler off my card n inspect it a little further? I'm thinking thats gonna be the next step you guys could be asking me to do. What do you reckon?

GandraZz · 06-16-2012, 11:29 | posts: 375 | Location: Lithuania

Try to lubricate fan with vaseline or smth.

Mufflore · 06-16-2012, 22:02 | posts: 9,524 | Location: UK

Yeah, it sounds like the fans bearing has worn and/or the oil has dried up or been flung away.
A drop of bicycle chain oil in the right place might be all it needs.

On one gfx card that did this, I had to drill a hole in the cap over the fans bearing because it was sealed tight,
hopefully you can access the bearing much easier.

Hughesy · 06-16-2012, 22:43 | posts: 56 | Location: UK

Hi Enmity, my 6950 twin frozr III has done the same thing as yours I think. It first did it about January and has done it a few times since then. It seems like its the fan but I'm not sure why as if it was bearing related then it would do it all the time and restarting my pc stops it. It many not be the same as yours but I haven't had problems or worried about it. I haven't tried what you did, stoping the fan with my finger as that's not good for the fan. Maybe you could contact Msi and ask them.

Enmity · 06-16-2012, 23:35 | posts: 1,091 | Location: New Zealand

thanks for the replies so far guys, yeah I too had wondered if it was the bearing then wouldn't it be all the time?

So this morning I fired up the PC, and sure enough it was making this sound again. So I go msi afterburner which by default has the fans running at 30%..i moved it to 40% and the sound changed a little..actually became a little louder, then i moved it to 50-60-70% and it became quieter and the fan ramps up accordingly with no issues with the fan actually spinning. once i got it up to 90% I just left it there for a minute or so...then set the fan back to default and the sound is gone again and pc is running sweet now. I think today will involve the mission of pulling the card out and just running with the single 5850 for a while. So i'll dig up my screw drivers n pull the cooler off the GPU.

Would CRC work if I was to spray that in the right place? if this doesn't go well then i might look at selling it as is and tell the new owners to get an aftermarket cooler.

Mufflore · 06-16-2012, 23:43 | posts: 9,524 | Location: UK

As the temp increases, the remaining oil will run more freely.
This is one reason why the noise stops after a while.

But using it with the bare minimum of oil will cause the bearing to wear faster.
If you leave it too long, fresh oil might not be enough to cure it.

Enmity · 06-17-2012, 00:20 | posts: 1,091 | Location: New Zealand

Thanks man, ive pulled the card out, gunna try what you have suggested

Enmity · 06-17-2012, 04:40 | posts: 1,091 | Location: New Zealand

ok so this is where I am stuck now. I've pulled the gpu fan out of the cooler and i'm not so sure what I am looking for here. One thing I have noticed is there is a kind of gel/rubber? around the inside of the fan - is this the lubrication you guys have mentioned? coz it appears as though its missing half of it. I'll attach some pics to try and show you guys.

Enmity · *Last edited by Enmity; 06-17-2012 at 06:23.*

just to clarify, i've highlighted what I meant by the lubrication/gel that seems to only have like 1/3 of what it should. so bicycle chain oil or vaseline would work here?

perosmct · 06-17-2012, 08:34 | posts: 1,072 | Location: unknown

nah i would never sell 5850's, i just threw mine for recycling...they are not good

Enmity · 06-17-2012, 09:14 | posts: 1,091 | Location: New Zealand

How is that contributing to the thread? Id appreciate some helpful advise please. These 5850s are old, yes but with two of them I am still maintaining fairly close performance to a gtx680 and i will make some money off them once I decide to sell.

anticupidon · 06-17-2012, 09:33 | posts: 1,667 | Location: far,far from home

With a long needle i would inject some liquid vaseline into the fan bearings.

Enmity · 06-18-2012, 06:12 | posts: 1,091 | Location: New Zealand

Where exactly should i be injecting this? Sorry guys, never done this before lol

skoolz · 06-18-2012, 08:58 | posts: 64 | Location: PA

Before you continue (I hope I'm not too late), the pictures you show me are very similar to my old 5870 card. I had the exact same issue, and some normal sewing machine oil fixed it right up. However, because of the way the card is put together (just like yours it seems), I had to unscrew ALL of that **** you have in your pictures, all the way down to the very core. If you have doubt that your oil is hitting your fan bearing, then you have NOT gone far enough. Just keep taking **** off until you're 100% sure you're hitting the bearing. Believe me, it will be obvious.

Enmity · 06-18-2012, 09:17 | posts: 1,091 | Location: New Zealand

hang on a sec skoolz, can i disassemble the fan any further than my most recent pic up there?..
can post more pics if you need

Enmity · 06-18-2012, 10:03 | posts: 1,091 | Location: New Zealand

I have taken more pics of the fan, will upload shortly...but i cant see how to disassemble this any further. Also i should add im obviously very noobish in this area, never pulled a gpu apart in my life before this. I really appreciate all of your help, thanks for your patience with me on this.

Enmity · 06-18-2012, 11:37 | posts: 1,091 | Location: New Zealand

Enmity · 06-19-2012, 10:51 | posts: 1,091 | Location: New Zealand

Well, after all that I ended up spraying the crap out of it with CRC, let it sit for a bit, span it out a bit...put it back together and it's all working sweet so far

no dodgy sounds thus far