Corsair H100i GTX Right Fan Buzzing Grinding Noise

The right fan on my Corsair H100i GTX recently started buzzing, and my idle temps for my i7 5820k are above 50 c. The package gets to 85 c when running Prime 95. It is pretty hot right now in Los Angeles, but I'm thinking maybe the fan is causing this more than the ambient temperature. Here is a video that demonstrates it. [ame]

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Does anyone know how do I fix this?

This happened to me too (but on the H110i gtx) and I just replaced my fans. I think it was just the fan itself was dying so I just replaced both mine just to keep them consistent. Although mine wasn't as loud as yours, it does annoy me the rattling noise and it only occurs on my old fans about 1300~thereabouts rpm and if i went faster or slower than that its gone.

You can contact Corsair through the tech support site and request a new fan. However, unless you are perfectly happy with them (pre-bearing disaster) you may want to consider replacing them. There are a lot choices with 120mm fans that can the job with a more pleasing acoustic profile.

 

However, I am more concerned your 5820K idle temps are near 50C. Unless your case is sitting at 45C ambient or you are running high performance at 1.40V+, you should not be up there. When it is idling at ~50C CPU core temps, what is your H100i GTX Temp (coolant temp) in Link? How hot is your room/case?

 

I have a 5820K so I can interpret package temp, but stick to core temps for the analysis. Package temp is a bit odd on HW-E, although the upper limit over 80C is something to pay attention to.

You can contact Corsair through the tech support site and request a new fan. However, unless you are perfectly happy with them (pre-bearing disaster) you may want to consider replacing them. There are a lot choices with 120mm fans that can the job with a more pleasing acoustic profile.

 

However, I am more concerned your 5820K idle temps are near 50C. Unless your case is sitting at 45C ambient or you are running high performance at 1.40V+, you should not be up there. When it is idling at ~50C CPU core temps, what is your H100i GTX Temp (coolant temp) in Link? How hot is your room/case?

 

I have a 5820K so I can interpret package temp, but stick to core temps for the analysis. Package temp is a bit odd on HW-E, although the upper limit over 80C is something to pay attention to.

 

Hi, thanks for the reply. One of my questions was should I be monitoring package temp or 6 core temps? Are any of them more important than the others?

 

Regarding the question about coolant temp, I have to double check when I get home. I think it was around 45, but I'll edit that when I get home with an accurate result.

 

I'm not sure exactly what the temperature is in the house but it was probably above 80, as it was over 90 outside and I didn't have the AC on to save some money.

 

So you think the fans just went bad? I can just buy new fans for this thing? Kind of ridiculous as I've had it only little over a year, and I've been so busy that I haven't even had much time to use it in the past year... I've only played about 2 games on it and haven't had time since.

The stock fans noise never bugged me, but going through an RMA and having to send it back while I wait for another one would be really annoying.

yeah you can just buy some high static pressure fans and fit them, the ML pro fans are probably the best ones corsair do for it,http://www.corsair.com/en-us/cooling/ml-series-fans

 

while your at it get a can of compressed air (or a low pressure compressor outlet if you have one available) and blast the dust from the radiator and the rest of the case, just unplug the fans from the fan headers before you start blasting to remove the chance of generating ESD(it will likely have loads especially if you haven't had it in use for ages)

 

 

its possible that your water block isn't fitted correctly to get that kind of temperature difference between the coolant and the cpu, so buy a good thermal paste like the noctura nh1 (non conductive) clean off the current thermal paste from the cpu and the water block (baby wipes followed by a bit of cotton with isopropyl alcohol) if your old paste was conductive (metallic) then be careful when cleaning it off that non goes on the mobo...

 

give it a few minutes and then reseat the cpu In the mobo and apply either an x or a grain of rice (youtube videos on this, do not use spreader method) then tighten the waterblock back down, if you chose the nh1 paste your good to go at this point and you don't need to take it easy :P

 

since your going to be swapping the fans over anyway you might as well do it all in one go :sunglasse

The right side fan propeller appears to be sliding too far down the spindle shaft. This can happen on fans with this bearing type when they are mounted in the inverted position, but it is normally visually seen as a tiny wobble with a low level coarse fan noise. Your noise is far more severe and it stops (at least temporarily) when you push the propeller back up into place. If you are not getting daily use out of your PC, I won't try and persuade you to upgrade the fans. Corsair is up in Fremont and it not likely to require you to send the bad fan back before sending a new one. It should be relatively quick. Contact the tech support site and upload the video link. They appear to have done a major overhaul over the weekend, so if you already have a tech support account, you may need to do a few things to reactivate it. If not, create a new account.

 

 

However, it might be wise to take a look at the entire situation before starting the help ticket. The different variables have some meaning.

 

Coolant temperature (H100i GTX Temp) - this is the key to discerning between a cooler problem and most everything else. Normally, this value will be somewhere between 4-7C over your room temperature. It can be more or less depending on your case design and layout and most certainly if you are running with C-states off and a manual voltage. The CPU is not the only thing that can add to this value. If you heat up the entire case with GPU exhaust, the base temperature will go up as well. 40C case temp means minimum 40C coolant temperature. The coolant temperature becomes the effectively the lowest possible CPU temperature and serves as the basis for the final core temp values. If you do task A with a coolant temp at 30C and the core temps are 50C, then the same task at coolant temp 40C will bring CPU temps of 60C.

 

Package Temperature - this is a specific sensor on HW-E and sometimes referred to as socket temperature. It's an odd one. My idle values with full c-states on are constantly 10C+ over my CPU and even more over my core temps when at idle. It's hot where I am as well and even with the AC on, I am fighting the afternoon sun on the glass. My room temp is 78F/27C. Core temps are siting 1-2C above this and that is as low as they can go. The "CPU temp" on HW-E is not an average, but another specific sensor. You can think of it as the cumulative heat from the cores. This one is likely to be the same as your coolant temp when at idle. So in this 27C room, with 28-30C cores, a 33C CPU temp, I have a 41C package temp. It does not correspond directly to any of the other values or things you need to monitor. It's upper limit is somewhat important, but there is no official limit. At one point Asus said to be be concerned over 80C. When under 100% load, the package temp should be about the same as your hottest core (or close to it). The idle value is not very useful. Same thing for 'CPU temp'. At idle it should be close to the coolant temp, but when under 100% load you will see it lag well under your core temps. It is an indication of heat passing through the cold plate into the cooling system, but this is not something you need to worry about. The core temperatures are the most universal, linear, and directly responsive to voltage and load. These are the ones people can understand when trying to predict behavior or results.

 

Well, that got a little wordy. Here is what you need to do.

 

1) When you first turn the PC on or wake it from sleep, open up Corsair Link at look at the H100i GTX Temp. At the instant the power turns on, the coolant will be the same as the room/case temperature. Even at idle some heat is transferred from the CPU and the H100i temp should go up 4-7C after wake. Power on, write down the coolant temp. Come back in 10 minutes and check the temp again. If it stops in the expected range good, next step. If it is still slowly and steadily climbing, STOP, and report back.

 

2) No more Prime. If you know how to set up custom runs, it can still be useful but it is too much direct CPU voltage and work for a coolant system test. Run something easy like Intel XTU. It is mild and has a steady sine wave like loading pattern. Before you begin, select the wrench on the line graph at the bottom. Click off the boxes to make cores 0-5 (or 1-6) show on the graph. Those are the values we care about. Run it for 10 minutes. Take a before and after H100i GTX temp reading. Let me know how it went, with coolant delta and peak cores temps. The graph should be fairly smooth. If you see sharp peaks, there is something else going on.

 

I think most of this is precautionary. I am hoping your "50C" was package temp in a warm case on a hot day after playing around for a while. An 85C package temp would not be out of the question when starting from a warm base and running Prime 95. However, since you need to contact tech support for the fan, let's make sure that is the only thing that needs to be addressed.

 

**Also - What frequency and voltage are you running on the 5820K? I was assuming everything at stock/Auto, but let me know if this is not the case.

yeah you can just buy some high static pressure fans and fit them, the ML pro fans are probably the best ones corsair do for it,http://www.corsair.com/en-us/cooling/ml-series-fans

 

while your at it get a can of compressed air (or a low pressure compressor outlet if you have one available) and blast the dust from the radiator and the rest of the case, just unplug the fans from the fan headers before you start blasting to remove the chance of generating ESD(it will likely have loads especially if you haven't had it in use for ages)

 

 

its possible that your water block isn't fitted correctly to get that kind of temperature difference between the coolant and the cpu, so buy a good thermal paste like the noctura nh1 (non conductive) clean off the current thermal paste from the cpu and the water block (baby wipes followed by a bit of cotton with isopropyl alcohol) if your old paste was conductive (metallic) then be careful when cleaning it off that non goes on the mobo...

 

give it a few minutes and then reseat the cpu In the mobo and apply either an x or a grain of rice (youtube videos on this, do not use spreader method) then tighten the waterblock back down, if you chose the nh1 paste your good to go at this point and you don't need to take it easy :P

 

since your going to be swapping the fans over anyway you might as well do it all in one go :sunglasse

 

pretty expensive... corsair should cover under warranty, especially since it's barely been a year. the odd part is they haven't even gotten a lot of use due to my schedule. i basically built this great gaming rig and never really got a chance to use it like I wanted.

I am sure the fan is still covered and replacing it should not be an issue. The defect was most likely present from the start. You didn't wear it out. Even inexpensive fans have MTBF hours in the thousands.

Hello,

 

If you are going to try and return it for exchange, you should try to get a model that uses a CoolIt pump instead of an Asetek pump (H110i GTX). See this post for why a CoolIt pump based cooler is preferred.

 

http://forum.corsair.com/forums/showthread.php?p=796027

So Corsair FINALLY responded to my RMA and approved it, but they want me to ship it back before they even send me a new one...

 

I said this to them "Are you saying I have to ship it back before you ship me the new one? How am I supposed to use my computer without a CPU fan? If I'm responsible for shipping this back via a trackable method, then that's how you ensure I ship it back, or you charge me. That's how this is supposed to work. I don't know how you expect me to ship this back and wait for however long it takes to process this RMA to use my computer again."

 

Shouldn't they ship the RMA unit to me and charge me if I don't ship the defective unit back?

You have to specifically ask for them to "advance RMA" the item. It requires a credit card hold and is not available for everything in the catalog. I am surprised it would be an issue on a single stock fan.

You have to specifically ask for them to "advance RMA" the item. It requires a credit card hold and is not available for everything in the catalog. I am surprised it would be an issue on a single stock fan.

 

i'm in Europe so it might be slightly different but I had to send the entire cooler back to them for a single fan replacement.... they just sent out a complete brand new boxed item, although that was a few years back and things might have changed a bit since then, so that might be the case here as well...

 

@op, try asking them in the support ticket if that's the case,

if not it wont do any harm for you to use your computer with only one fan on the radiator for simple stuff like browsing (the temp might go up a tiny bit) although gaming might be out of the question XD