How to replace a case fan?

JohnJSal

JohnJSal

Active Member
I'm a few days away from upgrading my PC and a strange buzzing/rattling noise started coming from my PC. I'm thinking it's the top exhaust fan (although I'd love if it were the CPU cooler fan, since I'm replacing all that anyway!). I'm going to try to run the PC with the side of the case removed and see if I can be sure where the noise is coming from, but the problem(?) is that it doesn't always do it. It stops sometimes, and when I turn my PC back on it doesn't start up doing it immediately.

But I'd rather not leave it to fail later, especially since I'm emptying out my case anyway to do a complete upgrade. So, assuming it's the case fan, how easy/hard is this to replace? I happen to have a spare 120mm fan, so is all I have to do unscrew the current fan and screw in the new one? Is there more to do/know, about wiring or anything else? I need to figure out the air flow direction, for one thing...

Thanks.
 
All you need to do is to see which way the current fans blades are facing and replace it with the new fan, blades facing the same way way. Plug in and away you go.

Before you do that, check to see if it something silly like a loose cable leaning against the fan (or any part) that is causing the noise.
Terry
 
My guess is you have a cable from something else hitting the fan blades. Inspect all fans for interference.
 
Ha, funny you both say that. When it first started making noise, I did open the side (with the computer off) and I saw a small cable touching the fan, so I tucked it back a little, and the next time I turned it on, it didn't make the noise.

But then maybe an hour later it started again. But again, since then it sometimes stops, so it seems weird that the cable would keep moving back and forth, but I would LOVE if that were the "problem." If it starts doing it again, I'll take off the side of the case while it's still running and see if moving that cable makes it stop.
 
Well, so far it hasn't been making the noise lately. I don't know what to do. I don't want to mess with replacing it (and doing something wrong) if it's not really a problem, but I also don't want to do a full PC upgrade and THEN have it start up again. That would entail removing everything again to replace it.

I'm trying to wait to see if it will do it again so I can look inside while it's happening, but no "luck" so far. Advice?
 
Hmm, I'm beginning to think that the top case fan may be in the way of my Hyper 212 Evo cooler (I haven't started the upgrade yet). If that's the case, I may just end up removing that top fan altogether, in order to use the Evo. Either that or turn the Evo sideways so that it blows the air up to the top fan. Or again, just use the stock cooler!
 
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