Buzzing fan

AmigaOne X5000 platform specific issues.
User avatar
Raziel
Posts: 1170
Joined: Sat Jun 18, 2011 4:00 pm
Location: a dying planet

Re: Buzzing fan

Post by Raziel »

xenic wrote:
broadblues wrote:
If I open my X5000 case and press very lightly on the center of the fan with the tip if a pencil, the buzzing stops until I release the pressure on the fan.
So your fan mount is vibrating and the pencil stops it. Could be you simply need to (gentley) tighten some screws?
I'm not pressing on the fan frame. I'm pressing very lightly on the center of the spinning fan with the tip of the pencil. The screws are tight. The buzzing sound doesn't sound like typical fan vibration noise. It's louder and stops after the X5000 has been on for several minutes. If I turn the computer off and turn it back on after a few seconds, there is no buzzing when it starts back up. If I wait for 10+ minutes to turn the system back on, I'll get the temporary buzzing again. As I said in my first post, I could be wrong about what caused the problem; it could just be an unusual part failure. Based on the specs, it is a better fan than most of the ones I found online.
Sounds to me like a "heat" problem.
Your fan case gets warm and the buzzing is gone.
If it's cold the buzzing is there.

Not sure what you could try...maybe the opposite of what broadblues suggested, loose the screws a tid bit, so the fan case won't be so "stressed" as it seems it is now.
Just an idea...
People are dying.
Entire ecosystems are collapsing.
We are in the beginning of a mass extinction.
And all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth.
How dare you!
– Greta Thunberg
Roland
Posts: 824
Joined: Tue May 02, 2017 7:23 am

Re: Buzzing fan

Post by Roland »

xenic wrote: I'm not pressing on the fan frame. I'm pressing very lightly on the center of the spinning fan with the tip of the pencil. The screws are tight. The buzzing sound doesn't sound like typical fan vibration noise. It's louder and stops after the X5000 has been on for several minutes. If I turn the computer off and turn it back on after a few seconds, there is no buzzing when it starts back up. If I wait for 10+ minutes to turn the system back on, I'll get the temporary buzzing again. As I said in my first post, I could be wrong about what caused the problem; it could just be an unusual part failure. Based on the specs, it is a better fan than most of the ones I found online.
The fan of my new Cyrus+ (which was recently sent me as a replacement for a defective board) behaved exactly similar way during the couple of days I had opportunity to test it. That is, after a cold boot buzzing which dissappeared after a few minutes. If I turned it off, and after a short delay again on, no buzzing.

I'm not sure if the replacement board (and the fan on it) was brand new (the serial number was much lower than that of the original board), but my first thought was that maybe it has been unused for a long time and the fan needs some use to get it's bearings run smoothly.

When I'm again back to my X5000, I will continue testing and maybe also try your pencil trick.
- Roland -
User avatar
tonyw
AmigaOS Core Developer
AmigaOS Core Developer
Posts: 1479
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2011 1:36 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Buzzing fan

Post by tonyw »

xenic wrote:The buzzing sound doesn't sound like typical fan vibration noise. It's louder and stops after the X5000 has been on for several minutes.
That is the typical noise that a worn sleeve bearing makes. You can imagine the shaft in the hole of the bearing, but over time the shaft has worn the hole bigger and now the shaft can rattle around in the hole. The "buzzing" noise is the sound of the shaft rotating around the inside of the hole. It's had it, it's dead, it's an ex-fan. Throw it out and get a new one.
cheers
tony
Roland
Posts: 824
Joined: Tue May 02, 2017 7:23 am

Re: Buzzing fan

Post by Roland »

Would this be a suitable replament fan for Silent 6:

http://noctua.at/en/products/fan/nf-a6x ... cification

As far as I know Noctuas have a very high quality, as indicated by the 6 year warranty and 150000 MTBF (3x longer than Silent 6). They are of course more expensive, but the long lifetime should compansate that.

It is, however, clearly thicker (25 mm) than the Silent 6, does that matter? Would the airflow be be sufficient for Cyrus also with the low-noise adapters?

BTW, I find it quite strange if there are already Silent 6 fans run to 'dead' as the X5000 has been on market hardly a year! Does not tell good about the quality, and IMHO they should be replaced by A-Eon as a free warranty repair.
- Roland -
xenic
Posts: 1185
Joined: Sun Jun 19, 2011 12:06 am

Re: Buzzing fan

Post by xenic »

tonyw wrote: That is the typical noise that a worn sleeve bearing makes. You can imagine the shaft in the hole of the bearing, but over time the shaft has worn the hole bigger and now the shaft can rattle around in the hole. The "buzzing" noise is the sound of the shaft rotating around the inside of the hole. It's had it, it's dead, it's an ex-fan. Throw it out and get a new one.
I've already purchased an exact replacement for the fan but haven't installed it yet. Your statement and the fact that Roland experienced the same problem seem to support my hypothesis that a case fan designed to operate in an unrestricted air flow situation may not be suitable for the X5000 CPU heatsink; which has short wide fins that might restrict the airflow too much. Most of the CPU fans I searched for come attached to a heatsink that has thinner/taller fins. Since it's difficult to find a 60mm CPU fan/heatsink, I purchased a replacement fan and will see how long it lasts. If it develops the same problem, I'll try adding some spacers.
AmigaOne X1000 with 2GB memory - OS4.1 FE
Roland
Posts: 824
Joined: Tue May 02, 2017 7:23 am

Re: Buzzing fan

Post by Roland »

xenic wrote: I've already purchased an exact replacement for the fan but haven't installed it yet. Your statement and the fact that Roland experienced the same problem seem to support my hypothesis that a case fan designed to operate in an unrestricted air flow situation may not be suitable for the X5000 CPU heatsink; which has short wide fins that might restrict the airflow too much. Most of the CPU fans I searched for come attached to a heatsink that has thinner/taller fins. Since it's difficult to find a 60mm CPU fan/heatsink, I purchased a replacement fan and will see how long it lasts. If it develops the same problem, I'll try adding some spacers.
How long had you owned your X5000 when this problem appeared first time? Can you give some rough estimate how many hours your machine had been on, in total?
- Roland -
xenic
Posts: 1185
Joined: Sun Jun 19, 2011 12:06 am

Re: Buzzing fan

Post by xenic »

Roland wrote: How long had you owned your X5000 when this problem appeared first time? Can you give some rough estimate how many hours your machine had been on, in total?
I've had my X5000 for 3 and a half months and the fan problem started at 3 months. I can only estimate how many total hours the computer has been on at 500 to 600 hours.

The Silent 6 has a "Hydro dynamic bearing" and a decreased viscosity or fluid expansion due to warming when running for several minutes might explain why the buzzing stops after a few minutes.
AmigaOne X1000 with 2GB memory - OS4.1 FE
User avatar
daveyw
Posts: 252
Joined: Mon Sep 12, 2011 7:44 pm

Re: Buzzing fan

Post by daveyw »

JamesFelix wrote: The MCU on the X5000 will shutdown the board if the CPU get near to its critical temperature.
Hmmm... I have had a few mysterious shutdowns lately, and we're still in Spring. My X5000 has just powered off. Once when I was using it, and other times I left it on overnight and woke up and it was off.

Hope its not overheating already. It gets quite sticky in Auckland in February, that's when I was always most worried about my A1XE.
Roland
Posts: 824
Joined: Tue May 02, 2017 7:23 am

Re: Buzzing fan

Post by Roland »

xenic wrote:I've had my X5000 for 3 and a half months and the fan problem started at 3 months. I can only estimate how many total hours the computer has been on at 500 to 600 hours.
So, a very short time... It is imppossible that the fan would already be worn out, unless there was some problem from the beginning. I think only a beta tester who has by now run his/her machine for several years could normally hit this problem.
- Roland -
Roland
Posts: 824
Joined: Tue May 02, 2017 7:23 am

Re: Buzzing fan

Post by Roland »

daveyw wrote:
JamesFelix wrote: The MCU on the X5000 will shutdown the board if the CPU get near to its critical temperature.
Hmmm... I have had a few mysterious shutdowns lately, and we're still in Spring. My X5000 has just powered off. Once when I was using it, and other times I left it on overnight and woke up and it was off.

Hope its not overheating already. It gets quite sticky in Auckland in February, that's when I was always most worried about my A1XE.
The problem could also be in the speed regulation of the fan. Have you followed whether your fan speeds up when the CPU load rises? One thing to try is to connect your fan directly to the power supply (12V), so that it is running constantly at full speed. If that solves the problem, then there is some problem with the voltage regulation.
- Roland -
Post Reply