M17x R2 Fans have become very loud

Hello Everyone,

I'm the happy owner of an M17xR2 (until now...) and I'm looking for some help. Hopefully some of you have had a similar problem.

The fans have become very loud to the point that it bother my colleagues
sitting in the same office. This has started about a week ago. I've cleaned
all the fans and slits wherever I could. And still no change.

I'm running Win 7 Ultimate 64 Bit SP1.
I'm using Bios A10. I've included a couple of screenshots with details
from HWiNFO64 in the hopes that it helps someone make a diagnose.

Regards from Bavaria
Mario

 

Hi Mario,

Your temps on your GPU are very high. If you haven't already, I'd open it up and see if there is dust clogging the vents. Usually this is due to large amounts of dust blocking the vents. Make sure you clean the fins on the heatsink as well.

If you've done all that then I highly recommend re-pasting the GPU with some quality thermal paste and replacing the thermal pads.

The fans are ramping up due to the high temps on the GPU so if you can get those temps lowered, the fans shouldn't ramp up as high and therefore shouldn't bother your colleagues any longer.

Also, what AMD driver are you using (sorry I couldn't tell from the screenshots). If you are using 12.3 I'd highly recommend downgrading, as there have been some issues with fans not spinning up properly on the secondary GPU (if you are running crossfire)

Good luck, let us know how it goes!

 

Greywolf,

thanks so much for the prompt response. Would you be able to point me
to instructions on cleaning the vents and heatsink fins?
Or are they here in the forum?

Regards,
Mario

 

Hello, Mario, welcome to NBR.

In order to reach the fans and the heatsinks you'll have to do some disassembling (especially for the video cards) but don't worry with some patiance there's nothing to worry about and it will be well worth it.

Take a look at these two teardown videos and follow the same steps to reach the fans and heatsinks. Use the manual as well and take your time.

M17x Teardown Video1 of 2 **READ SAFETY PRECAUTIONS PRIOR TO REPLACING PARTS** (Official Video)

M17x Teardown Part 2 of 2 **READ SAFETY PRECAUTIONS PRIOR TO REPLACING PARTS** (Official Video)

M17x R2 Service Manual & Documentation

 

Mario...If you've already cleaned out the vents, you need a repaste of the GPU's. Temps are too high as greywolf mentioned.

 

Hi,

thanks for the help! I'm going to replace the paste and the pads but it is going to take a while before I can do it. I live in the countryside in Bavaria and I was able to get thermal paste but nobody around had thermal pads so I'm ordering through Amazon.

Interestingly enough I did do the following: I opened up the laptop and cleaned the GPU fans with canned air and also cleaned out the GPU fins.
While I was cleaning out the fans I notice that when I blowed the air through one of the fans, that it rotated easily, as expected. The second fan did not rotate as expected. I tried rotating the fan with my finger tips and it is very difficult to turn.

After I reassembeled the laptop I looked at HWinfo64 and noticed that one of the GPU fans rotates much slower than the other. You can see in the attached screenshot. I also noticed that in my original post that the same GPU fan had a rotation speed of 0 RPM. That sort of point to the fact that one of the fans is not working correctly.

Does anyone have any experience with fan speeds? What are normal values?
And what about replacements: is Dell the only source?

On a separate note: I increased the RAM of my M17x R2 to 16 GB. Works like a charm. I highly recommend it!

Cheers,
Mario

 

Looks like a mechanical problem with the primary GPU's fan, needs to be inspected/repaired/replaced

 

Hi Mario,

Does indeed sound like you might need to replace the fan. I replaced my secondary GPU fan a few weeks ago for a similar reason (my fan simply stopped completely).

I purchased my fan from E-bay, and I think that is probably a much better option then trying to go through Dell. If you haven't already just grab the model number off the top of the fan (or in E-bay you can simply type Alienware GPU fan, or something along those line) and you should be able to find a number of sellers.

I paid $32 USD for my secondary GPU fan, so that's around the price you'd probably look to spend.

As far as replacement goes, it's a fairly simple process and the links Katalin provided should show how to take it all apart.

I would also recommend that since you are replacing the fan anyway, that you go ahead and repaste/re-pad the GPU as well. I had to repaste after I replaced the fan since as the card temps still were not as low as I'd like.

It's a lot of work, but I think you'll be very pleased with the results once you are done.

Keep us posted on how it goes.

 

Hi,

problem is solved thanks to the help of everyone who answered!

It was indeed the primary GPU fan. I ordered a new one, made the replacement and now everything is back to normal. My colleagues let me back into the office with my M17XR2. You ca barely hear it now.

Cheers,
Mario

 

Fantastic news Mario!

Glad you got it taken care of.

 

Good to hear, my R2 fans are pretty loud too, especially with an i7 Extreme.