x600 fan problem

[MRCL]

Well i have a Sapphire Radeon x600 Pro (http://geizhals.at/img/pix/107369.jpg).

Problem is, that the fan makes odd noises.. like it would scratch or grind on something.
Yesterday I seperated the fan from the card, freeing it a bit from the dust, but I could not spot any point of impact between rotating fan and its case. So I put the card back into the slot, and the noise was there again. Well I tried to stop the fan for a second of time and release it again, but wouldnt work. Or it worked, but it came again.

This sucks, because I just bought a nicely quiet CPU cooler, but now the GPU fan is louder than the old CPU stock cooler. And you cant work, the grinding sound really is disturbing:banghead:

Now, anyone an idea about what this could be? And how to solve the problem ithout buying a new card?

Many thanks in advance:respect:

[psyko12]

That happened to me when my gpu fan was dieing old fx5200, anyway it could be the fins of the fan hitting a fin of the heatsink thus causing the grinding sound or a bearing gave up... check to see if its clogged with dust, bent heatsink fins.

[oli_ramsay]

I would just get a cheap new card like 8400GT or 3450.

[Pyeti]

could just be the fan reaching the end of its life

[MRCL]

Fins of the fan dont hit anything of the "heatsink", I checked that... and its a cheap fan, so checking for bearings would mean destroying the fan... hmm the cards is pretty much exactly three years old, so it could be the dying thing. Maybe I realy should buy a "gap card" till i upgrade.

[psyko12]

Could be the fan is dieing.. Better find a replacement for it..

[MRCL]

Yeh... think Ill go with a Radeon 2600 Pro... enough good for a replacement card and not to expensive. Damn you, cheap components!