Corsair TX850 not quiet anymore

I've had this TX850 for about a year now I guess, maybe a little more. It's in a Silverstone Raven case, so it stands up vertically, and it's been flipped so it draws cool air from outside the case.

Recently it started making a sort of whispery ticking noise, like the fan blades bumping into a cotton ball with each rotation. Just loud enough to be noticeable anytime theres a silence in your game and very annoying. It's also more noticeable when it ramps up under load than it used to be.

Today I pulled it apart and oiled the 140mm Yate Loon fan with some 3-in-1 oil. Put it back together, and then flipped it back so its drawing air from inside the case, and not pressed against a fan grill anymore. I was hoping this would eliminate some of the woosh noise just from pure airflow, and also eliminate the ticking.

It stopped ticking for about an hour or two and then started back. And now I guess it's drawing hotter air from the mosfets around the cpu because it's ramping up earlier and louder than before.

Googling around I can't seem to find any fans that perform better/quieter than the [email protected] Yate Loon that's already in the psu.

Would it be dumb to use something like this? I really don't want to cook the psu.

Noiseblocker NB-BlackSilentPro PK-3 140mm x 25mm Ultra Quiet Fan - 1700 RPM - 27 dBA

Probably still under warranty, so there's always that option

The "warranty void if removed" sticker is long gone

edit: also I lost the black screw that goes in the middle of the warranty sticker (which is also black)

Yea that'll about do it for the warranty. I'm guessing you've tried cleaning everything inside with alcohol swaps? Seems like it's a heat issue. You could try manually setting fan speed?

I cleaned it up while I had it apart today. Now it's making a coil whine too, haha. I must have bumped some of the glue or something. Looking at either replacing the fan and reapplying that glue or replacing the unit with something beefier I guess.

Try sending Corsair an email.Tell them what happened and what you did to try to make it last long enough to get it warrantied.It cant hurt,they can only say no

Definitely worth a try.

I would check to make sure it isn't actually brushing a wire inside the PSU or something along those lines.

If Corsair denies your request for an RMA, I would recommend completely dismantling the fan (if you know how to do this without damaging anything) and cleaning out the fan hub and bearing area with cotton swabs/Q-tips. Then oil it again and reassemble.

Sometimes dirt or dust gets caught in the bearings (be it sleeve, ball, or whatever) and causes the fan to make more noise than usual.

Tech Tweaker said:

Sometimes dirt or dust gets caught in the bearings (be it sleeve, ball, or whatever) and causes the fan to make more noise than usual.

Click to expand...

It was awfully dusty in there, the dust filter on the psu area doesn't line up perfectly flush with the case. I'll give this a shot.

I took it apart again today. I took the fan completely apart as well.

The driveshaft has marks (lines) on it where it is being worn down faster in one little spot. The marks wrap almost around it, but not quite. Which explains why its a ticking type sound, its grinding on that spot with every rotation.

I assume this is due to the vertical mounting in Silverstone cases.

I oiled the crap out of it and put it back together, now I can only hear the sound when my head is near the case.

I'm gonna wait until it gets loud again and then replace the fan. Thanks for your help guys!

I guess the wobbling or grinding or whatever the hell it does, makes it deteriorate really fast. It got louder than all 4 of the 180mm penetrators on my mora3. Tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick

So I replaced it today. Yanked the 140mm "TriCool" fan out of my old Antec 300 in the closet. It has a high/med/low switch.

The psu controls the fan through voltage control I guess, so with the switch turned on high, this thing is dead silent. Quieter than the stock yate loon I'd say. 11 blades on the antec vs 7 blades on the YL.

For anyone else with a noisy psu fan, this was SUPER easy to do. Probably 15 minutes total to cut the wires, strip them, attach the 2-pin connector to where the 4 pin used to be on the Antec, grease it up real good, and then put it back together. Just be careful.