Hi all.... I have an early 2009 Mac Pro and I've determined that the fan noise I've been hearing is coming from the
ATI Radeon HD 2600 graphics card. What are my options for quelling the noise. I would describe it as intemittent and variable in volume... but none the less, its pretty loud a lot of the time! Thanks... Michael
Mac Pro Quad Core Intel Xeon / Macbook 2.4GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.8)
Hi there, Michael. Now, I'm no expert, but from my limited experience, there are 3 things you can do. 1-get some compressed air (canned or not), shut your Mac Pro down, take off the side panel, touch the side, and blow all the dust you can out of that card. 2- lubricate the bearings on the fan. I don't know how to do that exactly. I used some "chain lube" for my mountain bike which seemed to help some. There's some kind of dry stuff you can use, which might work. Again, shut your Pro down, extract the graphics card, carefully take off the sticker covering the shaft on the fan, lubricate, put sticker back on, replace card, and finally 3-replace the fan. find out the model #, get a new one, and swap the new for the old.
Your mileage may vary
John Brine
Once you have the dust out, Options include:
• replace the fan.
• Lubricate the fan bearing with light machine oil, e.g., 10-weight oil.
(WD40 seems appealing, but it is essentially all solvent and will all flash off eventually)
(Wheel bearing grease or Axle grease is too heavy)
(White Lube is too heavy)
EDIT: (Chain Lube is extremely slippery, but may not be light enough to do this job adequately)
• replace the card, which would improve performance as well.
EDIT: (Apple-firware 5770 works in all Mac Pro models. Drivers are in 10.6.5 and later.)
John... Thanks. All reasonable and excellent suggestions. I'll start with the simplest one first! ;-)... and report back.
Grant... thanks as well. Can the fan alone be replaced on the card?
I have no idea.
In the past, you could look up "utility" fans for a computer cabinet from the part number sticker on the fan itself. This often gave you a link to industrial fans available ONLY in the handy 1000-pack. If they managed to blurt out the air moved in Cubic Feet per Minute, you could use that to find replacement fans of the same size, prefereably with same of lower sound generated in deci Bells.
Because of custom housings, Graphics card fans may be a specially-built item rather than a standard commodity part, so replacements (if any) may only be available from the manufacturer.
ATI Radeon HD 2600 Fan Noise!
