The fan cooling my graphics card is extremely loud, even after cleaning it and making sure it had room to move. Anyone know anything I can do about it, short of buying a new graphics card? It's an Nvidia GeForce 5200 FX.
Well, I believe that's pretty far out of date to alot of todays things. It might help if you opened the case to let alot of air in instead of the hot air staying inside. From what i can conclude, it's pretty much due to the fact that it's an old card trying to do today's things. (Meaning it has to do alot more to keep up) You could reduce the amount of backround processes or something like that. Other than that, I'm just as good as help as a person looking at the problem and saying "this is probably where the issue is"
I've only started having problems with it over the past couple weeks, and I was running games on the card at full-settings with no problems at all. Granted, none of them are particularly new, but still. It's really annoying, and the only thing I can think to do is either replace the fan or buy a new card. I'll point out that it's in a well-ventilated area, too.
Windows XP. And no. It's all the same stuff I've been running for a couple years now. The graphics card was new the summer of 2005, so I really don't think its age would be too big a problem, since it works fine. It's just the fan that's ridiculously loud.
It could be that your system doesn't have a lot of ventilation so your computer so your fan is working overtime (even after cleaning it) to keep your system cool. It's also possible that the case is not the best at ventilation in its setup so that would also negate your computer being in a well ventilated area.
Hmm. I've got three PCI slots in my computer. The top one's got a USB card in it, since my old computer didn't have enough USB slots. I don't really need it, but I know about the time I get rid of it, I'll need it. The second one's got my graphics card in it, and the third slot (on the bottom) is empty. I took out the metal... um, blocky thing, so there's basically a big ol' hole in the back of my computer (which is why so much dust got in my computer to begin with), and there's lots of space (about an inch and a half) under my graphics card for the fan to work with, as well as that "hole." If ventilation is the problem, I may as well get a new card, then, huh?
Possibility is buying another card, but buying a higher end one. Your card is a low to midrange card (although it scores well in graphical performance for its value). Those cards tend to be louder. From a quick google search, it does seem that a complaint this card got was that it was kind of loud.
Or if your really cash-stricken, you could buy a new case. Also note that if you got a ruler out and measured out an inch and a half, that really isn't a whole lot of space for air to circulate. As Grego Said, A bad set up can ruin a well ventilated area as the air still has no where to go. If Ventilation is the problem, a new case should help, along with a side fans. A new card could fix the problem as said earlier, bad setup( of motherboard) could negate how "Efficiently quiet" it can be.
Although if he's going to go out of his way for a new case, he might just start from scratch (use the useful parts from the current computer) like the HD (RAM and processor probably too old). The prices for new stuff is pretty damn cheap, and old stuff is getting cheaper since its not in high demand any longer.
I don't have the expertise to put all this shit back together properly. I have a hard enough time cleaning it out, let alone building a new computer. I think I'll look into buying a new card. The thing is, I don't ever plan on playing a super-high-end video game on my computer, so I don't need a $4000 card. I like my card, it does its job well.