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Questions about GIGABYTE products => Motherboards with AMD processors => Topic started by: Fred155 on February 17, 2020, 10:46:27 am

Title: TRX40 Master VRM / MOS fan noise
Post by: Fred155 on February 17, 2020, 10:46:27 am
Hello,

I have a Gigabyte TRX40 Master motherboard, which has been running great for about 8 weeks...

Today when I powered the system on, there was a high-pitched whirring noise which sounded quite sharp (very annoying sound).

I went into the bios, and individually changed the speed of all fans, until I narrowed it down to the VRM / MOS fan (a fan built into these motherboards).

I can't easily see this fan when I open up my case, so I'm not sure if I can "service" the fan in any way...

The fan typically runs at ~6000 rpm, which is normally reasonably quiet with a closed case, but now it's the loudest part of my pc at the moment.

I've temporarily disabled it through the bios, but I'd like a real fix.

Any ideas which particular heat-sink this fan is under?

Thanks
Title: Re: TRX40 Master VRM / MOS fan noise
Post by: shadowsports on February 17, 2020, 08:18:01 pm
Greetings,
I'm curious and will look into this.  Are you certain there is a fan that spins at 6,000 RPM? This doesn't sound correct.

**EDIT
I can't find anything in the manual about a VRM/MOS fan.  SMART Fan monitors VRM temp. I also don't know where they would have room to mount a fan on the VRM.  I haven't seen a TRX board yet. 

**Edit 2

There is no fan on the VRM. 16+3 phase with nano-carbon baseplate and 8mm heatpipe
(https://i.imgur.com/IdeldFC.png)

There is a 5cm fan on the NorthBridge

(https://i.imgur.com/cqjw1oT.png)
Title: Re: TRX40 Master VRM / MOS fan noise
Post by: Fred155 on February 18, 2020, 07:27:54 am
Thank you for responding so quickly... and for even looking into this!!!

I found a clip of someone taking the heatsink off in a youtube clip - https://youtu.be/SFxQNOGqZz0?t=975
At the 16:15 mark it shows the fan is actually under the io shield cover.
That looks to be a real pain to get to!!!

The fan does get to 6000rpm+ - here's a screenshot from someone else where it's at 4700rpm - https://ithardware.pl/admin/ckeditor/filemanager/userfiles/tomcug/2020/01/aorus/uefi_14.png (https://ithardware.pl/admin/ckeditor/filemanager/userfiles/tomcug/2020/01/aorus/uefi_14.png)

I think it's because the fan is so small, that it can spin that fast.

I can get a screenshot of my uefi tomorrow... but fan speeds aside, I need to attend to the noise it's making.

I'll be back and post an update tomorrow.

Cheers
Title: Re: TRX40 Master VRM / MOS fan noise
Post by: Fred155 on February 19, 2020, 10:41:49 am
Assuming I can get to the fan... Am I ok to apply some non-conductive lubricant, or am I better off trying to RMA the board, which might take weeks?

Another option might be some compressed air, if something is obstructing it.

Any other ideas appreciated.
Thanks

Attached pic from my uefi.
Title: Re: TRX40 Master VRM / MOS fan noise
Post by: shadowsports on February 21, 2020, 03:55:50 pm
Greetings and thanks,
Your articles and video are very helpful.  None of this is documented by Gigabyte that I can see.  Strange that they put the VRM/MOS fan under the cover that houses the backplate connections, but then again where else would they put it.  The video states the fan is capable of 10.5K RPM. 

In my opinion this is a questionable design as the fans are prone to failure, or screeching as in your case.  It's probably covered under warranty but as you said, you'll loose your board for a few weeks.  (For a fan)  This is not cool. 

I couldn't see the model number legibly, but you could probably source one yourself and replace.  This design alone would give me pause.  I don't care how great the board is, how flexible, powerful, over clock-able, etc.  This type of fan design will haunt every person who buys one of these boards at one point in their ownership.  Same for the chipset fan.

Beautiful board and fantastic performance, but inherent weakness that might cripple or render it un-useable with the burden of out of warranty replacement on the user.  I could never recommend this.  If I did, I would make sure that the person was aware that two points of failure exist.

If you look back now, this type of design hasn't been used in consumer MB's in about 12-15 years.  First it was heatsinks, then aftermarket fans for your north/south bride and video cards.  Then, GPU manufacturers figured out the potential of cards with coolers and what they could do.  Great things happened. 

I am a former Asus user who jumped ship after many (many) years.  I have never looked back and fully support Gigabyte.

Given the amount of work needed to disassemble, and the potential for downtime, I personally would skip this design.  Hope you find a workable solution.   
Title: Re: TRX40 Master VRM / MOS fan noise
Post by: Fred155 on February 22, 2020, 11:02:47 pm
I agree with your comments, however I really wanted this platform, and the majority of motherboards on the TRX40 platform have vrm fans, and all have chipset fans, so fan-less options are limited without some modding.

My "solution" is that I have manually set the fan curve in the uefi to not let the mos fan start until the vrm hits 60 degrees, which I'm hoping it will never hit now that I've installed 4x 140mm noctua case fans...

The case fans create a much lower noise and lower frequency than the mos fan, and are actually quite smooth / pleasant.

Thank you for your support shadowsports
Title: Re: TRX40 Master VRM / MOS fan noise
Post by: shadowsports on February 23, 2020, 01:46:16 am
Thanks Fred155,
The TRX40 is a good platform, no denying that.  I've just had one too many fans fail or go south to be comfortable with a design that relies on this type of cooling.  If you are not pushing the CPU and memory, the passive heatsink might do the job. These boards aren't exactly inexpensive, so you'll have to decide what your next steps will be.  Fix or wait and see.