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fan problem on NVIDIA GeForce

I bought this graphics card for my HP Pavilion desktop (p6319f), Win 7 Pro.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814134128&cm_re=geforce_9500_gt-_-14-134-128-_-Product

It worked for a few months and then the fan on the graphics card started to vibrate and make grinding noises. This problem would come and go and kept getting worse. It got to a point where the fan would slow down to less than one turn per second and just spin very slowly and only hum quietly. If I allowed that to go on for even one minute, the game performance went down, the "frames per second" in StarCraft II would plummet to 5 or less. If I gently pressed the center of the fan with a pencil, it would stop and then start spinning at high speed. Sometimes that would fix the problem for a while and sometimes it would start vibrating again and slow down. Eventually it got so bad that tapping or pressing the fan would not help at all. It also seemed that turning the computer off for a couple of hours and turning it back on allowed the card to work for some time before failing. This method also stopped working eventually.

I contacted the manufacturer and sent it in. They claimed they could not reproduce the problem in their lab. They refused to replace the fan, even for a fee, and send my unit back to me, saying that my motherboard is the problem.

Question
Is this possible that my motherboard could create the above conditions? I tried updating motherboard drivers and the card drivers with no improvement. Is the manufacturer right, or are they making this up?
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detail_seeker
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detail_seeker
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Kent DyerIT Security Analyst SeniorCommented:
If it was working fine and then started grinding..  It could be a number of things: dust, smoke, anything..  If the manufacturer is unable to reproduce the issue: you have really two options: (1) try another slot on the motherboard..  (2) Try another motherboard - if you have a kid's or wife's computer or something like a Fry's Electronics around..  Another issue that comes to mind is your power supply rated to take on a high-end video card?

HTH,

Kent
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nobusCommented:
post the model of the fan, we may be able to find one to repalce it
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detail_seekerAuthor Commented:
There isn't really a model number on the fan, but I'm attaching pictures. I also visited the Arctic website, but found nothing resembling my fan. If there is a similar fan out there, I will gladly strap it on to see if it works. Thank you.
IMAG0392.jpg
IMAG0393.jpg
IMAG0394.jpg
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nobusCommented:
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detail_seekerAuthor Commented:
Thank you for the suggestions. The steps for lubricating the bearing are quite interesting. I'd have to defer those until my warranty runs out, as they suggest pulling off the sticker. I looked over the fans at the links and didn't find one that was quite perfect.

I would like to put my attempts at fixing it on hold for a week or two. In a last ditch effort to get warranty help, I had filed a negative review on newegg.com for that card and I also asked newegg staff to help me. One of the above seems to have helped, because the manufacturer, ECS, contacted me and offered to replace the card with a new one. If they do as promised, I will note and close this case.

One way or the other, I would still like to know if a motherboard can cause such fan behavior, or were the techs at ECS wrong.
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nobusCommented:
there is always a possibility of incompatibility between hardware, you can google for such problems on the net
i would start by updating the motherboard drivers first, since they "They claimed they could not reproduce the problem in their lab"

here they are; put in the OS you use  first :
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&tmp_geoLoc=true&product=4120658
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detail_seekerAuthor Commented:
As suggested, I tried the card in a different motherboard. I installed it in a Dell desktop and it behaved the same. It was vibrating, grinding and making noise. I'm convinced it's the card, regardless of whether a motherboard could have caused such issues. I'm shipping the card back to ECS today for replacement.
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nobusCommented:
seems the best you can do
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