Multiple fan failures on my R9 280x's

[DarkKnight]

I'm seeing a lot of fan failures on my cards. I've had to RMA two cards that both had fan failures and stopped hashing correctly. It's taken two months to finally get one advanced RMA, and I had to send the other card BACK to the factory again because it was returned to me with the same bad fans I sent it in for, plus it won't hash without crashing.

I have (15) Asus R9 280x's, and today I've discovered that FOUR more fans have failed on 4 other cards. That makes for a total 9 fan failures out of the 30 fans on my Asus cards. The failures aren't limited to a specific rig, or a particular fan. 3 of my rigs were built with Asus cards, and have seen failures in cards in each rig.

They either spin slow, or are so stiff they don't spin at all. There is so little spare lubrication in the fan bearings they are dying left and right. I've been trying to find replacements from anywhere I can get them, but the size isn't common (93mm?), and the Asus store doesn't carry them or won't sell them to me.

OTOH, I have 5 cards from another manufacturer that have been running without issue, and no fan failures. The sample size is smaller, but I saw my first fan failure on an Asus card within two weeks of using them. If there are any Asus reps that follow these forums, I could really use some assistance. With the headaches of just dealing with two RMAs, I really don't want to send these cards back unless they stop hashing. I've put about $9K into Asus cards, and with the warranty service being what it is, I'm seriously regretting my choice.

[Raja]

Drop Cl-jolene@asus.com with Cl-mark@ASUS.com cc'd and have them help out with the RMA. Mention I sent you, I'd like to get these cards back to Cali so that we can examine what is going wrong.

-Raja

[donsnik]

Raja@ASUS wrote:
Drop Cl-jolene@asus.com with Cl-mark@ASUS.com cc'd and have them help out with the RMA. Mention I sent you, I'd like to get these cards back to Cali so that we can examine what is going wrong.

-Raja

I also got a few of these babies, and one of mine just died. since day 1 i've had coil whine on the card when the fans exceeded 60% fanspeed and where under 72 degrees celcius. once it passed 72 and up to 80 degrees the coil whine would stop.

the card would also just stop, mining so i "swapped" it out with another(that i had in my gaming rig). and put it in my gaming rig. where it died after i finnished a 2 hour gaming run on battlefield 4

the computer starts up. but the card does not give me a screen image, ( igpu active) the Matrix logo is showing heavy/high load when i power the computer up.

i've been running this matrix card at around 70 degrees celcius at around 80% fanspeed.

what to do?! *from Norway*

[DarkKnight]

I've been asked to provide a video of the fans failing. I've been putting it off because it will require me to take two of my rigs offline to make it happen. I'm doing some construction to relocate them to another area, and will make a video then.

[DarkKnight]

I pulled down one of the systems for maintenance yesterday, and took the time to make the requested video of the fans malfunctioning. I have emailed this to Mark. Raja, if you'd like a copy of the video, I will PM you a link as well.

It's clear to me that the problem is most likely the lubricant. It's breaking down under extended runs at operating temp 65*c-75*c, and getting gummy. The bearings then wear out, and fans get very resistant to turning or become rotationally unbalanced due to sleeve wear. I've seen this problem in 20" box fans that I've used for a few years when they wear out. It's always the same thing, it works mostly fine until you let it cool down and the lube thickens outside of the sleeve, then you can't start it back up. I've never had this problem with PC fans, even ones that run 24/7 for *years* on my file server.

The identical rig that is using different 280x's runs in the same temp range in the same environment, and their fans (3 per card) aren't failing, even running @ 1000rpms higher (~4k vs ~3k for Asus).

[Klaian]

This just happen to my 280x as well. The kicker is one of the blades broke off where was off balanced. I now have a pc down for 10 days or longer.

[DarkKnight]

Yeah, good luck getting that fixed under warranty. They declare that as "physical damage" and void the warranty over a damned mechanical defect that caused the blade to snap in the first place. Convenient.

[Klaian]

I have decided not to send the card to Asus. I figure with the cost of shipping and probably the repairs that I am going to invest in a water block for it. Probably easier, less stressful, and faster.

[DarkKnight]

It's roughly $125 for a waterblock vs about $30 for shipping. I had looked at an EK waterblock for mine, but I was faced with either trying to push through 5 GPUs or run multiple circuits. Neither option seemed particularly appealing. I have read that it may require a shim.


Please let me know how it goes.

[cortez]

I've been also reading about fan failings on ASUS 280X DC2's on other forums by multiple users.

It seems that whole series is faulty, they removed those products in my area from shop listings.