I got the rattling to stop!!! (fix...read)

[WardC]

Well, this problem that I thought was coming from the Radeon 4870 fan was really coming from the lower intake fan on my Mac Pro. The rattling noise was coming from this fan itself, and the Radeon 4870 was actually running siltent the whole time. This is probably why people with the X1900 and older Mac Pros have been reporting the same issue.

The fix...this has actually solved the problem for me, my Mac Pro is running siltent now: I downloaded SMC Fan Control, then I increased the speed on my INTAKE fan to max, 2800rpm. I let the fan run at max for one minute, I had an idea that this would cause the fan to work out the kinks if it had any. Then I returned the fan speed to normal, and the problem has been gone for the past 15 minutes. I hope this was the permenant fix to the problem, and I hope this bit of insight will help somebody else with this same fan rattle problem. The problem is quite annoying, yet seems to be a common problem on the Mac Pro.

You can download SMC Fan Control 2.2.2 (Snow Leopard compatible) here:

http://www.conscius.de/smcfancontrol_2_2_2.zip

Hope that this can help somebody!!

 

[WardC]

Well, the rattling came back @ 800rpm, I have increased my fan speed to 1050rpm and this has appeared to fix the problem...for now.

 

[Major Reeves]

Well, the rattling came back @ 800rpm, I have increased my fan speed to 1050rpm and this has appeared to fix the problem...for now.

I think that the fan may be somehow loose or defective given that it rattles at low rpm's.

 

[Washac]

Hi Ya


What can/could happens is this.

Fans collect dust, they can and do collect dust in an uneven way more on one fan
blade than another. Fan then runs out of whack so to speak, fan then rattles.

Turning the fan speeds up for a bit can and will get rid of dust from the fan blades
not all of it but enough to settle the fan back down.

 

[AppleNewton]

i'd simply get the fan replaced.

when i had my 2006 Mac Pro with the x1900 i only rarely heard a slight "fan" noise and it was the x1900 but when you clean that out its silent.

i think the bearing the fan is going bad, ive heard it similar noises from macbook & macbook pro fans.
when fixing them i tried the same method, boosting the fan RPM but in reality the fan needs to be serviced. (that is if there is no dust, etc clogging it).