GPU fan makes a loud clicking vibrating noise on my Predator Helios 300 (PH315-52)

Hello guys,
I just got the 2019 Predator Helios in January this year. I got it from Amazon (the main Amazon choice retailer). I've used it for some weeks now and then all of a sudden, 2 days ago, I start hearing a clicking sound from one of the fans. The laptop also vibrates like I have a hard drive in it but I don't have a mechanical hard drive installed on it yet, just an M.2 SSD. The GPU fan makes this noise whenever I turn the laptop on and the only way to shield the noise a little is to increase the fan speed to something above 3600rpm. It feels like the fans are brushing against the top or bottom of the covering.
I've only opened up the laptop to add an additional M.2 SSD and to have a look at the fan to see if anything got stuck, that's all.
Its been barely 2 months and I stay in Nigeria. Please how can this be fixed?
Does my warranty extend to Nigeria? If not, can I buy a new AeroBlade fan (not plastic) to replace it, and how do I go about that?
My model is the Predator Helios 300
Product Name: PH315-52
Serial Number: NHQ5MAA001XXXXXX
SNID: XXXXXX

Edited the content to hide sensitive information
Acer-Samuel

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MakeOutHill

i actually found a fix that worked for me without replacing anything, i think the fan come with no lubrication or something that make that bad rattling noise first you need to remove the fan from its pin after you unscrew the cover then pull the fan away from the pin its actually connected with just magnets watch this video for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewbMYAB0qwM then lubricate the pen with oil or if you have something better i done it with a car engine oil and it works really great i took a cotton ear swap and dipped it in the oil and lubricated the pen carefull not to get messy and touch also the hole between the magnets with the ear swap try to get the oil in but not much be sensitive and take your time be carefull when removing the 3D fan because it actually hard to pull this one out not like the CPU one its very easy and try not to damage the fan try to use all your finger to pull it out now put all the things back and try if this fixes any thing and please let me know if it does. and yeah another thing if you look closely you will see (or in my case) a red paint or a red something that was on the fan if you saw somethig like that try to get a razor or a knife and scratch this paint as i think it was doing some uneven weight on the fan when it spin and again try to be carefully and dont damage the fan and i washed the fan with water and soap because its stainless steel I think 🤔 then alcohol ofcourse and let it dry before putting it back together.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/rh/z3oskd4nz31n.jpg

Luchodefi

Hi @Uche! Have you solved the problem? I am having the same issue and I can’t find a solution, thanks!

Foga

Just started having the same issue. shipped mine to Nigeria too

Foga

Just started having the same issue. shipped mine to Nigeria too

youssefshawky

MakeOutHill thanks so much i made an account to just say thanks and it works perfectly, there's no fan noise after i cleaned andi a drop of machine oil on the fan

OLIO

hi i have the same problem but my gpu fan has stopped working fully. i dont know why? but i think i have warrenty

ArjunRanjan

I also had the same problem but I ignored it, now my GPU fan stopped spinning
if anyone has this proble don't ignore it like me

xapim

ArjunRanjan yes this issue shouldnt be ignored its a sign that might be broken blades or fan itself failing best case scenario would be just a wire touching the blades but unfortunately this is not always the case the best if still on warranty its to contact acer support asap and send it back but if out or warranty open it asap too check the issue

Ovain

ArjunRanjan said:

I also had the same problem but I ignored it, now my GPU fan stopped spinning
if anyone has this proble don't ignore it like me

dude what did u do about it??

Emergent

MakeOutHill said:

i actually found a fix that worked for me without replacing anything, i think the fan come with no lubrication or something that make that bad rattling noise first you need to remove the fan from its pin after you unscrew the cover then pull the fan away from the pin its actually connected with just magnets watch this video for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewbMYAB0qwM then lubricate the pen with oil or if you have something better i done it with a car engine oil and it works really great i took a cotton ear swap and dipped it in the oil and lubricated the pen carefull not to get messy and touch also the hole between the magnets with the ear swap try to get the oil in but not much be sensitive and take your time be carefull when removing the 3D fan because it actually hard to pull this one out not like the CPU one its very easy and try not to damage the fan try to use all your finger to pull it out now put all the things back and try if this fixes any thing and please let me know if it does. and yeah another thing if you look closely you will see (or in my case) a red paint or a red something that was on the fan if you saw somethig like that try to get a razor or a knife and scratch this paint as i think it was doing some uneven weight on the fan when it spin and again try to be carefully and dont damage the fan and i washed the fan with water and soap because its stainless steel I think 🤔 then alcohol ofcourse and let it dry before putting it back together.

This worked great. I pulled the cover off, and then the cover over the GPU fan. I was able to very carefully lift the fan by the blades to remove it. Once I had it off I used canned air to blow the dust off of everything in the area and the blades. Then I sprayed WD-40 into the pin area when it was away from the laptop and wiped off the excess.

(updated - shortly after I posted this the noise came back. I'm going to get some better lube from work and try again later.)

wiktor_k

MakeOutHill said:

i actually found a fix that worked for me without replacing anything, i think the fan come with no lubrication or something that make that bad rattling noise first you need to remove the fan from its pin after you unscrew the cover then pull the fan away from the pin its actually connected with just magnets watch this video for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewbMYAB0qwM then lubricate the pen with oil or if you have something better i done it with a car engine oil and it works really great i took a cotton ear swap and dipped it in the oil and lubricated the pen carefull not to get messy and touch also the hole between the magnets with the ear swap try to get the oil in but not much be sensitive and take your time be carefull when removing the 3D fan because it actually hard to pull this one out not like the CPU one its very easy and try not to damage the fan try to use all your finger to pull it out now put all the things back and try if this fixes any thing and please let me know if it does. and yeah another thing if you look closely you will see (or in my case) a red paint or a red something that was on the fan if you saw somethig like that try to get a razor or a knife and scratch this paint as i think it was doing some uneven weight on the fan when it spin and again try to be carefully and dont damage the fan and i washed the fan with water and soap because its stainless steel I think 🤔 then alcohol ofcourse and let it dry before putting it back together.

Hello.
I read your post and wanted to ask about something else related to this topic.

I had a Nitro 5 for a while and at low RPM the fan was emitting a 1-2kHz tone coming from the PWM control.

At high RPM the fan worked like a small jet engine

Here's the sound at lowest RPM:

https://vocaroo.com/1dtd3gep81Me

I returned it to the store and now I'm thinking of buying a Predator Helios 300: PH315-53-74G2

From the Acer support I received information that the cooling in the Helios 300 is different than in the Nitro 5 (question: is it better ot the same?)
I wonder if if I buy it, I will be able to improve it myself?
If the fan rotor can be removed so easily, maybe it will be good to put the some kind of epoxy resin at the windings and maybe this helps with their resonance and permanently block the "whistle"?
Unfortunately, it may turn out that the entire rotor with the fan blades emits these annoying sounds - then nothing can be done

Is this the kind of noise you are experiencing on your laptop?

thanks, wk

MitsuTachi

So, I bought a Predator Triton 300, 2 months ago and it has THE SAME PROBLEM.
I have contacted warranty center and they will be fixing it shortly,
What I want to know is that WHY is this happening ?? Seems like an issue with a lot of laptops.

turatark

OLIO said:

hi i have the same problem but my gpu fan has stopped working fully. i dont know why? but i think i have warrenty

I have noticed a weird seizing issue with the fans from time to time, that is very strange, It has happened to me twice now, both times after traveling, It feels like there is magnetic resistance going on preventing the fan from working correctly, even out of warenty you might be able to get a replacement part

ToteM97

MakeOutHill said:

i actually found a fix that worked for me without replacing anything, i think the fan come with no lubrication or something that make that bad rattling noise first you need to remove the fan from its pin after you unscrew the cover then pull the fan away from the pin its actually connected with just magnets watch this video for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewbMYAB0qwM then lubricate the pen with oil or if you have something better i done it with a car engine oil and it works really great i took a cotton ear swap and dipped it in the oil and lubricated the pen carefull not to get messy and touch also the hole between the magnets with the ear swap try to get the oil in but not much be sensitive and take your time be carefull when removing the 3D fan because it actually hard to pull this one out not like the CPU one its very easy and try not to damage the fan try to use all your finger to pull it out now put all the things back and try if this fixes any thing and please let me know if it does. and yeah another thing if you look closely you will see (or in my case) a red paint or a red something that was on the fan if you saw somethig like that try to get a razor or a knife and scratch this paint as i think it was doing some uneven weight on the fan when it spin and again try to be carefully and dont damage the fan and i washed the fan with water and soap because its stainless steel I think 🤔 then alcohol ofcourse and let it dry before putting it back together.

This actually works! Thanks! My fan was making a clicking noise and the area near the fan was vibrating which gave the impression that its blades were colliding with/brushing against some other small component while rotating. I thought that getting rid of the dust might help so I did just that. I dismantled the back panel and the fan component entirely, detached and washed the fan blades, got rid of all the dust inside the laptop, put everything back hoping the issue was fixed. But the fans became even more loud and were vibrating even more. I got worried that I may have damaged it. I dismantled everything again and inspected the fan very closely trying to figure out what was causing the noise. I pushed the blades up lightly thinking that they were brushing against the chip below them. Then I put everything back except for the back panel screws, just in case I needed to open everything again. The noise still persisted.

I googled the issue and finally found this acer community thread. This was my last resort and if this hadn't worked I was going to place an order for a replacement fan. I dismantled the fan and lifted the blades again from their socket. I dropped a couple drops of hair oil on a cloth and applied it to the pin of the blades. Then I dipped the tip of my thin screw driver in the oil and put it in the socket where the pin of fan blades are supposed to go. This lubricated the socket a little. Finally I put everything back and hoped for the best. And it worked! Finally a silent notebook after a long time. Thanks again!

I think the friction between the pin of the fan blades, and the socket was causing an imbalance in the planar movement of blades causing them to tilt to one side. Lubricating the pin and the socket corrected it.

Statakaka

MakeOutHill said:

i actually found a fix that worked for me without replacing anything, i think the fan come with no lubrication or something that make that bad rattling noise first you need to remove the fan from its pin after you unscrew the cover then pull the fan away from the pin its actually connected with just magnets watch this video for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewbMYAB0qwM then lubricate the pen with oil or if you have something better i done it with a car engine oil and it works really great i took a cotton ear swap and dipped it in the oil and lubricated the pen carefull not to get messy and touch also the hole between the magnets with the ear swap try to get the oil in but not much be sensitive and take your time be carefull when removing the 3D fan because it actually hard to pull this one out not like the CPU one its very easy and try not to damage the fan try to use all your finger to pull it out now put all the things back and try if this fixes any thing and please let me know if it does. and yeah another thing if you look closely you will see (or in my case) a red paint or a red something that was on the fan if you saw somethig like that try to get a razor or a knife and scratch this paint as i think it was doing some uneven weight on the fan when it spin and again try to be carefully and dont damage the fan and i washed the fan with water and soap because its stainless steel I think 🤔 then alcohol ofcourse and let it dry before putting it back together.