Replacement Fan

[Marty Enerson]

Is there a spec for the built-in fan that I can replace with a Noctua fan?  My wife wants me to either make it quiet or turn it off.  I guess, can I replace it easily?  I haven't looked to see if everything is glued together or screwed together.

Also, is there a way I can set the fan to constantly run?  It comes on and goes off, then on, then off.  It is more noticeable just because of that.  I get it is tied to the CPU temp, but if I can get a quiet fan, then I can just have it run constantly.

[CamectArup]

Could you send me an audio recording of what the fan sounds like? I'm wondering if it's the regular hissing fan noise that is bothering your wife, or if the fan is making more noise than it should be. 

Replacing the fan does require some amount of comfort with electronics -- you need to remove and later replace the CPU heatsink. That's because the fan is inside a "duct" assembly that's attached to the heatsink.  It's all a matter of removing screws, but when you put the heatsink back, you need to make sure there's either enough of the original thermal paste there, or add some thermal paste to ensure that the heatsink is making good contact with the CPU. (Just to be clear: if your device starts malfunctioning after such a modification, this is not something we'll be able to help you with.) 

I'm not sure how easy it will be to find an equivalent fan. The fan is a small fan, about an inch square, and it blows air to the SIDE, not top to bottom. (The air flows through the fan, over the heatsink, and then through the duct which directs it to the case vent.  I'll send you a few pictures of the assembly and of the fan in email in case you still want to see what equivalent replacements you can find. 

Re: CPU temperature and fan cycling ... I'll check, but I'm fairly sure we don't have any software control over the fan that would allow us to force it to run continuously instead of being tied to CPU temperature. 

[Marty Enerson]

I don't think the fan makes more noise than it does with anyone elses.  The fan is small and small fans make noise.  The pictures helped out, since it is a drum fan, Noctua doesn't have a replacement for that.  It would be a hassle to replace too.

The only thing I could see doing is putting the hardware in a different case where I could put a bigger, quieter fan.  But again, that would be a hassle and I don't want to void my support yet.

I am thinking I just need to find a place for it away from my wife for now., :)

 Thanks

[Will Stillwell]

Yeah that is what I was thinking.  Placement.   Mine is in the living room on the floor actually under an end table.   Haven't moved it to the wiring closet yet.   I never hear it.  Also I think my laptop tends to make more noise than the Camect does.   

~Will

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[Daniel Felmoca]

Hi there, Did you ever figure out a solution?  My fan is pretty damn loud and it doesn't stay the same pitch/sound all the time.  

[CamectArup]

Perhaps not the solution you want, but getting more cameras might help -- If the cpu has enough load, the fan will run at full speed, and is usually quieter than if you have only a small number of cameras, and it won't change pitch, etc. Unfortunately, we don't have software control over the fan speed, so we can't force the fans to run at full speed. 

[Sarah]

Hi, Daniel. Piecing conversation together from a different thread, it sounds like you might have successfully replaced the fan. Can you provide any insight to what hardware you went with and any issues you ran into?

Thanks.

[Sarah Howell]

Thanks for the quick reply, very helpful. I'm not ready to void any warranties, yet, but I anticipate some fan work in my future. My husband has already banned the device from the office due to the fan noise. 

On Wed, Dec 30, 2020 at 7:47 PM DF <dfel...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Sarah.  I have successfully replaced the fan, and have not had any fan noise since.

As per Arup, I went with he recommended from Amazon. Here is the link :

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RNZF97F/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_VPs7FbT63B10P?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

It is not the same manufacturer as the original inside the unit, but it fits pretty good. 

The only issue, which was an easy fix, is that the connector is different. You would need to cut off the old connector and solder to the new fan. 

I have attached some pictures. Let me know if you have any more questions. 

Daniel

[CamectArup]

Just to make sure the record is clear :-) ... 

I wouldn't say I recommended that alternative fan -- I simply shared info that another user had shared with me, indicating that it had produced a successful result for him. :-)  

Needless to say, fan replacement carries some risk --- and the risk is 100% on the person doing the replacing. We haven't had enough experience with this to actually make a recommendation about it. 

Sarah: Are you also in the category of people who has only one or two cameras and thus it's the change in fan speeds that's actually making it much more annoying than if it just ran at a constant speed? A non-surgical way to resolve the problem might be to get another camera or two to add some load to the device. If you use indoor cameras, the Ezviz C1C 1080p is $20 on Amazon. 

(Of course that doesn't help if even a steady hissing sound will be annoying, but our experience is that fan noise is most frequently a problem for people who have only 1-2 cameras.)