Maximum PC

So last night my NB Fan (EVGA X58 SLI) starting making a loud whining/grinding noise. In EVGA E-leet the RPM dropped to 3300 from 4800, randomly it will get back up to full speed. I would say about 70% of the time its making the loud noise and 30% of the time it returns to full speed and becomes quiet.

As this was happening, both my monitors starting doing weird things. First, my 2nd monitor (19" CRT) turned off and say "Unsupported Frequency Error" or something like that. Shortly after, my Main montior (25" LCD) screen turned tan/artifacty and I couldn't fix it, so I had to restart manually. I restarted a couple times, and the NB Fan would still start out slow then get up to normal RPM and be quiet again. Then randomly I got the "Improper Frequency Error" on the LCD Monitor.

These issues occured while my GPU (Radeon HD 5870) was idle @ 33 Degrees Celcius, and games like Diablo 3/WoW/LoL still work fine, with load temps in the 50s, so I don't think its a GPU cooling issue.


1st Question(s): Is there a program that can monitor my NB temps so I can see if they are getting super hot? What are extreme temps? Will the NB live without a fan?

2nd Question: Would the NB fan issue affect my monitors like it seems to?

3rd Question (if 2nd question is no): Any way I can figure out if my GPU is dying?

Looking for any suggestions, I am looking for a replacement fan for the EVGA X58 SLI atm.

I haven't tried updating to the new catalyst 12.6 drivers yet. But I uninstalled all my drivers before updating last time.

If you need anymore info from me please feel free to ask.

I am running the 12.7 beta drivers and they work well for me. I am running two 6970s in crossfire or single as the situation demands. Some programs won't run with two enabled.

Did you uninstall the Nvidia drivers?

When you uninstalled the ati driver did you shut off the anti-virus before doing so....and did you reboot and shut of the anti-virus again before installing the new driver?

When you uninstalled the drivers did you delete the nvidia and ati folders, then empty the recycle bin?

Did you use Ccleaner to clean the registry when you were done uninstalling the drivers?

Nasty

I did use Ccleaner to clean the registry and I deleted every ATI folder I could find on my computer as well. I will try reinstalling drivers with anti-virus off. Sometimes it will tell me to update my drivers, saying I am using Version 11.5 even tho 12.5 was installed.

Just wondering if my NB fan dies, will my NB live with just a passive heatsink? And maybe a program that can monitor NB temps.

No, replace the fan or you will get corruption in your data. I replaced a north-bridge fan with a tiny muffin fan from Radio Shack and it still runs today.

Nasty