The fan of dell gx280 producing a loud sound, how I fix it ?

OK, I use GX280s as home servers and ran into a similar problem with one of them...

The problem may be serious and not worth fixing (motherboard).

Turn power on
Fan(s) come on full power, sounds like a jet engine, or eventually gets that loud.

See if you power light has gone amber.

You get nothing on the screen, no Dell splash screen/post, nothing.

This is what I posted a while back concerning the above. Obviously I cannot bee 100% certain as I do not have your box in front of me. This a known issue.

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See if the power light goes amber after power up. I had (have - still siting in my basement) one that did same. Power up, fans go full blast . Power light goes and stays amber. This is USUALLY caused by bad capacitors on the mother board. Known GX280 problem going back. If you look on the motherboard, the capacitors should have flat tops and not leaking. If the are rounded or leaking, the MB has probably gone bad. Bottom line this is usually a defective motherboard. Mine was a bad caps issue, you issue could be different, but it does sound like the motherboard.

You can google "gx280 solid amber light loud fan" and see the issues. Here is one link.

http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/111476-gx280-solid-amber-light-and-loud-fan

I just replaced one of my old 280s with a dual core Dell Precision 390 workstation for about $118, and that included shipping, off of ebay.

There probably is another fan, located inside the power-supply, that is making all the noise.

Borrow a stethoscope from a nurse or doctor, and listen to the noise, to pinpoint "where" on the computer that is the origin of the noise.

May be serious. See if the power light goes amber after power up. I had (have - still siting in my basement) one that did same. Power up, fans sound like 747 taking off. Power light goes and stays amber. This is USUALLY caused by bad capacitors on the mother board. Known GX280 problem going back. If you look on the motherboard, the capacitors should have flat tops and not leaking. If the are rounded or leaking, the MB has probably gone bad.

I obviously can not be 100% sure about this as the unit is not here.

You can google "gx280 solid amber light loud fan" and see the issues. Here is one such link.

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/p/19253544/19414291.aspx

The fan bearings may be going bad. Variable speeds are normal as the fan adjusts to the cooling requirements.

More than likely your fan needs to be replaced. These small form factor Dells are know for problems like this. Warning! Do NOT attempt to blow out the CPU fan with canned air, as this will likely lodge dust particles in the axis of the fan causing it to drag and become louder!

It sounds as if your power supply is cooked because the cooling fan has been running slow

Only way you can check is to take a panel off and hook a voltmeter into the 12v & 5V supplies on the Hard Drive and the Floppy Drive.

You may have a problem with your power supply(the loud fan noise) and eventually it may get too hot and will cause problems like not fully booting.

Check for updated drivers and install if available. If that does not resolve the issue completely remove the card and any software and drivers and do a clean install with the new drivers

Unfortunately this seems so be a motherboard problem, Dell's solution is to replace the motherboard I'm not sure there's much you can do at home or work to fix this - if it's still under warranty get dell to replace the motherboard if not im afraid its the bin for it sorry

Go here and download this program.

http://www.download.com/SpeedFan/3000-2094_4-10067444.html

This program will control your fan speed based on your cpu temp. It's main use is to quiet fan noise.