Steam deck Fan vibration issue

[YesPider]

Hi, quick question for the steam deck owners: does anyone feel vibration coming of the fan while holding the steam deck? I can really feel the fan vibration when its on. (Especially when it’s on max)
It also happens when the speakers are at a high volume, I can feel the vibrations of the explosions or the voices, I don't know if my steam deck is very weak or it's something normal and I'm giving it a lot of importance.
Please let me know. Thanks

[jeanpaulsamson]

Interesting that you should mention this. I've had my Steam Deck for about seven months now. It has the original Delta model cooling fan installed, the one that makes a high-pitched whine on top of the usual air whooshing sound. I decided I could live with it up to this point.

But in the last week, the fan has started making a moderately loud, lower-pitched buzzing noise. The faster it spins, the higher the frequency of the buzz. This new buzz is due to fan vibration. If I lie my Steam Deck down on a hard surface, you can hear the buzz carry through to that surface. So it seems my fan, which is supposed to be symmetric and balanced, is starting to malfunction.

I don't recall my Steam Deck feeling like it was vibrating before this. I'll be looking into buying a replacement fan from iFixit rather than going through the time-intensive hassle of getting Valve to fix it for free under warranty.

[Marlock]

Someone found out a quick and easy fix for the whiny Delta fan:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/uckns3/how_i_fixed_my_whiny_delta_fan_with_electrical/

All you need is common electrical tape, and it doesn't harm thermals in any way!

Valve themselves started shipping new units with a similar fix (engineered foam).

The buzz may be the fan bearing becoming less tight... this may eventually lead to it failing to spin, but the duct tape fix probably helps reduce it too.

[Milan]

As my Deck originally has Delta fan, I ordered Huaying fan from iFixit to "enhance" it.

After I replaced Delta with Huaying I noticed that Steam Deck is vibrating at high fan speeds.

I tried to tighten screws and I also tried to loosen screws, but it the vibration persisted.

Eventually I've put Delta back. I didn't notice a difference in acoustics. I suppose it's there, but I would probably need to compare side by side to notice it.

But I definitely noticed the vibration when Huaying fan is used. And it's much more displeasing than difference in acoustics.

Please note that I sitll didn't contacted iFixit to hear their comment.

But it would be very helpful if other could people check what fan they have and if the Deck is vibrating at high fan speeds. Also if their fan is originally Huaying or they manually replaced Delta for Huaying.
I'm not excluding the possibility that Decks with Delta and Huaying have different shells.

[invision2212]

I have the Huaying fan and there is no vibration and it’s dead silent unless at max rpm, then it sound like a very little bit of white noise

[glebkorniyenko]

Originally posted by jeanpaulsamson:

Interesting that you should mention this. I've had my Steam Deck for about seven months now. It has the original Delta model cooling fan installed, the one that makes a high-pitched whine on top of the usual air whooshing sound. I decided I could live with it up to this point.

But in the last week, the fan has started making a moderately loud, lower-pitched buzzing noise. The faster it spins, the higher the frequency of the buzz. This new buzz is due to fan vibration. If I lie my Steam Deck down on a hard surface, you can hear the buzz carry through to that surface. So it seems my fan, which is supposed to be symmetric and balanced, is starting to malfunction.

I don't recall my Steam Deck feeling like it was vibrating before this. I'll be looking into buying a replacement fan from iFixit rather than going through the time-intensive hassle of getting Valve to fix it for free under warranty.

Hey, I know it's super old post but I'd like to ask if the replacement fan fixed the vibration (If you did get it)? I am having the same problem (and you can clearly hear the vibration through hard surface) at 5000 rpm it's noticeable and it's comparable to haptics feedback closer to 7000. I would RMA it accept this problem showed up with the replacement (already RMA'd twice) so I am looking to replace the fan as well

[Milan]

It's the opposite. Putting Huaying fan instead of Delta produced a vibration. Thus I put back Delta and gave away the Huaying fan.

[RedBaronK™]

Failing ball bearing inside the fan? What's the official reason or cause?

[Marlock]

looks like it, or some anomalous weight imbalance/assimetry between fan blades

the Huaying is usually confirmed as having a vastly superior noise profile by users who got a Delta and switched to it, so i'd bet it's a faulty unit

also noticeable levels of *vibration* aren't typically normal or acceptable in fans


alternatively it might just be missing some padding material between the fan and console chassis, but this shouldn't happen either