Screaming fan! Should I disconnect?

I have a small fan in the middle of my MB on a small heat-sink, I am assuming it is the Northbridge heaksink and fan? It absolutely howls when I first startup, after about 10 mins the noise stops and then can randomly start up again at various intervals. I had it apart and cleaned everything good and verified where the horrendous racket was coming from.

The fan in question can be unplugged and wondering if it is the Northbridge fan is it really needed? Only problem I can see is, it is right under the large video card which kind of blocks airflow around the heatsink.

Other option is contacting the manufacturer and seeing what they say, never know, it can be replaced, its a tiny thing. But the noise it getting really bad now, the fan is still spinning just fine but it must be worn or something.

I was thinking about a football game

I'd remove it as quick as possible.

Northbridge fans can often be superfluous, however it depends on the amount and efficiency of the passive cooling which is present and upon the case airflow.

I'd suggest you could try placing a tiny drop of sewing machine oil on the existing fan to keep it running for a tadge longer, and either then replace it with a like for like fan, or add a bigger cooler to the chipset which will either allow passive cooling or possibly permit use of a larger fan which could be undervolted to run near silently.

There be plenty of those yesterday! 97th Grey Cup Montreal beat SK 28-27, what a game!

Back on topic, is that NB fan really necessary?

Well just an update, that NB fan spins at over 5000 rpm, so it's got to be perfect or it goes real noisy. My system runs very cool and no over heating.

I contacted Biostar through their portal site and got a prompt repl,y they are sending out a new fan :). So I am very pleased with the prompt service, for the price this board is loaded with features and I am glad I decided to keep the board going. The SSD and Windows 7 breathed new life and speed back into the system.

Thumbs up to Biostar!

I was going to say if you pull that fan today, there's a good chance you'll be pulling that motherboard next week. That fans there for a reason. Good to hear you got it taken care of.