Noisey cpu fan

Trying to help a friend diagnose a problem long distance.
His cpu fan is making a hell of a racket.
Sounds kind of like a playing card stuck in a bicycle rim.

No wires or anything in the way. Brand new system built less than a week ago.
I'm guessing it's possible it is a bad fan, returning will be a pain though as it's stock and the cpu would have to be returned with it.

If its that noisey i would guess the bearing fan is gone and the impellor is fouling the heatsink in which case its gotta be pooped but its always hard doing remote diag without being able to see it

that's basically all I wanted to hear, I just wanted to be sure before I had him spend on a aftermarket heatsink and fan.

As he would rather put up with the noise (temps seem mostly under control) for a week while he waits on the replacement rather than RMA and wait 4 to 6 for another cpu/heatsink.

Never personally had a fan go bad that fast and I've done a lot of builds in my time.

Never worth chancing a cpu fan IMO if it gets worse and stops the CPU can overheat in seconds and thats never good news
You can get a much better unit for not a lot of bucks

yeah he's not a overclocker and just wants something that attaches easily. So I found him one for about 20 bucks. As of now the temps are normal and I've told him to shut it down if the noise stops...