Dramatically Reducing Fan Noise on the CrowPi L (and others?)

I had only had my CrowPi L a couple of days and to say the fan was noisy and irritating was an understatement! I did read one user removed the fan and found the double sided sticky tape attached wasnt used and he simply removed the protective covering and re-stuck the fan and replaced the screws, but with my fan, it was already stuck down so I didnt have that option.

There is a far better method of mounting the fan that really cuts down the vibration and fan noise.

My fan was stuck to the PCB with the double sided tape. I worked out that the excessive fan noise wasn't due to a loose mounting but rather a solid mounting that allowed fan vibrations to transfer to the PCB and the screws didn't help. I removed the screws holding the fan to the PCB and discarded them. I then used a good quality double sided tape that was approximately 1mm thick and spongy, the brand I used was Gorilla Tape. This was attached to the fan and the excess trimmed away making sure none of the tape touched the fan. The fan was then re-attached to the PCB. The difference was dramatic, the noise changed from being annoying right down to the level where you could barely hear just the fan blade noise in the airstream.