Video card squeal - how to fix this?

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blade52x

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My 7900GT squeals when it is under load. Very annoying. I know others have had this problem with various types of cards - I even remember when I had an x1900xt there was a slight whine. But this 7900GT's squeal is just annoying.

I've already ruled out the PSU - the HX520 I use has a rock solid 12V rail which does not ripple at all as measured by a multimeter. My 7900GS, and identical card with 4 less pipes does not make this noise at all.

So, what is the most common thing on a video card to the squeal - and how can I fix this? Thanks in advance.
 
Well I've managed to narrow down the noise... I randomly placed pressure on caps and regs with my hands while it was squealing, and one part in particular when pressure applied seemed to have the noise muffled very much. This was actually a nice picture I found because it is the exact card I have.

7900gtjf2.jpg


I ended up placing VGA RAM sinks on both of them because they get hot when loaded (not very hot but almost burning to the finger hot), but that obviously did not do anything. There seems to be metal coils inside of them, and I'm assuming the source of the noise is coming from one of those coils.

Anyone know a way I could about to at least try and dampen the sound?
 
Not exactly! Which is why I want to figure out if there is any possible solution to fix this myself. ;)
 
blade52x said:
Well I've managed to narrow down the noise... I randomly placed pressure on caps and regs with my hands while it was squealing, and one part in particular when pressure applied seemed to have the noise muffled very much. This was actually a nice picture I found because it is the exact card I have.

I ended up placing VGA RAM sinks on both of them because they get hot when loaded (not very hot but almost burning to the finger hot), but that obviously did not do anything. There seems to be metal coils inside of them, and I'm assuming the source of the noise is coming from one of those coils.

Anyone know a way I could about to at least try and dampen the sound?
Click to expand...

Drip wax on them. No, seriously.
 
blade52x said:
My 7900GT squeals when it is under load. Very annoying. I know others have had this problem with various types of cards - I even remember when I had an x1900xt there was a slight whine. But this 7900GT's squeal is just annoying.

I've already ruled out the PSU - the HX520 I use has a rock solid 12V rail which does not ripple at all as measured by a multimeter. My 7900GS, and identical card with 4 less pipes does not make this noise at all.

So, what is the most common thing on a video card to the squeal - and how can I fix this? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

wrap it up and send it to r... i mean Kyrl Xep 384 Mission ST., San francisco, CA 94112, no more squeling! guranteed results!!!!
 
No more card either. :p

Arcygenical wax wouldn't re-melt when they heat up? I don't know the exact temperature that these reach, but they are hot to the touch.
 
RAWR!

The card in my sig is making an aweful squealing noise! Man, PNY sux the big one!

I never had this problem with XFX, BFGTech, or EVGA before.

PNY is a POS! Don't buy PNY video cards. Their flash drives are good, but their video cards are as bad as Bill Lumberg!

...and I dun like it. :p
 
Red Falcon said:
RAWR!

The card in my sig is making an aweful squealing noise! Man, PNY sux the big one!

I never had this problem with XFX, BFGTech, or EVGA before.

PNY is a POS! Don't buy PNY video cards. Their flash drives are good, but their video cards are as bad as Bill Lumberg!

...and I dun like it. :p
Click to expand...

:confused:
 
blade52x said:
No more card either. :p

Arcygenical wax wouldn't re-melt when they heat up? I don't know the exact temperature that these reach, but they are hot to the touch.
Click to expand...

A few coats of nail polish should do it. The idea's to permanently increase the surface's resistance to pressure - pressing on it with your finger accomplishes this by providing an opposing pressure, but using the computer with one hand on the video card and the other on the keyboard is hardly ideal
 
You recommend just trying to apply it the coils or over the entire thing?

Not exactly what I had in mind but if it comes down to that, I will try it. :)
 
You're dealing with harmonic vibrations from a poorly insulated inductor (coil).

My personal preference for this is to cover it in hot glue, it seems to work nicely. You're likely to have problems with the nail polish fix posted above since this is a completely enclosed coil.
 
It's not completely enclosed, there are small opening near the bottom where I can actually look in and see the coil. My main concern is if I place down some kind of substance, and the it gets on the coils, could that pose some kind of problem?

Edit: Here's a picture I just took showing coil exposure. (Yes I know it's unplugged, was originally going to remove the card but then realized I had an easy shot right there. System wasn't powered at the time)

7900gtxn7.jpg
 
Hot glue would probably work better given the type of component. It should also be fairly easy to remove in the event it causes the component to get too hot (not likely).
 
I tried hot glue, and I ended up removing it because some got over onto the PCIe power connector - I wasn't sure if that was safe or not (on the actual metal strips coming out of it, I don't know if the one it got all over was ground or a voltage line).

But the sound is definitely lower now (almost can't hear it from where I am sitting now, where before it was distracting). I applied pressure while putting on the hot glue, and I guess either some remained on it, or the entire piece stayed in place.

I will keep working on this, and hopefully I can get rid of the sound completely.
 
Hot glue will not harm a thing, it's non conductive and has a fairly high melting point for the situation you're using it in. In fact, the same substance is used to insulate open faced coils in other applications.
 
A lack of power in my system caused this issue once actually in my older computer when i was upgrading parts a few at a time... Is your PSU adequate for the system?
 
Tiburon1186 said:
A lack of power in my system caused this issue once actually in my older computer when i was upgrading parts a few at a time... Is your PSU adequate for the system?
Click to expand...

Yes, HX520 is 12.02V idle and 12.01V load by hardware readings. For future reference no more PSU posts. I had a friend bring in his 8800GTS and it worked perfectly fine (no noise and stable 12V rail) so it's not a lack of power, unless the card itself it somehow losing power being fed to it - but I measured the VGPU, and all 1.55V is present.

I have a 7900GS which is a 7900GT with four less pipes, and the 7900GS makes absolutely no noise at all. I've also come notice the 7900GT does not make the noise all the time. In some games it does, in others it doesn't.

Regardless, I've managed to lessen the noise enough that unless I have my head next to the case Window, I will not notice it anymore. :)
 
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