Computer Hope
Hardware => Hardware => Topic started by: BrydoRX on July 09, 2010, 08:28:08 AM
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First of all, I am new here and I'll try to explain the problem I am currently experiencing above.
I had done a lot of cleaning on the GPU recently where its temperature is now steady at 46°C (I know this from SpeedFan) and for some unknown reason, it is making a buzzing noise and I don't even know if I unintentionally damaged it while cleaning it or anything else. What's even more strange is that when I turn on my computer first thing in the morning, the buzzing noise is absent and all I hear is a blow of air from the GPU fan (which I always had before this happened) and the buzzing would come three or four hours later.
I might be making a mountain of a molehill over this but I'm quite annoyed at this and I'm wondering if there's a solution for it. I don't know if the buzzing noise is there permanently or will it go away in a number of days or weeks. I mean, I don't think the noise will still be around between August or September and that other people I know experienced this.
And if any of you are wondering what is my graphics card, it is: Nvidia PNY GeForce 9600GT. Furthermore, this problem came since Monday.
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Remove the GPU fan and reclean...
When you refasten it You can use small felt washers for the mount screws...available at any hardware/PC shop.
If the condition persists then replace the GPU fan...bring the old one to the store to match up a replacement...
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I would not know how to remove the GPU's fan, as I have never took out any computer parts in my life. However, I have thought about replacing it with a new one (which would be an Nvidia one like the current one but a more powerful one) but when I get the money to buy one, I would not be able to take out the old one and fit the new one in and I need to contact someone that can do it for me.
By the way, the buzzing noise isn't a really loud one but more of a buzz/hum mixture if you get what I mean.
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You probably made some of the oil inside the fan chamber escape while cleaning. That's fine. Let it run for 6 hours straight, maybe run a benchmark, and it should fix itself. Also, PLEASE DE-OVERCLOCK OR EVEN DOWNCLOCK TO ALLOW THE GPU TO RUN COOLER AND QUIETER. Can't stress that enough.
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I have let the fan run for six hours straight but nothing happened, so I think I should let it run for that long again. Also, how would I de-overclock or downclock the GPU?
EDIT: I just found out from someone else that the downclocking can be done via BIOS and said that I should not use a program to do it, as he feels that's more dangerous to do. The question is... how could I underclock the GPU in BIOS? I done a Google search on that and I got nothing =\
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Sorry to double-post but, I'm afraid I can't change the clocking speed of the GPU and here are the reasons why...
I downloaded CoolBits (which is actually a registry key) and it comes as an add-on to the Nvidia Control Panel but even though the registry key is installed, the add-on doesn't appear even when after restarting the computer. I also can't change the GPU's clocking speed via BIOS after I accessed it by pressing F2. I have looked in all pages for the clocking settings but they aren't there. The BIOS settings only has a page for changing the speed of the standard fans and I know they're working just fine. However, I found out that the GPU's clocking speed is at 650Mhz so tell me... is that way too high?
Now it seems there's only on solution left and is to get a new graphics card. I'm sorry if I'm wasting your time over this.
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You probably made some of the oil inside the fan chamber escape while cleaning. That's fine. Let it run for 6 hours straight, maybe run a benchmark, and it should fix itself. Also, PLEASE DE-OVERCLOCK OR EVEN DOWNCLOCK TO ALLOW THE GPU TO RUN COOLER AND QUIETER. Can't stress that enough.
This was bad advice from the beginning...
1st if i remember you weren't OC'ing the card anyways...
2nd i've never heard any qualified Tech advise "let it run 6 hours...it'll fix itself"....ridiculous.
Sorry i wasn't here to give you a heads up.
That being said another alternative would be to remove the card and take it to a PC store and see what they would charge to install a replacement fan...if you don't care to do it yourself.
Personally i still think the card is worth salvaging but if you want a new card that's certainly an option as well.
patio.
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i've never heard any qualified Tech advise "let it run 6 hours...it'll fix itself"....ridiculous.
Well, I didn't think that would help either and when you said that the GPU can recover itself from the noise, I don't know how long that would take. When one of my friends had the exact same problem, the noise only stayed for three days.
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I never said that...someone else giving advice did.
Actually i'd never say that as a method of recovering from the issue...
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heh... "fan chamber".... sounds like we're talking about a device for testing aerofoil shapes.
What sort of buzzing are you hearing? Does it sound more "electrical" (although I don't think a GPU has any electrical components that buzz, that's more the domain of high voltage steppers like those you see in a television or monitor) or as if there is some sort of physical problem? It could also be that the card bracket isn't screwed on tight enough and this causes reverberations to be making noise.
Congratulations on getting such a low GPU temp. my GPU hovers around 70 degrees, (75 degrees at the moment due to this awfully hot weather we've been getting), and that's after I personally removed the heatsink+cowling assembly and replaced the generic paste on the GPU with some Arctic Silver (I did manage to lower the temperature by a good 5-10 degrees- it used to hover at around 80 and usually crashed when I ran anything that used it more then a smidgen.
There is certainly zero connection between the clock speed of your GPU and the buzzing sound you are receiving, but if you are ever curious, or have issues that you think a downclock might help diagnose, you can use a tool called "RivaTuner" to perform this task.
Anyway, my stance here is that the problem is clearly physical- the chips themselves don't have any mechanical operation that can cause a buzzing sound, and usually capacitors will make a "squealing" noise, if at all (and usually only when they are about to burst), which leaves, of course, the fan itself. It could be something as simple as a loose fan or some other small component was moved by your cleaning efforts and is now "caught" in the fan blades- a sticker or other small flexible material.
Barring the obvious physical obstacles, it could be that if you cleaned the GPU and blew on the fan with, say, compressed air, you could have damaged the bearings by causing it the rotate backwards from it's intended direction. I've never seen this happen but I doubt it's impossible.
Replacing a GPU fan, in my experience, is sort of annoying. In my case, I had a 5500FX that suddenly started to have "extended "hangs" while playing games. Why it was one of my first threads here ever, long before everybody gave up trying to get rid of me ;D (Link (http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,56222.0.html). It turned out that while underclocking the card solved that problem, the root cause was that the fan was completely busted. Perhaps due to fate, I had a altogether useless PCI Nvidia 6200FX sitting around, so I just grabbed the fan from that and threw it on the 5500FX and it still works happy as a clam.
of course if you don't have a jungle of spare parts lying around, I'm sure a local repair shop has one, and they will probably be able to supply you with a compatible GPU fan, as Patio suggested.
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I never tried to get rid of you....
I knew there were hidden Classics just waiting to break out ....
;)
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@BC_Programmer:
It's rather hard to describe what kind of noise it's been making but I know it was very loud. And yeah, it is really difficult for someone to get their GPU temperature that low and I should feel chuffed about myself for that :)
Now, I believe that there is nothing stuck inside the fans while I was cleaning it and remember, the buzzing noise would come hours after I have turned on the computer. It doesn't always make the noise after I turn it on. I haven't blown on the fan or shoot compressed air at it.
Also, I don't think I'll have trouble having the old one replaced with a new one... just as long it's compatible with my computer and that I uninstall the drivers of the old GPU before getting the new one fitted as that'll then install the new drivers (I think anyway).
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Fore me it's as simple as taking the fan of the Graphic's Card and opening the Fan. Then i smear some petroleum jelly on the inside part of the magnet's. Put everything back together maybe add some thermal compound between the the GPU and the cooler to lover heat, and done solved the issue with my BFG Geforce 210 CUDA.
This is my personal solution.
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@patio Thank you SO MUCH for the flame *sarcasm*.. just trying to help. My 6200 did that, and ran it for about 5 hours, the heatsink and paste settled, and absorbed the heat better, in return quieting the noise. JEEZ.
@BrydoRX Coolbits sucks. Try NVTray, enable the old NVidia control panel, go to clock settings, choose manual overclocking, and select find optimal settings. Works perfectly, no risks involved, unlike ATITool which crashed me *oh gawd*.
You CANNOT overclock your GPU in BIOS, you can only set your voltage higher. That's it.
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@patio Thank you SO MUCH for the flame *sarcasm*.. just trying to help. My 6200 did that, and ran it for about 5 hours, the heatsink and paste settled, and absorbed the heat better, in return quieting the noise. JEEZ.
That was hardly a flame. Just a statement of facts.
heatsink and paste "settling" don't occur. heat being absorbed better doesn't "quiet" a noise, simply because the heat isn't creating the noise.
Works perfectly, no risks involved
When talking about overclocking, the words "no risk" should appear absolutely nowhere. underclocking... that should be fine.
OTOH, underclocking it will probably not quiet the noise.
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Yes, but I did specifically state underclocking. I doubt that if your GPU is already hot, that it will overclock. I experimented with my 6200, and when it is at a hot temp (60*C), it is downclocked when detect optimal frequencies is pressed. So, seriously, I doubt it. This is also a tool OFFICIAL from NVidia, included in prev. control panels, except the new one.
And I mean, come on. Please play nice with me, and take it easy if I make a mistake. I'm not perfect.
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To revive this thread, I just want to make an update... I will be purchasing a new graphics card today (that'll be either the Nvidia GeForce 9500 or 9800, and they are £62 and £94 respectively) and I'm going to remove the old one and fit in the new one myself as I found some instructions on how to do it here (http://www.pctechguide.com/tutorials/GraphicsCard_Remove.htm). So yeah, it seems pretty easy to do it although my current graphics card has four screws on the backplate and one of the computer's other components is above one of the screws, which means I may find it difficult to take it out. I'll manage anyway.
Besides, I know for the fact that a brand new graphics card won't make that same noise... as my mum and my brother-in-law said that it will happen again (even though my brother-in-law has experience in computers).
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BrydoRX: Just make sure you are buying the card for the correct slot on your motherboard. Don't wanna be left with a useless card.
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Actually, I think I've realised what's the real cause of this noise... it may be the fact that I'm on the computer on a very frequent basis (which I admit I do) and somehow the GPU can't take the stress on this. I believe me vigorously cleaning the fan and the GPU unable to get used to the cool temperature are not connected to the noise but I'm not sure if any of you can agree with this.
Also, I used RivaTuner to underclock the GPU (to 365MHz) and that didn't help get rid of the noise which is what BC_Programming mentioned already. I honestly don't know what to do now and it seems that the only solution is to keep the computer off for a number of hours. If there's no real solution for this, then I will need to save up for a new computer. I know that may sound silly but that's what I'm going to do and my brother-in-law is helping out on this.
EDIT: Forgot to add, I'm not sure if the noise will be there for a temporary amount of time (as it only happened since last week) or will it stay there forever. If it's temporary then I'll be happier but I'd want to know when it'll go away. If it's permanent then I'll have to wait until I get the money for a new computer (that will be a laptop) although I can possibly borrowing a laptop from my college when I start back next month.
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That being said another alternative would be to remove the card and take it to a PC store and see what they would charge to install a replacement fan...if you don't care to do it yourself.
Personally i still think the card is worth salvaging but if you want a new card that's certainly an option as well.
patio.
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It's been a week and I'd like to say some good news... the buzzing noise from the GPU is gone now although it now makes a low engine-like noise which I can tolerate. I noticed this difference since Monday and I believe that the GPU is slowly recovering from its problem. I don't know if its recovery was done by itself or did the underclock settings I specified a week ago helped this.
I can't believe it's been two weeks that the buzzing noise has been going for but even if it's gone, I'd like to know when the GPU will fully recover. I'm guessing it could fully recover next Monday (2nd August) but I could be wrong. At least I'm happy now :)