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Coilwhine!! :(

I bought a 770 windforce 4gb second hand recently and it whined like crazy with my gold rated 600w Silverstone SFX PSU. I contacted the seller who assured me it was silent for him but still helped me rma the card, the retailer then sent it back saying no fault found. I even had a sound clip, we contacted gigabyte and they didn't want to know even after hearing the clip. My point? Must be my psu plus I'll never buy a gigabyte item again after there lack of help lol.

My problem is now after the seller kindly refunding me I was going to buy a 970 but I'm scared of the dreaded whine. I thought I bought one of the most silent cards on the market, I can't really change my psu with it being small form factor.
 
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Cards already under RMA not sure if i want a refund or try a replacement though.

Its 100% the card 4/4 PCs it whined in. My only trouble is like i said, getting a second card that whines will mean a further week with no card and cutting it very close to xmas!!

If it was middle of the year it would be fine but i dont wanna end up with no card over the holidays that is my main concern!! Which is why i asked Gibbo what happens if i get a second whiner? A further week is basically xmas which leaves me with no card over the holidays!
 
Nines11 said:
Cards already under RMA not sure if i want a refund or try a replacement though.

Its 100% the card 4/4 PCs it whined in. My only trouble is like i said, getting a second card that whines will mean a further week with no card and cutting it very close to xmas!!

If it was middle of the year it would be fine but i dont wanna end up with no card over the holidays that is my main concern!! Which is why i asked Gibbo what happens if i get a second whiner? A further week is basically xmas which leaves me with no card over the holidays!
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If you are prepared like you said to put the extra £50 and buy elsewhere, why not put the extra £50 and buy an ocuk warranty backed card?
That way you get a 48hour turn around on it...
Just my take on it
 
Neil King said:
Just want to commend Gibbo on how well you have handled the matter, you definately have the patience of a saint unlike the OP. :D
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Tbh he gets paid to lol, i agree with most of what he says but saying the 970 doesnt have major coilwhine problems is a blatant lie lol!! Everyone knows it does and so does Gibbo...

@shatpank81 because like ive said it has 2 year warranty and the small print actually says you need a premium gold rated PSU lol! So it isnt even any different...

Id pay the 50 extra if it was 3 year warranty and 100% coilwhine free! A****n is the only place that does next day replacement as far as im aware so my only choice is them if OCUK cant. Its a few weeks until xmas i really cant be leaving it last minute it will ruin the holidays for me :(

I like OCUK this has been my first return and only reason i have forum account, but a week to do a 10 min coilwhine test is pretty bad, i know theyre busy and a business but its still crap...

I'll see what they say Monday but fingers crossed all sorted before xmas! Its probably just my rotten luck and i got a mega bad card, hopefully!!
 
Alienfish360 said:
Why didn't you get it sent off when you first started this thread instead of just moaning about it?
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I did! its not instant mate, i was told to test in other PCs which i could only do at the weekend. Im not gonna be quiet when i have a problem with something that costs nearly 300 quid!

This isnt your problem so if you havent got anything helpful to add, dont bother posting! Im sure if it was you in my boots youd be doing the same thing...
 
I did have stuff helpful to add, but you seem to be ignoring a lot of good advice, so there's no point wasting my time posting to be ignored.

It's not always about cards being bad, or psu's being "dodgy" but a combination of their operating frequencies as was also mentioned earlier which you ignored.

If you've been going through the RMA process since your OP, then what is the point of this thread? A public whinge is all it seems like if you'd already initiated with the process with the retailer.
 
Alienfish360 said:
I did have stuff helpful to add, but you seem to be ignoring a lot of good advice, so there's no point wasting my time posting to be ignored.

It's not always about cards being bad, or psu's being "dodgy" but a combination of their operating frequencies as was also mentioned earlier which you ignored.

If you've been going through the RMA process since your OP, then what is the point of this thread? A public whinge is all it seems like if you'd already initiated with the process with the retailer.
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Which is exactly what you are doing now...

Gibbo works here so asking him a few questions which was helpful.

Your input has not been helpful at all saying certain PSU and GPU combinations = coilwhine is not true.

My last update was directly to Gibbo asking what the turn around time would be like if i got a second dodgy card if i settled for a replacement. How is that moaning? Tbh mate no one is forcing you to read this so just dont, im not here to take stick from random people...
 
Nines11 said:
Your input has not been helpful at all saying certain PSU and GPU combinations = coilwhine is not true.
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I have a feeling that you do not understand what coil whine is, the cause and how it can occur.

Resonance happens everywhere, from electronics to buildings (Tacoma bridge being a famous one).

Resonance is when something oscillates at a greater and greater amplitude with no additional power, and it usually only happens at a specific frequency, called the "Resonant frequency"

With electronics, capacitors are usually the components most prone to resonance (coil whine), there are a few ways to sort it, keep RMA'ing cards till you get one within tolerance that happens to not resonate (whine), or you change the frequency in which you deliver the power to the card.

While it's not a "fault" with the card or a "fault" with the PSU, it's more to do with component quality and design, meaning that especially with modern high end cards, it's almost impossible to test all combinations of hardware to prevent whine all together during the design stage.

Cards don't always tend to whine, it's just that they will be prone to it at frequencies often found in power supplies, resonance causes the whine. So while all components may be ok, a different combination of card and PSU can and often does fix the issue, as the problem can often be the frequency of the line voltage to the card, you may not necessarily need a "better" one, though the cleaner the line the better, a slightly worse may not whine if it's not at the resonant frequency that the card is resonating at.

So, before you start calling some of the best electronic engineers in the industry rubbish, or that they don't know what they're doing, go understand some theory in what happens, and appreciate that it's impossible to design high power cards that won't resonate.

The other option, is that you purchase a card that OCUK produce, in which they are modified to minimise the likelihood, their modification will either change the resonant frequency, or dampen the components that are resonating, but it is beyond my knowledge to expand on that.

So please, if you disagree with the above, please do explain from your electronic engineering background (not hearsay from people who want to sell you things) why this cannot happen.

Although I do look forward to seeing your response, I understand if you do not wish to share this issue, as I'm sure nVidia will be willing to pay you a lot of money for a solution to the problem.
 
Alienfish360 said:
I have a feeling that you do not understand what coil whine is, the cause and how it can occur.

Resonance happens everywhere, from electronics to buildings (Tacoma bridge being a famous one).

Resonance is when something oscillates at a greater and greater amplitude with no additional power, and it usually only happens at a specific frequency, called the "Resonant frequency"

With electronics, capacitors are usually the components most prone to resonance (coil whine), there are a few ways to sort it, keep RMA'ing cards till you get one within tolerance that happens to not resonate (whine), or you change the frequency in which you deliver the power to the card.

While it's not a "fault" with the card or a "fault" with the PSU, it's more to do with component quality and design, meaning that especially with modern high end cards, it's almost impossible to test all combinations of hardware to prevent whine all together during the design stage.

Cards don't always tend to whine, it's just that they will be prone to it at frequencies often found in power supplies, resonance causes the whine. So while all components may be ok, a different combination of card and PSU can and often does fix the issue, as the problem can often be the frequency of the line voltage to the card, you may not necessarily need a "better" one, though the cleaner the line the better, a slightly worse may not whine if it's not at the resonant frequency that the card is resonating at.

So, before you start calling some of the best electronic engineers in the industry rubbish, or that they don't know what they're doing, go understand some theory in what happens, and appreciate that it's impossible to design high power cards that won't resonate.

The other option, is that you purchase a card that OCUK produce, in which they are modified to minimise the likelihood, their modification will either change the resonant frequency, or dampen the components that are resonating, but it is beyond my knowledge to expand on that.

So please, if you disagree with the above, please do explain from your electronic engineering background (not hearsay from people who want to sell you things) why this cannot happen.

Although I do look forward to seeing your response, I understand if you do not wish to share this issue, as I'm sure nVidia will be willing to pay you a lot of money for a solution to the problem.
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I know what it is mate, but i cant keep RMAing since Xmas is upon us, thats my main grumble with the 5 day turn over, specially as my card is now OOS until the 12th, so ill probably have to go with a refund now :(

I have googled it and did a bit of research on it, i know what it is, but my point still stands, there is a 970 out there that wont whine on my PC.

Also the 970 being bad for whining is a fact, i dont care what Gibbo says. Its just bad luck if you get a bad one at the end of the day. Every card ive had in my life has never had coilwhine, surely i would have got coilwhine with a card by now if it was "common".

My PC is dead silent, i build silent PCs because i cant stand any background noise while gaming or browsing, the main thing that stood out for these cards is they are silent on desktop, i mean 0% fan speed, they totally shut down, well the Evga card did which is so cool, i mean even on some games it wouldnt reach 60C which is when the fans kick in, but the whine was there as soon as it went underload.

This thread will help some buyers either way, it is a risk buying a 970, i could buy a 290 and i know for a fact i wouldnt get coilwhine with it, so how anyone can defend the 970 is beyond me...

The MSI, Giga and Asus all have different designs than the Evga so hopefully i get no coilwhine on my next 970!

Either way ill update this thread, ill keep going until i get a coilwhine free card and i bet i do! ;)
 
No you don't know for a fact if you bought a 290 it would have no coil whine. I've had a 290X that had loud coil whine. Any card you buy could potentially suffer from it.
 
I've never heard any whining from my 290X's or my SuperFlower 1300W PSU, I used to have a 290X with Elpida VRAM that had horrendous coil whine.

Although it seemed to be better when I had cards with Hynix VRAM which was a bit odd.
 
Raggs said:
that's sounds horrible no wonder your not happy no way i could tolerate that racket, i read all of the thread , got a 970 coming to me tomorrow the ocuk reference one and i have a corsair psu, not another rma please ,
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Pretty sure you'll be OK with the reference model, no cheapo AIB parts allowed.
 
Raggs said:
that's sounds horrible no wonder your not happy no way i could tolerate that racket, i read all of the thread , got a 970 coming to me tomorrow the ocuk reference one and i have a corsair psu, not another rma please ,
Click to expand...

I hope you dont have to go through the same hassle as me man, its a nightmare!

Lets see what they say Monday about the time scale on swapping over cards, im gonna have to pick a different card now anyways due to no stock until the 12th on this Evga...
 
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