GALAX GeForce GTX 970 Infinity Black Edition coil whine :(

Nines11 · 13 Jan 2015 at 13:50

Dervious said:
When I used to get coil whine in TV sets, I used to use a bit of glue (usually nail varnish - not my own !) on the coil, if the windings were visible. Sometimes this would solve the problem, other times the problem was cured by replacing the coil with a new one.

If designed and manufactured correctly, no coil should whine.

TVs whine due to the backlights, my mothers is horrible for it! I sent a few TVs back due to this but the TV i have now is totally silent, its a Samsung LED and my mothers is a Samsung Plasma. If i mute her TV the sound is really quite loud!

I had problems with my Virgin superhub plug whining too got a replacement that did the same and asked for a better quality one, they sent a square plug, the old one was curved, the square one was totally silent and still is!

It really is down to components and there should be some kinda rule in place before they are allowed to ship these!

Fair enough if they were £50 each but £300 for a noisy mess? noway!

Dervious · 13 Jan 2015 at 13:58

Nines11 said:
TVs whine due to the backlights

Some do, but it isn't common. About three years ago I attempted to replaced my old Toshiba LCD TV with a new one. The old one had "backlight buzz", and it was a know issue with that particular model. I decided to take a chance on a new Toshiba, as I liked the picture quality on them. The new one buzzed, and I got it replaced. The replacement buzzed, so I got a refund and bought a Samsung.

The TVs I used to repair were CRT based. The power supply and line output stage of these TVs would usually have quite a few coils and transformers in them. One in a while we'd get a TV come in with the complaint "it's whistling". More often than not it was the linearity coil in the line output stage. The nail varnish trick would sometimes silence the offending coil, but more often than not, a new one had to be fitted.

skaif · 13 Jan 2015 at 14:04

Back to the 970, has anyone recently received a whiney one? Are the newer ones branded as Galax or KFA2?

Wizzfizz · 13 Jan 2015 at 14:10

They will be of the same batch, so will be in Galax packaging but using the KFA2 name on the website.

skaif · 13 Jan 2015 at 14:12

Ah man

I RMA'd mine yesterday, assume I will get another one that sounds like a bee?

Wizzfizz · 13 Jan 2015 at 14:15

How many have you had so far?

I was told by Bailey that all cards are from the one batch. You never know you might get a good one. I'm on my second one now but in the process of returning it, as it has the exact same whining/buzzing/high frequency (can be heard across the room in games) as the first, this with using a high quality Superflower 1000w plat PSU.

skaif · 13 Jan 2015 at 14:22

This is my first Galax one but had a Strix before which had issues. I also have a superflower, the 750 leadex which I was told to RMA as that may have been causing it. The new one made no difference whatsoever and the buzz is the same. Guess I will see what happens with the new one...putting me off 970's though...

Gibbo · 13 Jan 2015 at 14:30

skaif said:
As mentioned above, would be good to get some input from Gibbo himself! Is this just a dodgy batch?

Batch is the same original batch, only ever had one batch, new batch coming will be in KFA2 boxes.

Like I say a few thousand sold, with like less than 20-30 cards returned, so we are very happy.

Gibbo · 13 Jan 2015 at 14:33

Random Guy Esq. said:
Haven't really been following the 980 threads. Are they prone to coil whine too, or is it more prevalent in the 970s?

980's do suffer it as well, but law of average apply, the 970 outsells the 980 vastly.

skaif · 13 Jan 2015 at 14:50

Gibbo said:
Batch is the same original batch, only ever had one batch, new batch coming will be in KFA2 boxes.

Like I say a few thousand sold, with like less than 20-30 cards returned, so we are very happy.

Thanks for the input Gibbo, any idea when you will get them in?

Preto · 13 Jan 2015 at 15:28

My Infinity was whining from day 1 but as it's not doing it in idle or in Dota2 which I play mostly, I just can't be bothered with sending it back, too much hassle plus I risk getting a worse one.
In benchmarks, Dragon Age: Inquisition and The Crew which I played for a little bit, just to test it, it whines, even though I play with Vsync ON.

To be honest, I wanted to go for the ASUS Strix in the beginning but the hype was so intense with the "coilwhine guaranteed" that I decided to take the risk and go for the Galax Infinity BE. Even paid for Saturday delivery...not my best £320 spent... :rolleyes:

Obviously I'm disappointed but as I don't play much lately, as long as it works...meh.

skaif · 13 Jan 2015 at 16:10

Fair play, as mentioned before though, the whine is all rather subjective, one person may hear the whine others may not.
And if you're disappointed, don't game as much and have a gold rated psu, RMA it now?

Dervious · 13 Jan 2015 at 16:21

Preto said:
the hype was so intense with the "coilwhine guaranteed" that I decided to take the risk and go for the Galax Infinity BE.

The idea of the guarantee is to remove the risk. If it whines, send it back for replacement.

Preto · 13 Jan 2015 at 17:09

Dervious said:
The idea of the guarantee is to remove the risk. If it whines, send it back for replacement.

And if I get another one with worse coil whine? And another one...until when?
I work a lot and don't have the time or the will to (un)plug GPUs in and out.
If I'd get a different brand I probably would send it back.

Emjay86 · 13 Jan 2015 at 18:33

Im guessing you guys had a bad batch as ive not experienced ANY coil whine with this card. Just the usual Nvidia driver issues it seems

Dervious · 13 Jan 2015 at 20:03

Preto said:
And if I get another one with worse coil whine? And another one...until when?
I work a lot and don't have the time or the will to (un)plug GPUs in and out.
If I'd get a different brand I probably would send it back.

I did suggest earlier that it wouldn't be a bad idea for OCUK to test each card before it's dispatched. If that's too much trouble, or customers would prefer an unopened card, fine. However, in cases where a customer like yourself receives a card with coil whine, I would have thought that it would be a good idea for OCUK to test the replacement card before they send it to you.

Gibbo · 13 Jan 2015 at 21:06

Dervious said:
I did suggest earlier that it wouldn't be a bad idea for OCUK to test each card before it's dispatched. If that's too much trouble, or customers would prefer an unopened card, fine. However, in cases where a customer like yourself receives a card with coil whine, I would have thought that it would be a good idea for OCUK to test the replacement card before they send it to you.

A good idea, we shall get 10 cards pre-tested and put aside and then for any customers who return due to whine and we test and confirm whine we can then offer a pre-tested card with no whine on the basis the customer understands it is opened and used.

Dervious · 13 Jan 2015 at 21:24

Gibbo said:
A good idea, we shall get 10 cards pre-tested and put aside and then for any customers who return due to whine and we test and confirm whine we can then offer a pre-tested card with no whine on the basis the customer understands it is opened and used.

You know it makes sense !

Just had a thought.

Is the guarantee being offered by OCUK, or by the manufacturer ? If OCUK have an arrangement with the manufacturer to return cards that whine, then surely the manufacturer should test for coil whine as part of their testing procedure. One or two may "slip through the net", but it should prevent the situations we are reading about where a customer receives a noisy card, then gets a noisy replacement.

Wizzfizz · 13 Jan 2015 at 22:04

Gibbo said:
A good idea, we shall get 10 cards pre-tested and put aside and then for any customers who return due to whine and we test and confirm whine we can then offer a pre-tested card with no whine on the basis the customer understands it is opened and used.

You'd have to test each game that each customer is experienceing coil whine in for this to work, not just a quick stress in Heaven

starkos · 13 Jan 2015 at 22:16

Gibbo said:
A good idea, we shall get 10 cards pre-tested and put aside and then for any customers who return due to whine and we test and confirm whine we can then offer a pre-tested card with no whine on the basis the customer understands it is opened and used.

This sounds great and would definitely be interested.

Before I apply for another RMA, what's the policy with regards to delivery fees for returning the card back to ocuk? I've already paid once for the first RMA and it seems a bit much having to pay again considering it is a problem with the card?