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GTX 970 Fan insanity

Crusader-

Crusader-

Crusader-

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Joined
8 Sep 2006
Posts
32
Location
near Swindon
Hello everyone, I'm hoping you can help me.

I have an Inno3d iChill GTX 970 (the one with the massive cooler) that has developed a problem controlling its fans: the fans spin up to their howling full speed and then slow down again at random, and the Fan RPM value returned by Afterburner and GPU-Z is also pretty random: sometimes it is sane (~1100rpm when idling on desktop) and then a moment later it will go crazy (e.g. 21,000 rpm or sometimes it likes the value 801800).

The Fan speed % reading stays the same throughout - 33% when idling on desktop, gradually increasing up to 40% in games as the temperature rises. But the speed % no longer bears any relation to the speed the fans are actually turning (as judged by the noise they are making and the force of the air if I put my hand next to them). If I try to use Afterburner to set a constant fan speed it has no effect, whether set high or low.

The card's temperatures are around 30C idle and up to 55C under load

I got this card in the black friday sale last year, and it has been a joy to use until this week when it developed this problem. Nothing has changed in my system during the time I've had this card except installing a couple of games on Steam - no hardware changes, no driver updates, nothing.

I've tried:
uninstalling Afterburner + reboot

reinstalling Nvidia drivers 344.75 (control panel->uninstall physx and graphics drivers->reboot to safe mode->display driver uninstaller->reboot->install nvidia drivers->reboot)

installing Nvidia 347.25 (same procedure)

installing Nvidia 347.88 (latest WHQL, same procedure)

installing Nvidia 344.16 (first version that supports 970, same procedure)

Nothing has made a difference :(


Does anyone have any similar experiences, or suggestions on what I could try to fix this?


Here's a sample readout from when I had Afterburner still installed:

2015-4-8_iChill970Fans.jpg
 
I think you've done pretty much all you could, maybe short of testing it on another computer. I'd say its time to RMA.
 
I would check the fans are still plugged in properly and then retest.

If not then RMA away!
 
To clarify...Can you see/hear the fan changing speed rapidly or just via the sensor read outs? As I noticed ab is reporting a fan speed of 30 odd million rpm...

Also have you tried a ddu sweep and clean driver install - it never hurts to cover all bases before starting rma procedures.
 
Disco_P said:
I would check the fans are still plugged in properly and then retest.

If not then RMA away!
Click to expand...

I hadn't thought to check that since it had been working fine for months, good point!
Is there anything obvious I should check for, besides following the wires to all the fans on the card and making sure they reach a socket?
 
pgi947 said:
To clarify...Can you see/hear the fan changing speed rapidly or just via the sensor read outs? As I noticed ab is reporting a fan speed of 30 odd million rpm...

Also have you tried a ddu sweep and clean driver install - it never hurts to cover all bases before starting rma procedures.
Click to expand...

I can definitely hear it, the fans howl when at top speed so it sounds like my PC is haunted right now .. ooooooOOOOOOoooo .. at random intervals.

It was that noise that first tipped me off something wasn't right, actually - I was on top of a windy mountain in Far Cry 4 and thought the sound FX and surround sound was better than I remembered - except it carried on once I was out of the game!

I can also feel the air current change if I put my hand near the fans when it happens.


I have indeed tried the ddu/clean driver install approach, with everything from the most recent WHQL drivers to the original ones that the 970 launched with. No change, sadly. Thanks for the suggestion though!

Do you have any other ideas I could try? I've tried everything I can think of short of a full reinstall of windows.
 
Tbh it sounds like the fan controller has gone ape. I would start rma proceedings.

I would also take a video of the fans pulsing for the retailer to see :)
 
PieEater said:
Try the card in a different PCI-E slot and in a different machine.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I only have the one PCI-E slot free (especially as the card takes up a good 3 slots of space), and don't have another PC that I can try it in.

Thanks for the suggestion though, I'll have to see if I can find another PC to try it with.
 
Disco_P said:
I would check the fans are still plugged in properly and then retest.

If not then RMA away!
Click to expand...

I just checked all the fans on the card, all their cables seem to be firmly connected to the sockets, and it's all quite neatly packaged with no slack or cables rubbing anywhere that I could see.

Thanks for the suggestion though!
 
have u tried setting up a custom fan curve or manually setting the fan speeds?

Might be some kind of conflict between programs over fan control. that would be my guess
 
Divine Pain said:
have u tried setting up a custom fan curve or manually setting the fan speeds?

Might be some kind of conflict between programs over fan control. that would be my guess
Click to expand...

Good suggestion, thanks!

I did try that using Afterburner on the first day I noticed this happening (a couple of days ago); custom fan curve had no effect and manually setting a constant fan speed was about 50/50 - it would stay at the constant speed for a few seconds then whoosh up to top speed, then back down to constant again for a minute or so, repeatedly.

Yesterday when I tried the same thing I couldn't get the fans at a constant speed at all, they were always ramping up and down at random.

To rule out Afterburner messing with the fan control I have uninstalled it, but that's made no difference either.

I've since tried clean installs of almost every driver version available which has also made no difference.
 
pgi947 said:
Tbh it sounds like the fan controller has gone ape. I would start rma proceedings.

I would also take a video of the fans pulsing for the retailer to see :)
Click to expand...

That's a good suggestion, thanks!

I managed to get a video of the fans doing their spooky ghost impression, along with the readings from GPUZ. Starts about 10 seconds in: http://www.hatstand.cx/crusader/ocuk/VID_20150410_161028395_Fans_Spooky_GPUZ.mp4 (its 60MB, sorry!)

I've sent the video and some others to OCUK, fingers crossed on an RMA!
 
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