"Bzzzzzzzzzzt"

xKratosx

xKratosx

xKratosx

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... is the noise my computer (graphics card?) seems to be making at regular intervals ;o

It's probably worth noting before I begin that my old motherboard used to make similar noises and found out that it was a problem with the 'toroids' or something, in that if I pushed one of them with a pencil the noise would stop. Anyway, I got a new motherboard, and a new graphics card at the same time, but it's still making a similar noise: bzzzZzzZzztTtt!

The recording above is from me just doing normal things in Windows such as minimising windows, or dragging an MSN window around the screen. Oddly, it doesn't seem to do it specifically whether it's under load or not, plenty of games (in fact, the majority of games) don't cause the noise at all, only a small handful of games and many desktop tasks seem to cause it.

I'm using an Antec Sonata case with the default TruPower PSU, the motherboard is an Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe, and the graphics card is an Asus V9999 6800.

One thing that does strike me as being out of place is the voltage reading from within SmartDoctor (which irritatingly resets the fan speed every time I turn on the PC, could it be related?), anyway, here's a screen shot:



Any advice or suggestions on what could be causing it and ways to fix it would be ace, thanks!
 
Bit of an update, just set it to monitor the voltage settings and alert me to any problems, there's definitely something wrong which I assume is the causing the bzzzttt noises?

untitled1mz1.gif
 
It's also probably worth noting that I can leave the computer on over night not doing anything and it won't make the noise at all, or I can play a game of say, Half-Life 2 for ages and it not make the noise at all, but as soon as I'm on the desktop and minimising or moving windows around the screen (as well as a few other select things, sometimes games or other programs are effected) it'll start making those noises.

So I guess the noise isn't consistent like the sound clips make out, that's just with me persistently moving and minimising Windows, but it is consistent in that anything that causes the sound will almost always cause it.
 
What's the exact specs of your computer?

Additonal PCI cards, such as network or sound cards? Using onboard sound or network?

What power supply, hard-drive, fans you got?

I can't help but think it's a power supply defect.
 
The noise definately isn't coming out of your speakers?

I gotta say that I'm pretty stumped... not too sure what to suggest really, seings you've replaced the mobo and gfx.

Are you using on-board sound or a sound card?
 
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On board sound yup, and it happens even when the speakers are off! :)

Here's a few more specs:
Antec TruPower 380W PSU (low voltage but still expensive and apparently 'good'?)
AMD Barton 2500+
1GB DDR400
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe (onboard sound/networking etc)
Asus 6800 V9999
2x IDE HDDs
2x DVD-RWs

System temperature I'm not sure of, although it shouldn't be too high. It used to run overclocked at 3200+ without any problems with the fan on medium, and I'm not not even overclocking it so it should be fine.

Graphics temperature is running at around 50 degrees, I'm not sure whether that's high or not, but it allows me to run the incredibly noisey fan on slow so I guess I just stick with that.

I should probably also point out that I tried disconnecting the two ROM drives and one hard drive to see if the PSU was being overly strained and whether without running those it'd be alright and not make any noises etc, but it didn't change anything unfortunately.
 
Right! Huge apologies for dragging up an old thread, but I think I've diagnosed the problem so please disregard anything said above!

Tried a different AGP card yesterday, it was an old GeForce 2 and it worked absolutely fine without any noise whatsoever. My first question is, does this definitely mean it's the graphics card or is there a chance that the GeForce 2 doesn't push the motherboard so much and might not be using one of the bits that was causing the noise?

My second question, should it actually be the graphics card (I'm almost certain it is) is basically which card I should get? My specs are only AMD Barton 2500+ and 1GB of RAM so I don't want to spend silly money on it, ideally I just want something at least even to my 6800, but preferably one that has low power consumption/low temperatures so I can keep the fan speed down as in my current PC the card is by far the noisest thing regarding the fans.

Thirdly, my friend has decided he actually likes the noise my card makes and has offered to swap my card for his 9800 XT, at the time he thought his was slightly better and didn't mind swapping 'cos he never uses his computer any more, but after looking up some benchmarks it seems the 6800 is quite a bit better than his, my question is should I swap? Is my card a potential liability and will it die in his PC? I'd like to swap but not if it's going to die on him, and not if there's going to be a big performance difference.

Thanks guys and apologies for bringing the old thread up, just I'm so close to a conclusion at the moment so if you could help me with that I'd really appreciate it.
 
Sorry to bump this, but please can anyone recommend an ATI equivalent to the 6800? The X1950 is a bit too expensive for me atm (not worth getting one when I'll be buying an entirely new PC in the next six months) but don't fancy getting another Nvidia card since I've not had a lot of luck with this one, and the software's been pretty poor.
 
I have the exact same card man, and the fans they put on them aren't too good. I listened to those mp3s and I'm not sure what's causing them: at some points it sounds exactly like the whirry Asus fan noise that I know and (don't) love so well, and at other points it sounds like the buzz from a faulty capacitor like pcAnywhere said.

Considering what you said about how it starts when you exit 3D games or minimise windows, I'm guessing Dumbdoctor is automatically dropping the fan's temperature, and the cheap fan on there gets noisy at low revs due to its bearings starting to come loose. You could turn Smartdoctor's auto speed-adjustment off, run the fan at max and see if it's still happening. Or, alternatively, spend £20 on a Zalman cooler like this one (or the VF700-ALCU, which is slightly cheaper), which will be quieter and give you lower temps as well. Be aware though that if that doesn't help you might have some trouble returning it.

If it turns out it's not the fan, then it's a capacitor either on the card or (possibly) in the PSU, though I seriously doubt it. Try your own card and a different PSU and see if it's still doing it.

One question though. In the picture below:

xKratosx said:
untitled1mz1.gif
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Why are your voltage numbers red? They look pretty much right to me.
 
Many thanks for the brilliant reply, I've no idea why the numbers are in red unfortunately I just assumed it was causing a problem, the numbers only appear in red though when I set it to monitor the voltages.

Regarding the fan, I'm pretty sure the fan isn't the problem and that it is indeed a capacitator (or whatever :D) since when I swapped the PSU for another it made the same noise, but when I swapped the graphics card completely it was fine.

I think I'd prefer just to get a new card, probably an X1650 or something, not sure :(
 
xKratosx said:
Regarding the fan, I'm pretty sure the fan isn't the problem and that it is indeed a capacitator (or whatever :D) since when I swapped the PSU for another it made the same noise, but when I swapped the graphics card completely it was fine.
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Ah, sorry, didn't noticed you'd already tried a different PSU. So the problem's definitely the card... But it could be the fan on the card OR a capacitor on the card, surely? And based on my experience with those crapulous fans my money's on that being the problem!:p
Here's something to try if you're feeling adventurous: keep the case open and on its side, and next time you hear that noise try stopping the fan with your finger for a second or two to see if the noise stops with it!:D Don't worry, your GPU won't fry if it's only a couple of secs.
 
Just got my new card, w00t! Running quite well I think, going to try some games etc now and see how it performs.

One final question; can anyone recommend some software to control the fans speeds etc? I haven't tried the ATI control panel 'cos I've heard bad things and generally don't like 'bloated' software so it'd be great if there was a decent/lightweight program that'd sort the fan speeds. Cheers!
 
What's the card? Another V9999? If yes then you might as well use Smartdoctor, since I think it needs to be running anyway. TBH ever since I put my Zalman in I can't hear the fan at all so I don't need to turn the fan speed up and down:p
 
Nope, the old card was a V9999, this is an x1650! :)

One thing I'm having issues with at the moment is the performance of the card. I didn't have time last night to do any proper tests but the things I did try were massively disappointing.

I ran Aquamark as a basic performance test; my 6800 (Asus V9999) got a score of ~46xx and my new x1650 only got a score of ~37xx. No problem I thought, maybe it's just that particular software, so I loaded up Half-Life 2 - exactly the same problems. It actually runs worse than my old card which makes no sense at all.

In the benchmarks I was reading the x1650 (256mb DDR3) came out above the 6800GT almost every time, and as far as I know the 6800GT was a fair bit better than my old card (128mb DDR) so this should be even better again. I installed the latest drivers from the ATI website from the start so I don't think it's a driver issue. :(
 
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Majorly disappointed with this card based on first impressions really, the fan actually sounds awful at low speeds (like a low pitched drone noise) and the next speed up sounds like an incredibly noisy CD drive. And that's discounting the fact it seems to really underperform compared to my old (apparently very) inferior card!

Even ATI tool screwed up, I set to find the maximum GPU/MEM speeds and it was pushing the limits up, there were heaps of artefacts on the screen at one point but just said "no errors" and kept on going 'til the card temporarily died and I had to restart the computer :/
 
Never owned one of those, they're supposed to be in roughly the same range performance-wise though. Did you use DriverCleaner after removing the old NVidia drivers?

BTW was your old card in warranty? I think those Asus cards have 3 years on them so you might be able to get it replaced now that they've (supposedly, according to Gibbo) instituted proper support channels for the UK.

Even ATI tool screwed up, I set to find the maximum GPU/MEM speeds and it was pushing the limits up, there were heaps of artefacts on the screen at one point but just said "no errors" and kept on going 'til the card temporarily died and I had to restart the computer :/
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Hadn't noticed this bit, if Atitool hasn't found the clocks automatically it may be that either the card's faulty or that the driver installation was corrupt. Remove all the drivers, run DriverCleaner, and try reinstalling, hopefully you don't have yet another bad card on your hands...
 
I've just used DriverCleaner now actually, doesn't seem to of made an awful lot of difference unfortunately :(

The old card was indeed in warranty, it wasn't really faulty as such though, just a tad noisy, it works fine, very quick compared to this one and never crashed once, so I doubt I could send it back on those grounds, I've put it on ebay now anyway (stating it's faulty of course!).

Going to install ATI Tool again :)
 
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