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MSI 3090 and loud popping sounds from PC - capacitors blown?

caff

caff

caff

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I recently upgrade to an MSI 3090 Gaming X Trio.

I've heard two loud popping sounds (like a balloon being burst, but metallic) come from my PC in the last 24 hours. At first I though the first one was a sound effect in a game, but the second one definitely wasn't.

The PC has remained stable both times.

I've noticed the card has been running very hot in the last couple of weeks, certainly much hotter than when I first bought it, but I put this down to playing more intensive 3d games. I ramped up all the case fans to try and maintain temps under 80'C.

Is there a way to check if capacitors have blown on the GPU?
 
caff said:
I recently upgrade to an MSI 3090 Gaming X Trio.

I've heard two loud popping sounds (like a balloon being burst, but metallic) come from my PC in the last 24 hours. At first I though the first one was a sound effect in a game, but the second one definitely wasn't.

The PC has remained stable both times.

I've noticed the card has been running very hot in the last couple of weeks, certainly much hotter than when I first bought it, but I put this down to playing more intensive 3d games. I ramped up all the case fans to try and maintain temps under 80'C.

Is there a way to check if capacitors have blown on the GPU?
Click to expand...

Without taking off the plastic gpu cover you won't be able to see anything at all. If there are no warranty seals then it is usually quite easy to take off the plastic shroud. Check other parts of your system first like the psu and motherboard. Chances of blown caps on a new gpu are pretty rare unless it overheated them somehow.

Here's what your card looks like when cover is off...
https://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/msi-geforce-rtx-3090-gaming-x-trio-review,4.html

And a teardown of the 3080 Gaming X trio


Careful you could void your warranty though.
 
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caff said:
I recently upgrade to an MSI 3090 Gaming X Trio.

I've heard two loud popping sounds (like a balloon being burst, but metallic) come from my PC in the last 24 hours. At first I though the first one was a sound effect in a game, but the second one definitely wasn't.

The PC has remained stable both times.

I've noticed the card has been running very hot in the last couple of weeks, certainly much hotter than when I first bought it, but I put this down to playing more intensive 3d games. I ramped up all the case fans to try and maintain temps under 80'C.

Is there a way to check if capacitors have blown on the GPU?
Click to expand...
Not without taking the cooler off to inspect, you could try and look between the heatsink and the pcb and see if you see any burn marks or discolouration. A popped capacitor would be pretty obvious though, are you certain its not from your psu or any other component?
 
Could also be a loose 12v connection they can make quite a noise - and generally lead to a problem down the road even if nothing was damaged this time.
 
Thanks for the replies all.
Jay85 said:
A popped capacitor would be pretty obvious though, are you certain its not from your psu or any other component?
Click to expand...
vapor matt said:
Are you sure its the GPU popping and not the PSU?
Click to expand...

The PSU is a 5 year old Corsair RM850X. I had a look through the fan slots and noticed a white goo covering a couple of the capacitors...
 
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Post pics if you can - unless they are obviously damaged - sometimes components in PSUs are glued to reduce/prevent whine/hum.
 
lol

Yeah it was quite an unnerving colour...

Rroff said:
Post pics if you can - unless they are obviously damaged - sometimes components in PSUs are glued to reduce/prevent whine/hum.
Click to expand...

Here's a picture of it - I couldn't see any obvious tops of the capacitors gone (where the cross is on top), but the goo here seems to come out of the side of one of them and spreads across two capacitors.

[edit] This looks like standard manufacturing caulk used to prevent movement of components i.e. silence the PSU [/edit]

KNYOzHv.png
 
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Hmm yes according to this Reddit thread, this is normal on a PSU to to stop whine/reverberation...

So now I'm a bit lost... my gut feeling goes back to the GPU capacitors. I'm going to try and see if I can locate anything unusual if I can see anything on either GPU or motherboard.
 
caff said:
Hmm yes according to this Reddit thread, this is normal on a PSU to to stop whine/reverberation...

So now I'm a bit lost... my gut feeling goes back to the GPU capacitors. I'm going to try and see if I can locate anything unusual if I can see anything on either GPU or motherboard.
Click to expand...

Check 12pin and/or 8pin power connectors on the GPU and PSU side if modular for any signs of corrosion or blackening from arcing and/or melted plastic.
 
Rroff said:
Could also be a loose 12v connection they can make quite a noise - and generally lead to a problem down the road even if nothing was damaged this time.
Click to expand...

Ok I've had a detailed look at everything. There is no smell anywhere, and no signs of melted plastic or scorching on the board. I reconnected the 12v connector at both mobo and PSU ends to check too.

GPU also looks fine, no smell, nothing leaking.

The only visible thing that looks a bit unusual is a faint bit of shiny/oily residue (10mm wide patch) on the motherboard, just below the peripherals block and above the top PCI slot. It is around an unused chassis fan connector. I touched it and it doesn't smell. If this is a leak from somewhere, it could be one of the capacitors under the peripherals block, but it doesn't seem big enough.

Bit of a mystery.
 
Is your GPU overclocked? Seems strange you are struggling to keep an MSI Trio under 80C without ramping up all the case fans... Benchmark software possibly but not playing normal games surely?
 
I heard the exact same noise again this afternoon... yet the PC is still operating fine.

Johno said:
Is your GPU overclocked? Seems strange you are struggling to keep an MSI Trio under 80C without ramping up all the case fans... Benchmark software possibly but not playing normal games surely?
Click to expand...

I had MSI afterburner installed, but pretty sure it was on default settings... I installed it to monitor the fan speed whilst gaming, not to apply any overclock. Unless afterburner's default settings are to overclock? Regardless, I've just uninstalled it now.
 
caff said:
I heard the exact same noise again this afternoon... yet the PC is still operating fine.

I had MSI afterburner installed, but pretty sure it was on default settings... I installed it to monitor the fan speed whilst gaming, not to apply any overclock. Unless afterburner's default settings are to overclock? Regardless, I've just uninstalled it now.
Click to expand...

Maybe it's not the PC at all then! MSI afterburner will not overclock by default - it's one of the best monitoring software's in my opinion.
 
Some PSUs will produce a popping sound and it's completely normal, just a relay. Most coming time is turn the PSU on and off, but given the power usage of an RTX 3090 is can happen during normal running too.


Now if it's a bang, starts smelling burnt, your screwed. :)
 
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