evga 7900gt sc "buzzing" ?

[Redbeaver]

I work in the automotive field. I've had numerous opportunities to nail down specific noises in electronics and mechanical devices. Here's what I do-

 

Get yourself a length of rubber or vinyl tubing. something fairly small- small enough to fit your ear. use the other end to pinpoint the problem. Then, when you can identify it- you'll be much better prepared to call a support tech. Tell them which cap, mosfet, or whatever is buzzing, and they'll be much more receptive to an rma.

 

Good luck with your problem.

 

nice! i'll try this!

 

Try clocking the card to reference speeds and see if the problems persists

 

persisted. tried that.

 

 

 

ok, i slam 2 heatsink on the back and front of the card in the chips that r overheating, kinda help abit... i dunno if the actual noise is getting smaller or its being blocked by the heatsink. either way, its not as warm as it used to, so im fine with that. still waiting for reply in eVGA forum.

 

a forum member in xtremesystem suggest i hot-glue the capacitor's hole to totally muffled the sound, and as an engineer grad i know that wont damage the cap, but it might overheat it as it is the intake for cool air to blow into the coil, so i dont think i'll do that...

[Thraxz]

I've gotten a similar problem but I've finally pin pointed it to the power source making the noise, which I'm officially worrying about.

[Redbeaver]

got the final response, will try this afternoon.....

 

Originally posted by sluggo

[br]

Originally posted by redbeaver

[br]wow, thanks guys! i dont have any nail polish or thermal wax, but i do have some glue-gun (easier to remove) to try to muffle it. if it works and everything ok, i also have thermal epoxy, but that'll stick like a b1tch lol so i dont want to void the warranty just yet

 

just another question, dropping some crazy glue and "let them set up for a few hours", that means the PC is shutdown, yes? so it wouldn't heat up? again, i'll try some glue-gun first before putting anything permanent.

 

and, that box with the coil inside, is that an inductor or transformer? its sitting right on the other side of the area that are being circled here:

http://www.evga.com/community/messageboard...?TOPIC_ID=14558

Hey RB -

 

Those are inductors. There's three big one and two little ones on the top side of the board.

 

The parts are used in the part of the board that converts the incoming +12 Volts down to a voltage the GPU and memory can use. The buzzing will get louder whenever the power supply on the card senses that the GPU or memory voltage is starting to sag. The duty cycle on the regulator increases, more current flows through the inductors, and the buzzing gets louder as the mosfets "chop" higher levels of current to the inductors.

 

I like to use hot-melt glue for a lot of stuff too, but I doubt it will work for you here. The problem is that the coils are wound in layers, and I seriously doubt you'll be able to get the glue past the top layer of wire. It's too heavy, too high a viscosity. You want something that's thin and runny so it will wick in to the inner coil layers. Loctite Blue would be a good choice (auto parts stores) if you don't want to use crazy glue or nail polish.

 

This will not void your warranty. This is a standard technique and would/should have been done at the factory had they noticed the problem. I'd recommend the Loctite. Use at most 2 drops for each of the three big inductors and not even half a drop for each of the two little inductors.

 

On each of the big inductors, put a paper towel under one of the open sides, hold the board so that the other open side is facing up, put two drops in and let gravity draw the liquid through. Take the paper away after about 10 seconds and move on to the next one. For the little inductors I would just take a drop on the end of a toothpick and touch it to each of the four corners.

 

Let it set up for 24 hours and then put the board back in. The Loctite is tacky after 10 minutes or so and will not go anywhere after 24 hours.

 

Personally, I'd avoid using Arctic Silver. I believe on their website they say that, while it's not conductive, it is mildly capacitive, and the last thing you want in an inductor is additional interstitial capacitance.

 

DFI NF4 SLI-D

AMD 64 3200+ @250x10

GEIL PC500 (2x512)

EVGA 7900GT KO

Turtle Beach Santa Cruz

Seagate 300GB SATA

Dell 2005FPW

red Clifford the Dog doll sitting on top of the display

 

[Free_Free]

XFX - well, as I remember the story, good luck if you own one.

So tell me good luck.

Btw, I mailed them because my 7900 Gt was (uh, is !) bad, and they answered me quick.

[sky67ro]

I got the same problem with an evga 7600 gt co. Same weird noise coming from who knows where and i could not find the source. I even tested the card on a diferent system with the same result. In the end i RMA it so don't believe eveything you hear. I asked for a RMA number and they replied to me with the approval in less than 2 hours. The second card i got (same model) had issues with artifacts and all kinds of crazy lines during various benchmarks. Actually i did not even try a game, i just ran all the 3dmark programs i could find without success. RMA it as well.

In the end i think best bet is ATI anyway. I owned few of them throughout the years and never had any problems. Oh well! Anyway, try RMA with evga, they have cross shipping so you can get the new cards before you send the bad ones.

 

Good luck

[Redbeaver]

i was going to do that, but evga forum said, if ur card is working, dont rma it lol

 

afterall, everything else worked. just fine. no crash, no artifact. thats a rarety wit 7900GT. just the noise.....

[sky67ro]

well it doesn't work, right? I mean why would i pay hundreds of dollars for a card that requires ear plugs as well. i don't really care if it passes all the benchmarks. The noise (buzz) it is not something that it is supposed to be there, hence it is a damaged card so be brave and RMA it like I did