GFX card noisy fan?

therecklessone

Bought myself a Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro Atlantis 128MB "Fireblade Edition", and its become a real pain in the ass.

I've got the PC switched on at the moment, and the noise coming out of it is unbearable. I finally (definitively) narrowed the source down to the fan on my card. Now I gather from the Sapphire community forums that this is a recurring theme with the card, and will more than likely necessitate a new card, or a replacement fan at the least.

Before I start RMAing the card, can anyone confirm for me if the problem is being caused by an insufficient power suply. This will probably sound like a stupid request to those in the know, but what the hey...

PC specs:

Packard Bell ixtreme 9200i
MSI MS-6309 Mobo
P3 1GHz
1x128MB + 1x256MB RAM (133 MHz)
Saphire Radeon 9600 Pro Atlantis 128MB
HDDs: 1x40GB Quantam Fireball + 1x160GB WD 8MB cache
Samsung DVD-ROM
Sony CD-RW
FSP235-60PNA(PF) PSU [this also provides power to the monitor]
DC Output 235W
+3.3V - 14A, +5V - 22A, +12V - 8A

Is it possible (or highly probable) that the fan is merely spinning at a high rate to compensate for the poor power supply? If I get a new PSU will that solve the problem?

Thanks in advance

unkel

That PSU won't cut the mustard I'm afraid. You'd better invest in a decent PSU, see COL_LOKI's post here for what to get

If the fan on your card is still noisy, you could use the completely silent (because it is passive) Zalman VGA heatpipe. I've one on my 9600pro

Woden

if its a known issue with the card then i doubt its a psu problem, i had to rma my powercolour 9800 do to a noisey fan also i think it was papillion who had a thread on the komplett board about a similar problem. if the psu can power the card ok and the rest of the psu ok i doubt it will struggle with the little fan on a graphics card

therecklessone

I wish things were simple...

Dataisgod, I see what you're getting at, but what I *think* may be happening is that because of the PSU the fan on the card is having to work extra hard to compensate. Is this a plausible explanation?

On top of the fan noise, I can't get the bloody thing to run at AGP 4x, despite the mobo being 4x compliant. There is no option in my BIOS to manually select the AGP setting. It appears to be a Packard Bell modified AMI BIOS, and when I checked the MSI website for BIOS upgrades they only have up to v1.9, while my current version (from the PB support site) is v2.1. I've tried changing the AGP setting through the ATI control panel SMARTGART tab, but the PC won't boot up on restart.

I finally checked the VIA website (chipset is VIA Apollo Pro133A) and they're saying that ATI disable AGP 4x for VIA chipsets because earlier VIA chipsets are only 2x. Does the ATI website have anything on this? Bloody sure they don't...

To top it all of, any time I try to play games I get random or constant crashes. Mafia crashed maybe once every 5/6 times I played it, but I have yet to get further than 5 minutes into Max Payne 2 without it all going pear shaped (I know I should really have a better system for MP2, but I'm running it quite a low setting and it still forks up)

I'm getting increasingly frustrated with the whole thing. It took 6 weeks to resolve a problem with a new HDD I got recently, prior to that my new CD-RW had to be RMAed. Is there any chance I can get some hardware that (a) works, and (b)doesn't take years off my life?

I'm on the verge of calling it quits with this PC and starting to put together a new rig. Anyone else got any suggestions?

Col_Loki

I *think* may be happening is that because of the PSU the fan on the card is having to work extra hard to compensate.

No this will have no effect on the GFX fan whatso ever, the noise level your talkin about means it might be faulty.... i have no experience with the fireblade edition but i know the normal GFX fans can be annoying.

To top it all of, any time I try to play games I get random or constant crashes

Heres where a new PSU somes into things. When the system is under strain ie when playing a game it requires more power....... from the looks of things the PSU is struggling with the new much more powerfull card and is causing the restarts.

pop in a power supply like this...http://www.pc-look.com/boutik/product_info.php?products_id=607 and you shouldnt have this problem. It will also power current systems no problems and is pretty quiet also (im using this PSU)

On the GFX card fan thing you could always put a new fan on it....... try www.hitide.ie for the artic cooler which is ultra quiet and cools very well (they also have great PSU's but a little more expensive).

therecklessone

Thank you.

PSU I *may* have another problem on that front. The monitor I have (Packard Bell A726) is powered directly from the existing PSU. Rather than a power cable, I have a power transfer cable from the PSU to the monitor. Do I:

1. Buy the PSU you suggested, and then look for a standard power cable for the monitor. Will that be possible?

or,

2. Buy one of the very few PSUs I've seen that have the power output socket I require for the monitor. I've only seen two, a Q-Tec (I know enough to stay away from this) and a Vantec Ion 400B (VAN-400B). I've never heard of Vantec before, and the only place I've manged to find selling the PSU are charging close on €100 with shipping. Any ideas?

On a related (and possibly rather stupid ) topic, am I right in thinking that all of the pictures I see of PSU's show the fan on the "top" of the unit for display only, i.e. when placed in the PC the fan should face towards the centre of the PC rather up towards the top of the case?

Finally, on the AGP setting...is it true that even if I did manage to set it to 4x I wouldn't notice much difference? I've seen this mentioned in a few places during my trawl of the net.

Thanks for the help. Someday, somebody will invent the idiot-proof PC, until then I'll rely on the helpful suggestions of those like yourself.

Col_Loki

Buy the PSU you suggested, and then look for a standard power cable for the monitor. Will that be possible?

Yea that might be a problem altight. Im not 100% if its actually doing anything except taking up one less wall socket (ie im not sure if its being used as a transformer - very unlightly i think).

I might have an old monitor knockin around that i could experiment on and let you know for sure, cause i dont want your monitor blowing up.

TBH id say your system would be fine with a q-tec as it doesent require that much power..... even though i generally recomend avoiding them its just i wouldnt like to tell you to pay €100 as thats crazy.

Theres a good chance the ordinary one will do and just getting a kettle lead and plugin it into the monitor will be perfect (ie plug it into the end where it goes into the PSU)....... ps kettle leads are the same as PC leads !!

On a related (and possibly rather stupid ) topic, am I right in thinking that all of the pictures I see of PSU's show the fan on the "top" of the unit for display only

Yea thats only for show, its totally unpractical to have it fitting with the fan at the top. It will act as a case fan the other way while cooling your PSU also.

Finally, on the AGP setting...is it true that even if I did manage to set it to 4x

I know the difference between 4x and 8x is tiny but im not sure about 2x and 4x...... i think it would be far more noticable difference .

Someday, somebody will invent the idiot-proof PC

lol, the ammount of people who flick the little red switch at the back of PSU's ..... its so funny (almost did it myself years back )

therecklessone

Originally posted by COL_LOKI


I might have an old monitor knockin around that i could experiment on and let you know for sure, cause i dont want your monitor blowing up.

Cheers. I'm gonna start looking for specifics from Packard Bell on that monitor (I won't hold my breath...)

The card is out of the PC until all this gets sorted. Whats really strange is that the original rather decrepid GeForce2 MX I've reinstalled is running at 4x! Obviously there is a hardware clash somewhere, and I'm going to get onto ATI support about it. I see I'm not alone on this one as well...