8800GT Whining?

[eyk03]

Hey all, just wondering if any of you other 8800GT owners have the same problem I do. The problem is, anytime a 3D application is loading, my card starts to emit a high-pitched whining noise. I know it's coming from the video card. It's similar to the whine you sometimes hear from a CRT.

I also am 100% sure it's not the fan, I can increase/decrease the speed and the sound doesn't change.

Any ideas on what this is? Maybe a capacitor problem? I really have to figure out if this is going to cause long-term problems, because the card manufacturer's (Palit) "warranty" is:

"If you did not purchase Palit's products directly from us, please contact with your direct vendor for RMA service."

 

[eyk03]

Anyone?

It appears the 8800GTX had the same problem, en masse. I suspect a lot of people have the same problem but just can't hear it over other case fans and normal gaming.

 

[taltamir]

Wow, thats the shittiest warranty EVER. Yea it sounds like a capacitor but what can you do? There is no warranty to speak of. (as sellers always say you only get manufacturer warranty)...

I am pretty sure by LAW the manufacturer has to provide 1 year warranty minimum though...

 

[eyk03]

Seriously. I bought the card out of sheer desperation and since they're all Nvidia reference cards, whatever, right? Well instead of having a standard warranty, that's what they give me. Even if you did buy it from Palit directly, you have to send it to Hong Kong for RMA!

http://www.palit.biz/main/rma.php

I can still return it to the vendor (XPCGear), but not having a video card for two weeks is really not up my alley if something's not catastrophically wrong. It seemed to be endemic to the GTX and if that was the case again, I wasn't going to bother. BTW, they're still in stock on the Palit card, but 1. It's not the cool Blue Orb-ish version, it's a regular reference card, and 2. you'd better enjoy licking stamps if the card breaks and you even qualify to ship it back to Hong Kong.

 

[BFG10K]

This is quite normal AFAIK and my 8800 Ultra does it too; it whines a bit in the main screen of some games but then it goes away during actual gameplay.

Unless the whine is excessively loud and constant I wouldn't worry about it. It?s probably a transistor thing or something.

 

[eyk03]

Ah, thank you. Mine is exactly the same, I only hear it during game startups (except strangely all the time while running Rthdribl), but doesn't really sound bad during the game. I just wanted to be sure it wasn't an indicator that something would fail soon, because obviously, my "warranty" is not worth a pile of mouse droppings.

 

[taltamir]

return it if you still can.. for all you know the capacitor is gonna explode tommorow... Weird sounds are definitely a big warning sound... yea sometimes they go on for YEARS with no problem.. but most of the time expect a puff of smoke and shrapnel.

 

[Martimus]

Yeah. I remember when I worked for a company called ASL, I took a 6700uF capacitor and hooked it up backwards and raised the voltage until it exploded. It make a loud whining sound too, but when it blew up it sounded like a cannon went off! I didn't expect the amount of shrapnel that came from it, and I am glad that I had it tucked away behind the bench, since some of it was embedded pretty far into the wall. It was pretty cool though, and I always wanted to see what would happen if I did that.

Maybe the manufacturer accidentally hooked up a cap backwards? It wouldn't really be a problem until the voltage is raised, but still that is pretty dangerous as I found out.