Vista + Video Card Fan

[Fishy007]

So the main thing preventing me from running Vista at the moment is the way it taxes my video card.

As soon as it loads the GUI, the fan on the card goes into high gear and the noise is annoying. In XP, the fan would not run at that level unless I'm running a game.

So it seems I have a few options:
1) Get a new card with passive cooling (not really an option as I JUST bought this card...BFG 7600 GT)
2) Get a new fan for the card, one with a bigger radius that will produce less noise (the one I want will cost $50!)
3) Find some way to make Vista stop taxing the card (this is the part I need help with)

Is there any way to turn off the fancy interface in Vista? I've tried changing the look of the interface to match basic Windows 2000, but it's still running the card on high speed.

Does anyone have any advice?

 

[InlineFive]

Between the Themes and Appearance settings you can pull back to a less demanding theme.

 

[RyanGrob]

You say you have the BFG 7600 GT? I have that card also. The fan comes on when loading a game or when I first boot on the computer (when I say turn on I mean to the point where I hear it). I ran the card fine in vista and it never turned on loud unless I went to load a game. Might want to check something with your card- it shouldn't be on all the time in Vista.

 

[Fishy007]

Originally posted by: InlineFive
Between the Themes and Appearance settings you can pull back to a less demanding theme.

I've done that, the level is the same.

You say you have the BFG 7600 GT? I have that card also. The fan comes on when loading a game or when I first boot on the computer (when I say turn on I mean to the point where I hear it). I ran the card fine in vista and it never turned on loud unless I went to load a game. Might want to check something with your card- it shouldn't be on all the time in Vista.

The card seems fine, but the noise is twice as much as it is in XP. If I try to run a game in Vista, it bumps up even more. Have you run the card in XP? Is the noise level the same for you?

 

[Markbnj]

I have the same card, running xp, and I can't say it is very loud at all even when running BF2 or Oblivion. I guess they are more taxing than the Vista Aero UI. I did read some complaints on Newegg about noise before I bought it, but now I wonder whether some of those cards didn't have an issue with the fan.

 

[Fishy007]

Originally posted by: Markbnj
I have the same card, running xp, and I can't say it is very loud at all even when running BF2 or Oblivion. I guess they are more taxing than the Vista Aero UI. I did read some complaints on Newegg about noise before I bought it, but now I wonder whether some of those cards didn't have an issue with the fan.

Dang. Well at least it gives me hope that the problem is solveable. I'll pop in an ATI card and see if it goes nuts. If not, I 'll call BFG so they can tell me to f-off since I'm located in Canada. Then I'll go buy a fan and expense it.

 

[RyanGrob]

I don't receive twice the amount of noise at all. In fact, I notice I receive less fan noise in Vista than in XP. Hope you can get this solved.

 

[dawks]

Just a note, the old (stock) fan on my ATI Radeon X800XL would spin up when I went into MCE (hardware accelerated interface). The fan started making some loud annoying sound, like it was about to die, so I got an after-market one, for $35CND and it works great. Its twice as quiet as the stock one, and keeps the GPU about 7-12C cooler. Its so quiet, I can't tell if it speeds up under load or not. It could be that its just more efficient, that it doesn't need to spin up.

Anyway, imo, the $35 was well spent, and I'd recommend it.

This is the one I got: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835186129 since it fits my card.

 

[BehindEnemyLines]

I have an eVGA 7600GT. It runs at full speed at startup and slows down (inaudible) after Vista is loaded. There's one problem with this card in both XP and Vista: the fan kicks into highspeed (probably full speed) during and after entering standby. This is rather confusing since the fan should either slowdown a lot or stop completely - why go into high speed if nothing is running? One reason why I can't leave the PC in standby as it taxes the 7600GT fan too much.

 

[Fishy007]

So I popped in my X800XL and it's MUCH quieter than the BFG 7600. So that leads me to believe that there's either a problem with the fan or with the card itself. And I have a feeling a faulty fan would be faulty all the time, not just in Vista (under XP the card is silent in Windows). And if I call BFG, they're liable to tell me that Vista is unsupported, so go away.

Any advice besides just using the ATI card? Maybe someone who knows if it's possible for just the fan to be faulty? I can replace that on my own...

 

[Markbnj]

And I have a feeling a faulty fan would be faulty all the time, not just in Vista (under XP the card is silent in Windows).

Faulty could just mean that the fan makes more noise than it should. It would probably be running at higher RPMs with Aero GUI overhead in Vista.

 

[IEC]

Go to SVC.com

Look up Cooling - Air --> Full-Size VGA Coolers

Find one that's compatible with your 7600GT. I recommend the Zalman VF700-AlCu or Cu versions.

For about $30 shipped you can get a much quieter and better performing HSF.

 

[The J]

Maybe it has something to do with the nVidia drivers for Vista?

 

[stash]

What build of Vista are you running? What version is your nvidia driver?

There are some serious thermal issues with certain versions of Nvidia's driver.

 

[Fishy007]

Originally posted by: stash
What build of Vista are you running? What version is your nvidia driver?

There are some serious thermal issues with certain versions of Nvidia's driver.

I'm using the latest Beta Driver from Nvidia (as of November 12th) and the latest version of Vista.

I am aware that the drivers could be causing the fan to spin at high speed. With XP, the fan will spin at high speed until the drivers are loaded, then it drops the RPMs. Maybe the beta driver just doesn't do that yet?

It's odd though as other people using vista + this same card don't have this problem.

 

[SparkyJJO]

My guess it is drivers. Vista drivers are still beta and thermal control settings could be out of whack in it.

 

[stash]

I'm using the latest Beta Driver from Nvidia (as of November 12th) and the latest version of Vista.

What is the version number of the driver? Is it 97.19? What build number of Vista (latest version could different things...RC2, RTM, depending on what kind of access you have. If you are using RTM, you most likely got it illegally).