8800GT - Strange Noise

[Voodoo]

Originally Posted by EddieTO

I`m hesitant to send my card back to the States (EVGA). How much would shipping cost? And will we be charged tax? I might just wait for the new cards to come out and pay a little extra to step up to those using the EVGA step-up program.

Just got off the phone with my buddy, she also gets clicking from her BFG 8800GTS. She never really noticed since her PC is in a cabinet with small air ducts about 10feet away.

Could you please ask your buddy if the clicking noise only happens in games and also changes clicking rate when she moves around within the game? The clicking I hear seems to be directly tied to the frame rate within the 3D game.

[EddieTO]

Originally Posted by Voodoo

Could you please ask your buddy if the clicking noise only happens in games and also changes clicking rate when she moves around within the game? The clicking I hear seems to be directly tied to the frame rate within the 3D game.

Yup, I went to her place and it happens both while scrolling on the Vista start menu (but very very faint clicking) and while in 3d apps (yep it varies as the framerate changes AND also changes during different lighting conditions in games.

My motherboard old (HP NODUSM - made by asus for their media centre pc) squealed too under load (CPU load). I am forever plagued by squeaky components. Narrowed it down to those black cylindrical thingies (mosfets?).

[EddieTO]

The same problem on the GTX 8800GTX Clicking noise - EXTREME Overclocking Forums

There`s even a link to a video

YouTube - OCZ 8800GTX Buzzing

my GT does exactly the same.

[Voodoo]

I fixed my card. I went over it component by component and found one that had its top glued improperly. Well, I removed the top, glued it on properly with a thin layer of silicon gel then put its clothes back on and installed it on my machine. No more strange noise and no need for RMA. Voila! I'm not sure what type of component it is but it is square and stamped with BL 121 0737. This was the component that was causing all the noise. It is now quite silent and cool. So, I believe you can now say I'm the only person you know that fixed a 8800GT to the component level. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. :)

[reaverclan]

Originally Posted by Voodoo

I fixed my card. I went over it component by component and found one that had its top glued improperly. Well, I removed the top, glued it on properly with a thin layer of silicon gel then put its clothes back on and installed it on my machine. No more strange noise and no need for RMA. Voila! I'm not sure what type of component it is but it is square and stamped with BL 121 0737. This was the component that was causing all the noise. It is now quite silent and cool. So, I believe you can now say I'm the only person you know that fixed a 8800GT to the component level. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. :)

awesome ill remember this when installing and testing mine.

[Cptn Vortex]

Ok, I'm going to totally be doing this later. Thanks for taking the time to do it!!

[EddieTO]

Originally Posted by Voodoo

I fixed my card. I went over it component by component and found one that had its top glued improperly. Well, I removed the top, glued it on properly with a thin layer of silicon gel then put its clothes back on and installed it on my machine. No more strange noise and no need for RMA. Voila! I'm not sure what type of component it is but it is square and stamped with BL 121 0737. This was the component that was causing all the noise. It is now quite silent and cool. So, I believe you can now say I'm the only person you know that fixed a 8800GT to the component level. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. :)

Really???? Gratz! Mind posting a step-by-step tutorial on how to fix the annoying noise? I`m gonna have to try this hehe. What kind of silicone gel did you use?
Thanks in advance :)

[Voodoo]

Okay, here is what I did. First I have to proceed this with... I am not responsible to any damage you may do to your card nor whatever warranty this process may violate, if any. Now that we got that out of the way. My first step would be to apologize to Hardware Canucks as I had to use a picture from expreview so that I could get a decent view of the component that I fixed.

When I was searching for which component was causing the noise, XFX told me to look for anything unusual. So, to me at least, this meant to check each component to see if there was anything loose that would vibrate when electricity was passed through it. Since I knew that the noise was starting at the back of the card, I checked those components first. All components were very solid until I came across one of the two marked BL 121 0373. The top of this component I could tell was loose with my fingers. Well, as I went to scratch my head about this discovery I was a bit clumsy and my finger graced the top of this component and wouldn't you know that it just fell off. I picked up the piece that had fallen off and saw where the vibration had worn the underside and I also saw where insufficient bonding material had been used in the manufacturing of this particular component. So... I went into McGyver mode.

Here is what you will need...

Screwdriver with a small philips head that'll fit those screws on the back of the card.
Non-conductive thermal paste.
Amazing goop.

I went through my collection of pastes and glues and grabbed my Amazing goop which is a general purpose clear silicon based non-conductive adhesive that is used to really repair anything, its stronger than crazy glue, doesn't melt plastic and also you don't end up sticking your fingers together... Whew that was a long sentence. Anyways... I grabbed a Q-Tip and cut off the cotton end. This left me with a very nice small stick. I gently squeezed some goop out of the tube and rolled the Q-Tip through it so that I had a nice amount of it built up. I then took the top of the component which had "fallen off" (LOL) and places a very thin layer of goop on the side which was the obvious side which reconnects to the rest of the component it came from - the side without the stamp BL 121 0737... Once I put it firmly into place, I held it for about a minute to let the goop bond...

Since I had already removed the terrible thermal paste/pad job that whichever factory did on this card... let me stop there. Let me just say that this was the absolute worst job of applying thermal paste & pads to a video card I had ever seen. It was quite obvious whoever did it was in a hurry and that it was done by hand. Very poorly done. I had cleaned all of it off and applied my own. I use standard heat transfer paste that you'll find in a white tube at Radio Shack. I never bought into the use of artic silver because I get great results from using this standard paste...

Once I got it all together, I reinstalled my card, reinstalled the latest driver and immediately went into gaming. There was much celebration when there was NO MORE NOISE.

Here is a picture of a 8800GT with arrows pointing at the components. The top one of the two is the one that was glue badly on mine... When I say glued badly I mean that the component has a top piece that sits on top. That top part was loose and the internals of that component, which seemed to me to be a frequency filter for power, were visible. I am NOT meaning the component was loose on the PCB itself. This was a loose piece of the component itself.



By the way, I found this thread with people complaining about the very same problem I had with my 8800GT. The first post the guy has a picture which points to the very same type component as these two. The type of component is unknown but I would assume that my 0737 and his 0642 would stand for the manufacturing batch.

RE: 8800Ultra/Mobo Chirping/Buzzing

[Cptn Vortex]

Oh wow, awesome! Now I even know where to look! Thank you sir! You should start a business. $50 per card, to repair the noise issue. I would have paid it.

[Voodoo]

Originally Posted by Cptn Vortex

Oh wow, awesome! Now I even know where to look! Thank you sir! You should start a business. $50 per card, to repair the noise issue. I would have paid it.

Ha! That would probably be a great business. Seriously, I'd rather this knowledge is just spread around so that those with this card that seem to have no other option now have a very viable option. I played for a few hours last night with me card too and due to me redoing the thermal paste, it ran extremely cool. I would bet that a good majority of cards are shipped with really poorly done thermal paste/pad jobs.

Glad to be of help.