video card makes noise when in games

[sascwatch]

I've been running 2 XFX 8800GT's now for some time in SLI and today with the side of my case off i noticed that when I am tabbed into a game there is a slight noise coming from the cards. IT IS NOT THE FANS, I stopped them with my hand and the noise was still coming from them. It seems to be worse when SLI is enabled.

The noise is like a faint tick, tick, tick, tick sound, kind of like one of those lawn sprinklers that move from side to side rapidly.

This is on windows 7 ultimate with the 190.62 drivers.

I will try updating my drivers and see if the problem persists. Anybody else have this problem before?

[Cowboy]

The ticking could be the motor in the fans trying to spin while your physically holding the fan...

[bissa]

he heard the noise before he stopped the fans and it continued after he stopped the fan, so I doubt that.

[Cowboy]

Are the cards heavily overclocked?

[Lima]

Pull the cards out one at a time to see if it stops? Maybe check surounding fans as well, just in case?

[KeepSix]

There are several threads elsewhere about this issue. I had the same problem myself. I'm copying/pasting this piece of someone else's post that worked for me (YMMV):

Some people have found the source of such a noise by using a clean eraser(the pink one on a pencil, the pencil gives extra reach). With the pencil eraser they manage to gently press on the parts in question and then listen for the pitch to change. There is a resistor paste that can be placed over the item in question that will hold it still and make the noise go away or reduce it to an acceptable level.


Some people have found that enabling/disabling vSnch also makes a change in that pitch to an acceptable level. Good luck.

[Cowboy]

Originally Posted by Lima

Pull the cards out one at a time to see if it stops? Maybe check surounding fans as well, just in case?

Also could be a hard drive about to die.

[Lima]

Originally Posted by Cowboy

Also could be a hard drive about to die.

o O... Then the OP better back up first, before doing anything else.

[Cowboy]

All I'm saying is that hard drives sometimes tick when there is something wrong with them... I don't know if it is the cause of the ticking. I have never heard of a gfx card making a "sprinkler" like noise, however I have heard of "coil whine" [coming from a gfx card] which sounds like something scratching on a chalkboard.

[sascwatch]

its definitely one of the video cards, new drivers didnt fix it. It's very faint and I can only hear it with the side of my case off. With the new drivers i can still hear it when i tab into a game, not while on my desktop.

The cards are factory overclocked as they are the XFX 8800gt Alpha Dog edition.

-more testing when i get back from the mortgage broker.