The horrid sounds from my tower was the NVIDIA card...

[Chopstick Head]

Yes, after I cleaned everything with a can of compressed air, the sounds
persisted. I removed the NVIDIA GeForce 6600 AGP card and the horrible
sounds ceased. I removed the graphics card after trying to play Half-Life 2
after the cleaning, and the game froze up and sounds looped, and then the
screen turned all blue and grey, and when I rebooted, the Windows XP logo
was rather pink with blue stripes! Then the monitor went into power-save
mode because apparently the graphics card gave out.

This is a real shame and disappointment. I bought this GPU about 9 months
ago to replace an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro that did basically the same thing,
except in its case, there was no grill and so the fan fell out of the card
and was banging up against the card beneath it (worst sound I ever heard
from a PC). Although the warranty on that card was dead, I still have the
receipt for this particular card and I am going to get a replacement one way
or the other. I know this thing has a 1-year warranty even without registry,
and the date in on the receipt.

One thing, though... why? Why does this keep happening to me? My guess would
be, because the cards are upsidedown, the fan eventually works loose and
falls out. So why was the damned thing designed to be on the bottom of the
card? So this would happen and we'd have to keep replacing them!? I thought
the grill would make a difference and keep the fan sturdy, but unfortunately
this was not the case. If my 3rd graphics card falls apart I will smash the
PC into a thousand peices and make modern art of it!

 

[Johanna]

Thanks for the update:
You asked: Why does this happen to you?

Well maybe it's a bit hot inside your case..._ You are putting a lot of
stress on the system when playing Half-life.....
Perhaps you overclocked the card or the CPU, but didn't up the cooling
to match that...?
Like you said, perhaps the position of the case has something to do with
it (although it shouldn't - most people use tower configuration!) Mind
isn't though, so I don't have that problem.

Graphics cards don't normally give in for no reason after 9 months, so
you are right to suspect that something isn't right.
(you are also right to suspect that they are not built to last
indefinitely... but it's more like a few years, I guess)

To spare your next card:
-Get some freeware to keep an eye on temperatures inside your machine.
The one I use is 19 dollars, called Hardware sensors monitor. It reports
the temperature of all the different components.

-If it's too hot, do something about that, for example getting more fans.
-Consider upgrading the fan on the card yourself to a super-duper fan. I
am so pleased with my own upgrade. My new fan is both quiet and efficient.

You will probably have a hard time getting a replacment. They'll
probably argue that the card died from normal wear and tear. Pretend
that you only used the PC for MS Office and you'll probably stand a
better chance! But I wouldn't count on getting a refund!

PS -
Jo

 

[Kent_Diego]

This is a real shame and disappointment. I bought this GPU about 9 months
ago to replace an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro that did basically the same thing,
except in its case, there was no grill and so the fan fell out of the card
and was banging up against the card beneath it (worst sound I ever heard
from a PC). Although the warranty on that card was dead, I still have the
receipt for this particular card and I am going to get a replacement one
way or the other. I know this thing has a 1-year warranty even without
registry, and the date in on the receipt.

One thing, though... why? Why does this keep happening to me? .....

Video cards have a very high failure rate. The best idea is to buy brands
that offer a lifetime warrantee like eVGA, XFX and BFG. When the card fails
just RMA the card for a new one, forever!
You can fix your old 9800 Pro with this:
http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=41

 

[Chopstick Head]

I don't overclock anything because I don't even know how. The problem was
that the cooling fan literally fell out of the card in the 9800 Pro, and for
this one it just seemed that the fan itself was badly designed. I don't
think the tower getting hot is going to make a cooling fan pop out? Just my
theory.

 

[caterbro]

I don't overclock anything because I don't even know how. The problem was
that the cooling fan literally fell out of the card

"Just Happened".

buy cards with warranties, and hope for the best.


carl

 

[Chopstick Head]

So this is what things have come to? Spend a wad of cash and have very low
expectations... wonderful age we live in..

 

[Christopher Range]

Yes, after I cleaned everything with a can of compressed air, the sounds
persisted. I removed the NVIDIA GeForce 6600 AGP card and the horrible
sounds ceased. I removed the graphics card after trying to play Half-Life 2
after the cleaning, and the game froze up and sounds looped, and then the
screen turned all blue and grey, and when I rebooted, the Windows XP logo
was rather pink with blue stripes! Then the monitor went into power-save
mode because apparently the graphics card gave out.

Yikes!!! It almost sounds like being halfway to the BSOD!! I have an
ATI Radeon 9600 SE that, I bought in 2001 when I was building my PC.

This is a real shame and disappointment. I bought this GPU about 9 months
ago to replace an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro that did basically the same thing,
except in its case, there was no grill and so the fan fell out of the card
and was banging up against the card beneath it (worst sound I ever heard
from a PC). Although the warranty on that card was dead, I still have the
receipt for this particular card and I am going to get a replacement one way
or the other. I know this thing has a 1-year warranty even without registry,
and the date in on the receipt.

Before you put the replacement card in, fully clean the inside of the
case, make sure no chips and/or, cards are loose.

Was the fan glued with epoxy resin?

One thing, though... why? Why does this keep happening to me? My guess would
be, because the cards are upsidedown, the fan eventually works loose and
falls out. So why was the damned thing designed to be on the bottom of the
card? So this would happen and we'd have to keep replacing them!? I thought
the grill would make a difference and keep the fan sturdy, but unfortunately
this was not the case. If my 3rd graphics card falls apart I will smash the
PC into a thousand peices and make modern art of it!

Upside down.....what are you talking about? I have a full-tower system
and, the only thing I have replaced in my PC is when, I upgraded from a
Soundblaster Live! to, a Soundblaster Audigy2.

Before you start turning the cards into perpendicular and, oblong
frisbees and, the hard drive into it looking like an engine block shot
out of a cannon, give me a call: (Cell)218-391-1280

Christopher