Voodoo
Member
I've been lurking here for about a month now and really enjoy this site. I thought that this would be the perfect place to post a very strange problem I am having...
I got my XFX 8800GT Alpha Dog edition in the mail yesterday. I installed it without issue. What is strange though is that when I play a game it makes this ticking/clicking noise. This noise only happens while I am in 3D mode. What is even stranger is that the card runs great. I can play Crysis, for example, at 1280x1024 on high settings at very high frame rate even though this ticking/clicking noise is coming from the card.
I tried three different power supplies to be sure it wasn't the PSU. I have since reinstalled my 7600GT and, even though the games are quite a bit slower again, there is no ticking/clicking. I also checked the fan on the 8800GT while it was in operation, using my finger to stop the fan to be sure it wasn't what is making the noise and it isn't. Is there any reason why the 8800GT would be generating this noise? The noise almost sounds like a hard drive constantly seeking but it is coming from the 8800GT. Very strange.
Tested in again this morning and it is definitely not the fan. The sound is absolutely coming from the 8800GT. If I place my hand over the 8800GT fan, it muffles the clicking noise. If I stop the fan, the clicking noise does not stop. It sort of reminds me of the clicking noise you'd hear on old computers you'd in SciFi movies form the 50's. And this clicking changes in frequency/rhythm when I move my character around within the 3D game. For example, if I look at the ground in Crysis the clicking is "normal speed"... If I look across a bay the clicking slows down... if I look at a bunch of trees the clicking really gets hyper. It is the wierdest thing ever. It is as if the 8800GT has a PDP-11 hidden somewhere under it's heat shield.
I definitely don't want to mess with the card beyond what is allowed. The warranty isn't voided if I add a 3rd party heat sink so I figured removing their terrible thermal paste job - it was really TERRIBLE - and doing it myself wouldn't do any harm and in fact it made the 8800GT cooling run more efficient. I'm disappointed but I will keep looking for answers or have the card RMA'd. I'm interested in seeing what XFX has to say.
I really should have taken pictures of their paste job. There was so much paste between the GPU and the heat sink that I'd venture to say it would have made a very bad trap for heat instead of a conduit. The rest of the paste was these terrible pads that had fibers in them. I removed all those sons of bitches too and put on non-electrical-conductive thermal paste. Worked really good. Its so terrible that this card, more or less, works absolutely perfectly except for the fact that it sounds like there is a 50's style mainframe inside my rig. LULZ!
I got my XFX 8800GT Alpha Dog edition in the mail yesterday. I installed it without issue. What is strange though is that when I play a game it makes this ticking/clicking noise. This noise only happens while I am in 3D mode. What is even stranger is that the card runs great. I can play Crysis, for example, at 1280x1024 on high settings at very high frame rate even though this ticking/clicking noise is coming from the card.
I tried three different power supplies to be sure it wasn't the PSU. I have since reinstalled my 7600GT and, even though the games are quite a bit slower again, there is no ticking/clicking. I also checked the fan on the 8800GT while it was in operation, using my finger to stop the fan to be sure it wasn't what is making the noise and it isn't. Is there any reason why the 8800GT would be generating this noise? The noise almost sounds like a hard drive constantly seeking but it is coming from the 8800GT. Very strange.
Tested in again this morning and it is definitely not the fan. The sound is absolutely coming from the 8800GT. If I place my hand over the 8800GT fan, it muffles the clicking noise. If I stop the fan, the clicking noise does not stop. It sort of reminds me of the clicking noise you'd hear on old computers you'd in SciFi movies form the 50's. And this clicking changes in frequency/rhythm when I move my character around within the 3D game. For example, if I look at the ground in Crysis the clicking is "normal speed"... If I look across a bay the clicking slows down... if I look at a bunch of trees the clicking really gets hyper. It is the wierdest thing ever. It is as if the 8800GT has a PDP-11 hidden somewhere under it's heat shield.
I definitely don't want to mess with the card beyond what is allowed. The warranty isn't voided if I add a 3rd party heat sink so I figured removing their terrible thermal paste job - it was really TERRIBLE - and doing it myself wouldn't do any harm and in fact it made the 8800GT cooling run more efficient. I'm disappointed but I will keep looking for answers or have the card RMA'd. I'm interested in seeing what XFX has to say.
I really should have taken pictures of their paste job. There was so much paste between the GPU and the heat sink that I'd venture to say it would have made a very bad trap for heat instead of a conduit. The rest of the paste was these terrible pads that had fibers in them. I removed all those sons of bitches too and put on non-electrical-conductive thermal paste. Worked really good. Its so terrible that this card, more or less, works absolutely perfectly except for the fact that it sounds like there is a 50's style mainframe inside my rig. LULZ!