AIW 9700 Pro, A7N8X - Noise without fans?

They make noise, too.

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submediant
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AIW 9700 Pro, A7N8X - Noise without fans?

Post by submediant » Tue Jun 15, 2004 11:16 am

Greetings all, first-time poster. I skimmed the thread titles for the past couple months so while I don't think this is a duplicate topic, I apologize if it is and request to be linked to previous relevant discussion.

I've been silencing my computers for a couple years now. A year ago I replaced my video card with an All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro, purchased refurbished from Newegg.com. The stock cooling system was easily the loudest source in a previously very quiet computer, so I quickly acquired the Zalman heatpipe-based fanless cooler.

The noise of the fan thus removed, I began to discern "electronic" noise - a slight whine or squeal when the card was operating in a 3D mode. I did not remember any such behavior from my AIW Radeon 7500 that it replaced. It was not a big deal at the time: after all, if I was in 3D, chances are it was to play a game or something else with enough sound that an electronic whine was negligible.

A month ago I replaced my motherboard, an EPoX 8KHA+, with an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe, which, among other things, enabled me to use my card at its full 8x AGP potential. As such, I have found this electronic whine to be much more noticeable. I do not know for certain that it originates with the card itself, but it is my suspicion given its sensitivity to what is displayed on the monitor: the whine no longer ceases when I exit a 3D mode, but its nature changes. It changes pitch, for instance, if I suddenly open a white window against a dark background; the whine does not come from the monitor.

Is this a common thing - having electronic components make audible noise? Or did I get a bad video card and not discover the flaw until well after I could have returned it?

system specs: Athlon XP 2400+, Thermalright SLK-900A, Zalman 92mm fan controlled by Zalman front-panel controller (reviewed here and elsewhere); ASUS A7N8X Deluxe with fanless northbridge cooler, 2x256MB + 512MB = 1024MB PC2100, All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro, Zalman HP80a (I think); Seagate 120GB ATA-100, 8MB cache; Enermax Noisetaker-series power supply (little over 400 watts. This PSU is the source of another whine but that will be resolved once I have taken some warranty-voiding action) Audigy2 Platinum, 48x JLMS DVD-ROM, 52x24x52 LiteOn CD-RW; assorted network interface cards.

Rusty075
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Post by Rusty075 » Tue Jun 15, 2004 12:14 pm

Common? No.

Does it happen? Yes.

It often seems to occur with a specific combination of components: a particular motherboard and VGA, or a particular VGA and a certain PSU.

The most common combination seems to be Ati graphics cards and certain PSU's. I happen to own one of these combo's: When my 9500 and one of my Seasonic PSU's (just one, the other PSU's of the same model are just fine) are in the same system they produce a whine that would make dogs howl. But in any other system...silent.

I think its probably a more common thing than we realise, but you have to have a pretty quiet system to even notice its happening.


So there you have information, and sympathy, but no real help. Sorry. :lol: Try A/B'ing out your PSU, if you have another handy, and see if that does anything to it.

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Post by zoob » Thu Jun 17, 2004 12:31 pm

You might want to mute your sound card's line-in. I'm using an AIW9800P, and lots of noise leaks to my Audigy 2 ZS. Squealing goes away when I mute that line.

My Noisetaker hates any 9800 Pro (AIW or Regular flavours). Makes an annoying whine. I'd like to hear what you have planned to silence it!

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