Palit NVidia Geforce 9800GT fan defaults to 40% - help pls

Quietstick · Post by **Quietstick** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 4:17 pm

A quiet hi to everyone...

My new Palit NVidia Geforce 9800GT fan insists on running at 40% despite:
1. Temp 38C (it auto kicks up if hotter than 63C so I know this is the threshold temp.. see below)
2. Rivatuner (latest version) settings of 20-25% which is quiet enough for me (and temp stable about 45C for the card in 'normal' media centre use)
3. Rivatuner is set to fixed, not auto and on both the Forced Hardware and Card settings

What's happening is that the card seems to default back to 40% on a hibernate / restart.

Actually, it comes on at 100% then slows to the default 40%

NVidia have a 'VTune' application bundled with the driver (also latest) but the minimum setting is 40%.

QUESTION: Can anyone please suggest ways I can force the fan to start at 20-25% and stay that way on PC boot so it doesn't wake me up?

(I suspect it is going to be a BIOS mod)

Many thanks!!

EDIT: Asus P5Q3 motherboard, running AI Tune and EPU6 software. Can't see any GPU settings on the motherboard BIOS edit panel.

lodestar · Post by **lodestar** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 9:18 pm

You will need to resort to one of the nVidia BIOS editors such as NiBiTor
http://www.mvktech.net/content/view/2069/37/

Quietstick · Post by **Quietstick** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 10:55 pm

Cheers for the quick reply ^

I've got the latest Nibitor exe file. Do I just run that in windows?

I read elsewhere that you have to flash the bios with this - is this correct?

I haven't run it yet as I was nervous and unsure what to do with it.

Appreciate some more detail.

ascl · Post by **ascl** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 11:28 pm

If you don't want to flash the bios, you can create a scheduler event in RivaTuner that runs "on resuming from Suspended mode" that sets the fan how you want.

I'd suggest you do not try and flash the bios from within windows... use a DOS bootdisk (or USB key) if you are going to try that option.

To create a scheduler event, first you need a launcher item, so navigate to the launcher tab, click +, and give it a name and choose your fan profile (either at driver or bios level).

Then go to the scheduler tab, click +, and choose the launcher item you created in the previous step, then choose the appropriate event, ie Run Task at: "on resuming from Suspended mode".

EDIT: This happens on restart? do you have rivatuner set to run at startup?

Quietstick · Post by **Quietstick** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 12:56 am

ascl wrote:
EDIT: This happens on restart? do you have rivatuner set to run at startup?

Thanks ascl!

The fan runs 100%, then defaults to 40% everytime it boots (cold or after hibernation). It also runs 100% when going from standby to hibernation (about 30sec).

Since the last post, I've uninstalled VTune and it no longer defaults to 40%.

I've set Riva to run at startup and minimise* to the taskbar but this 100% fanspeed is outside windows / Riva.

IN SUMMARY: So I've still got noise on shutdown and startup, but not when it's on. *BUT

Rivatuner is preventing my PC from going into standby / hibernation

Hoping for some other suggestions please?
Or thinking of downgrading to a fanless 9500 or trying an Asus GPU - supposed to be controllable by the EPU6 (motherboard / software energy saving device) to see if there's more control over the fan... or I could 'gulp' flash the bios...

Cheers

ascl · Post by **ascl** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 1:04 am

I am not sure you can stop it spinning up to 100% at boot. This happens very early in the process, the only possibility that I can see is to edit the bios, however, I am still not sure that will work anyway (its worth a shot of course, if the alternative is replacing the card).

Rivatuner will only affect the fan settings once windows is running.... outside of windows, the bios controls it.

The only other option I can see, is you could get one of these: http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/p ... 2_&mID=101

They are supposed to be much quieter than the stock solution. I would imagine it will still spin up to 100% during boot and still be audible, but nothing like the vacuum you have currently.

Quietstick · Post by **Quietstick** » Sun Jul 05, 2009 10:36 am

Thanks for the advice for the aftermarket cooler.

As I don't game and the Asus 9600GT silent seemed reasonable, and the nice shop offered a refund for the 9800, I bailed.

Will post again when I get teh silent card. Supposed to run quite hot, will see what it does!

Quietstick · Post by **Quietstick** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 4:51 pm

In the end I decided for a fanless ATI HD4350 from Sapphire which was a leap because:
1. I had some bad ATI software experiences years ago and vowed never to go back
2. It is massively underpowered compared to the GT9600

However, most of my needs are for video editing and a media centre and this supposedly did HD video ok and was a great 25W power draw! I also had visions of the 9600 burning up the PC when left alone to record, esp in our 40C summers and chickened out!

Video editing (Cyberlink PowerDirector) is mainly handled by the Quad CPU at the moment. Hoping that more software will come online to use this cards stream processors (Cyberlink supports other but not this ATI card).

It was also 1/4 of the price

Happy so far! It runs at under 39C in my Sileo 500 case (closed up, open sides disrupt airflow and it rises to 59C tops). No games.

Thanks to yensteel also who emailed in support of the 9600GT silent.