GPU making awful noises

TristanK · September 9, 2014

Hi everyone,

I have a Zotac GTX 770 4GB edition. I've had it for about a year now. It's working fine, the temps are also fine (never over 81, even overclocked and under heavy load). I have no problems there but it's making this strange noises. It's nothing new because it's been making'em almost from the start but since it works fine and temps are fine and it was just a noise i really didn't care much, but now it starting to annoy me quite a bit. It seems to produce some sort of an electrical sound. And also under load the fans sound really bad. By that I dont mean loud but like squeaky sound and sometimes when the fan starts slowing down it sounds like it's hitting something (like when the kids put a card on the wheel of their bike to sound like a motorcycle). I have checked but there is nothing that the fan could touch.

I can test it later and upload a video.

I hope any of you can help me, tell me how to fix this issues? It would be much appreciated.

Askew · September 9, 2014

Knackered fan bearings maybe, next time it happens stop the fans with your finger and see if the sound stops.

Mateyyy · September 9, 2014

Did you clean the fans recently? Maybe you accidentaly slightly moved one or both fans and they're hitting the shroud or something else on the card, I've encountered this on my 290 and I just had to sort of push the fan back.

Also try what @Askew said:

stop the fans with your finger and see if the sound stops.

The electrical noise is probably coil whine. There's pretty much nothing you can do about it, many video cards unfortunately have this problem these days. A different PSU COULD stop the noise, but I really don't think that it's worth buying a new power supply just to see if that stops the noise.

TristanK · September 9, 2014

Did you clean the fans recently? Maybe you accidentaly slightly moved one or both fans and they're hitting the shroud or something else on the card, I've encountered this on my 290 and I just had to sort of push the fan back.

Also try what @Askew said:

The electrical noise is probably coil whine. There's pretty much nothing you can do about it, many video cards unfortunately have this problem these days. A different PSU COULD stop the noise, but I really don't think that it's worth buying a new power supply just to see if that stops the noise.

I have cleaned them but surely havent moved anything. I cleaned em with compressed air while holding the fan steady with my hand. I'll gently try to move it a bit when I get home.

Knackered fan bearings maybe, next time it happens stop the fans with your finger and see if the sound stops.

Will try that when I get home.

TristanK · September 9, 2014

I can't even imagine how horrible it would sound if I had 2 of those cards in SLI. I've planed to do that but now I changed my mind. I regret taking this one and not MSI 770 4GB TF, I really do, plus I'd have a better integration with my MB which is also from MSI. Well maybe I'll replace it with MSI 780ti TF or 880 TF if that is going to exist. But not just yet . As I said. The card itself runs great