Video card making high pitch noise!

I can hear high pitched noises better than about anyone I know. When I scroll a webpage I can hear my video card (I assume) making a high pitched whine. Also when entering quickmask mode in photoshop, and moving the cursor over the red area, it does it loudly too. Is it an inductor or something on the card? Half tempted to cover every inductor in epoxy (that probably won't help). LOL.

Comments? Anyone else affected by high pitched things or able to see flickering from 75hz down? My monitor must be 85hz or it drives me crazy and hurts my eyes!!

I guess I have a "fast" brain! lol

I can see flickering at 75 down also. High pitched may be tinnitus.

Mine makes a highpitch sound too, do you have an Antec PS? I think it has something to do with the PSU cause it only happens when there is a load on the PS.

High frequencies are hard to pinpoint. There's a good chance that it's coming from your monitor and not the video card. You are correct that it's usually an inductor (coil, choke or transformer) that is vibrating under load.

I had a CB radio that squealed when the mike was too close to the power supply. The supply was reverberating based on load, and the load varied with the transmitted signal, so a feeback loop was established. Soaking teh power transformer in epoxy did quiet it down.

I also have a laptop that puts out such RF that I can hear it on an AM radio 30 feet away. I can hear the different patterns that are drawn on the screen (mostly black VS mostly other colors). It's kind of cool when it's not annoying.

Daniel

cyberhobo: nope, it's not that. It only does it when I move my mouse over certain areas, like in photoshop over a document with the text editing tool on. As soon as I'm out of that window, it stops. I turned on the stereo and it's booming loud over my head and I still hear it through the music! (@#*$&.

gessner17: nope, powerman PS. The Gfx card is a 5900tx geforce.

Daniel: I don't think so, as the old computer on this monitor didn't do it. I just disconnected the old computer, and put this in it's place. And I can move my head down by the tower and hear it louder. My cellphone interfers with radios (turned on volumen down even), and will actually make my computer speakers make a noise when the power is turned off and unplugged from them!!! What's even more crazy I had it sitting in the bathroom and it was sitting on the counter making a call and I heard the SAME NOISE it puts on the radio/etc only like vibrating on the counter!!!! I guess the humidity was conducting or something!!! I wonder what the ouput wattage is on this cellphone. :green:

1) flicker drives me nutz too. (part of why I can't read with a Petzl LED headlamp on low). I only use flatscreen monitors now.

2) I had a similar whining issue and I shut everything down, took the cpu outside and blew the #*#*@! out of it with compressed air. Pulled all the cards and blew out the cards, slots, etc, and re-assembled. That was it. I'm still thinking my video card may have shifted in the slot just a fraction.

Hm....come to think of it, after I did a massive dissasembling and cleaning project on my PC, it went away also...forgot about that.

The audio on my Asus P4PE motherboard makes noises whenever I move the mouse. It's apparently common with Asus.

I now use a Sound Blaster Live 24-bit PCI card for audio, and I don't have the noise.

That's pretty much in the normal range for most people. Any refresh rate below 75Hz will generally cause greater eye fatigue.

IsaacHayes said:

Anyone else affected by high pitched things or able to see flickering from 75hz down? My monitor must be 85hz or it drives me crazy and hurts my eyes!!

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It's probably the fan on the card itself if you have one. While the case is open and you hear the whine use an eraser on the end of a pencil to stop the fan while it's running. You should hear the noise go away. If it does the fan bearing is probably shot and the fan will need to be repaired or replaced. Sometimes just shifting the bearings by stopping the moving fan will cause the noise to go away. If the sound doesn't go away with the pencil test, it's probably your core fan. The same procedure applies.

I also recommend flat panel monitors. And don't forget to enable ClearType if you are running XP. I guess Linux has something similar. I hope I never have to look at another CRT, and I'm not particularly sensitive to the flicker. These LCD things are just easier to read.

I don't think LCD monitors generate any flicker, but I'm not an expert. CRTs of course need to have the phosphor repainted constantly, but I don't think that's the case with LCD. Has anyone ever noticed flicker with an LCD monitor?

I'd reseat the card and temporarily disconnect any extra fans, CD Drives, and HD's for a test. That'll free up some power so that video card can breath easy and then run a graphic intensive program to heat it up.

edit: I just want to clarify that the sound is still there with the monitor off?

IsaacHayes said:

...My cellphone interfers with radios (turned on volumen down even), and will actually make my computer speakers make a noise when the power is turned off and unplugged from them!!! What's even more crazy I had it sitting in the bathroom and it was sitting on the counter making a call and I heard the SAME NOISE it puts on the radio/etc only like vibrating on the counter!!!! I guess the humidity was conducting or something!!! I wonder what the ouput wattage is on this cellphone. :green:

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By any chance is it a Nextel? Not that there's anything wrong with that.

zespectre & gessner: hmm I had the case open when I put on a new HS, and my pc didn't post- it was the vid card. I jiggled it and it worked then. So Perhaps I need to take it out and re-seat it. Maybe there is a pin not making good contact. Just like a light with a driver and you put resistance in there and it arcs and makes a wine. I will try this and report back!!!

tdurand: this definallty isn't fan whine. This way to high pitched for that. and is digital/electrical in nature as it only happens when you move a graphic or scroll. A fan wouldn't do that, it would be mroe random.

eluminator: this monitor is as clear or clearer than some LCD's. It's only 17" but that's why I've kept it. Plus it will scale to many resolutions where a LCD can't without crappy/blurry interpolation. That and LCD price and dead pixels lottery. :green:

Arkayne, yup I'll re-seat the vid card and see what happens. Let me test with the monitor off right now. Hmm sound changed pitch, and got quiter. I tightned the screw connections on the connector to hold the cable in tighter and it's a little quiter down there. Now makes more of a high pitch chirp/click instead of constant whine. I'll still re-seat the card, I need to blow some dust off the CPU too.

PW: nope, cingular. LG 3100 or something.

IsaacHayes said:

PW: nope, cingular. LG 3100 or something.

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Ok, one theory busted. My Nextel interfderes with everything and it seems to be due to the nature of TDMA transmissions. I think that Cingular uses CDMA but I'm not positive of this.

Good luck on re-seating the card! Those high pitched whiunes are hard to trace as they seem to come from everywhere. I'm one of those people who can hear >15khz also and many monitors drive me nuts.

IsaacHayes said:

eluminator: this monitor is as clear or clearer than some LCD's. It's only 17" but that's why I've kept it. Plus it will scale to many resolutions where a LCD can't without crappy/blurry interpolation. That and LCD price and dead pixels lottery. :green:
.

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Okay, so quit complaining about flicker

I have 3 Samsumg LCD monitors and 2 of them are over 3 years old. No dead pixels and no flicker either. You can't kill an LCD monitor with a baseball bat. The first one cost me $675 but the one I bought last month was $240. And they all have DVI and analog inputs.

Mine are 17 inch. Yours are 16 inch at best. Yeah, mine's bigger than yours!

Eluminator: this monitor is fine. It's when I go to use a computer or service someone elses other than my own. They are like what flicker? and I'm about to puke! Worst was when I had to take a 2hr test on a computer to get into college, and the test comp was locked out from tampering with. 60 awful hertz (more like hurts, lol). I felt dizzy the rest of the day ugh :green:
Dead pixels I mean as if you by one online most policy is replacement only if more than 7 dead pixels. So you might end up wiht one that has them and stuck with it. Just one even in the corner would drive me nuts! Glad to see your monitors backlights are still working after 3 years! This monitor is 10 years old!

gadget_lover said:

I also have a laptop that puts out such RF that I can hear it on an AM radio 30 feet away. I can hear the different patterns that are drawn on the screen (mostly black VS mostly other colors). It's kind of cool when it's not annoying.

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I'll bet you could reconstruct the contents of the screen using that sound. I read how it's possible to read someone's screen just by using a photoresistor and some electronics to pick up the minor flickering from each pixel being updated.

I can barely stand a 75Hz refresh rate on a CRT -- mine is up at 95Hz and is quite pleasing, although I prefer reading on an LCD more. It just seems "softer" to me.

I know what you mean about the dead pixel thing.

I bought all mine on-line and got no dead pixels, but maybe I'm lucky.

I have an ancient refurbished 15 inch LCD monitor that has been modified to have an NTSC video input. It has about 8 dead pixels. Ordinarily they aren't noticeable to me, and I don't think they would be noticeable to most people. I don't remember when I would see them. It may be when displaying an all black screen or an all white screen that they are noticeable. In such conditions they do stand out like a sore thumb.

I'd still be using it as my second monitor if it was 17 inch. Displaying a desktop across two monitors, one 17 and one 15, got to be too bizarre, although I put up with it for a year. The display somehow didn't seem as sharp either. But the dead pixels weren't a big problem.

I have 2 samsung 15" LCD that I bought a very long time ago, probably 6 or so years. They are still bright, aren't faded and have no dead pixels. Cost nearly $700 at the time, but it was worth it.