# x850xt - annoying high pitch noise



## toepk (Jun 11, 2005)

i've checked "Do not change PWM base frequency" thing aswell. Nothing seems to get rid of the noise other than uninstalling atitool, or stopping the fan. any ideas?

Edit: don't know if it matters but, Im using cataclyst 5.6


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## gR3iF (Jun 11, 2005)

hm try rivatuner


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## toepk (Jun 11, 2005)

i've tried rivatuner - and i doesn't make that same noise as atitool does. but there are limited fan options in rivatuner, so i cant control the fan as much as i'd like.


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## toepk (Jun 11, 2005)

WOOPS - brown paper bag time. 

i forgot to reboot.

thanks


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## gR3iF (Jun 11, 2005)

XD hf with atitool


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## Prowl (Jun 12, 2005)

I'm getting this on all speeds other than 100% or if i disable the dyanmic speed settings from atitool and reboot.

Is there any real solution to this? or any idea what is causing it?

The card was getting over 80C just running the High Range Dyanamic Lighting demo and I got warnings from the catalyst control panel about card overheating during the BF2 demo.

Is this a common failing of the X850 XT?

Currently its running jsut my desktop on dual screen at 41C with fan @ 100% (which is seriously noisy)


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## gR3iF (Jun 12, 2005)

i saw one review with an x850xt pe that wasent attached probably with the cooler


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## Prowl (Jun 15, 2005)

I bought a new ATI Silencer 5 rev2 and fitted it, max temp after 30mins of ATI tool running the cube is 60.9C so far, which is a HUGE improvement over the 96C with the stock, After removing the old one I noticed that a blind man could have applied the paste better which probably had something to do with the huge heat build up. I can't imagine the cooler itself was so poor or we would be seeing more complaints.

The heat build up was forcing the catalyst software to downclock my card from 520 to 420!!

I'll report back after a few hours of BF2 and let you have an update.


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## gR3iF (Jun 15, 2005)

omg?
i told you they just put something in the middle and then press the cooler on it


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## Prowl (Jun 16, 2005)

well although the temps are WAAAY lower, bf2 still crashes out big time whenever it feels like it. Sometimes I can play 2hours, others 5 minutes. Just totally locks up the gfx card 

coolmon is reporting an error "out of resources, cannot process command, bearing in mind I've got a Gig of RAM and a 2Gig swapfile on a 10,000rpm Raptor its kind of annoying to say the least. And since the game went gold recently can I foresee this bug making it into the full game?

Any ideas what the problem may be?


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## Prowl (Jul 10, 2005)

turned dynamic shadows down a tad and it doesnt crash at all, weird huh?


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## Millennium (Jul 11, 2005)

*Guide to quietening fan (x800xl)*

Ok I have an X800XL from Asus and the fan noise was really bad. It appears to have a thermal sensor built into the Heatsink/fan (even with wires to the fan!) but i never heard it slow the fan down. This was getting unbearably noisy and would sometimes even rattle.

I used the latest (beta) ATITool to try and keep temps at 54 degrees. This worked wonders and the fan would now idle @ 20-60% in windows. Incidentally I looked for a BIOS mod to lower the fan stock speeds but i couldnt find anything, so ATITool currently seems to be the only way to do this.

Of course, hit BF2 and the temps would hit 55-56 and the fan would drive me nuts. So today I thought 'screw this' and decided to oil the bastard. Little known fact; almost all modern PC fans have a sticker over a brush/bearing/spindle on the side with the wiring. Taking this sticker off and oiling the bearing with normal oil (like cycle oil or whatever) often noticeably improves the fan noise, life, and even speed. 

So here's how you do this on the Asus X800XL. This has a copper cooler and a big plastic (Thin) fan behing a metal plate. You will need to remove the heatsink and fan (probably) from teh card which might well invalidate any warranty as you have to replace teh thermal sticker on the GPU core. Do this at your own risk and if in doubt, stop. I'll try and help if i can. *Read it all first.*

Unscrew the 3 screws on the back of the card on the outside, and carefully unscrew the 2 near the GPU on the tension bracket. Do these _slowly_, and in turn, not 1 at a time. This lil bent metal thing puts a LOT of pressure on the core > heatsink interface as you will see.

Now take the heatsink/fan off the card. The fan header connection too, it only goes on 1 way so really easy to replace. Note the condition of the thermal stuff you will need to clean off / replace the GPU stuff in most cases. Also the stuff for the ram is REALLY thick but thats probably by design i wouldnt mess with that. My card is a bad overclocker anyhow (2-3% max).

Take the 3 main screws from the metal plate on the front of the HSF unit off. Now remove the (different!) machined screw near the edge where the fan is. This should give you full access to the fan (which you cant remove yet lol).

Now remove the 3 screws holding the fan to the heatsink unit. Be aware, you have 4 or 5 different *types * of tiny screw by this point, remember which is which and keep em seperate and with care!

Finally, the plastic fan unit will now be somewhat removable. Pry it away but note the wires to the sensors; you wont be able to get it more then a few CM from the heatsink. On the back of the fan is a sticker (mine was greenish); NOT the asus one (on the front) there is nothing to oil on the front of the fan.

Take off the sticker from the back around 60% of the way to expose the (crappy plastic) bushing and the spindle. You shouldnt need any glue or anything to reaffix this. 

Little point to note, on my fan, here there was _visible yellowing _ of the sticker due _to the heat / friction _ of the fan near the bushing. My card is only like 2 weeks old lol already the heat was startin to show. So glad i did this.

Add a generous drop of oil to the center, and reaffix the sticker. Turn the fan a few times, if you like try and put some oil in the edges (i did) but be careful of the PCB. 

Ok now put it all back together. If you changed the thermal compound on the GPU, be *very* careful when doing this. I did this when i first got the card, and found that the bracket on the back had put so much pressure on the stuff it had all squeezed out to the edges and very little was helping the GPU cool. This was AS5 type stuff (geil). I put a big dollop on the core this time, and DIDNT TIGHTEN THE BRACKET SCREWS FULLY!!! Very important, bear in mind the bracket is designed to be used with a pad, which could never flow away from the contact point like a liquid under pressure. You might wanna put it together fully, then take the HSF off again ** a couple of times ** just to be sure you have this ok with whatever paste you are using. Make sure there are no areas of the core which would not be in contact with the HSF via your paste.

The fan (mine at least) will have a pleasing highish pitch whirr at full speed and will be quieter. At lower speeds it changes speed more smoothly and is even quieter. Not a magical difference, but certainly noticable! It sounds a lot more polished then it did lol, imo.

I hope this mini guide helps some of you out. The heatsink is a nice copper block jobbie but the fan without oil is a piece of cr*p, this should help. Enjoy your graphics.

PS I really hope this works on x850s too !


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## Prowl (Jul 19, 2005)

or buy the arctic cooling solutions for these cards, which are quieter AND cooler


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