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Graphic card makes weird noise

Silly John Fatty

Silly John Fatty

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 6, 2012
1,812
520
My 7950 Mac Edition makes weird sounds after pushing it a little, I ran a game for a really short while, the fans obviously speeded up and so on. But after I closed the game (5 minutes maybe) I noticed some sort of crackling or ratting noise. I can't tell what it is. It did this last time as well.

I don't think this is normal, is it…?
 
I honestly can't tell what it is, but it's there after having pushed the card with the game, even if I'm only having the desktop open, or browsing safari or whatever. The fact that the card is being pushed apparently starts this thing o_O
 
I did, it does sound like it's coming from the fan. I still have warranty on the card, and I messaged the shop I bought it from a while ago, but they never answered. I contacted them because I get weird stripes sometimes. I was told this is a failing GPU. But other people say it's normal with this card... It happens really very rarely.
 
Definitely get the card replaced then. If you could isolate the noise 100% to the fan it would be great before carrying the card into the shop. I'd replace it with a HD 7970 from MVC if you can get a refund. The 7970 reference card behaves better than the 7950's from my understanding.

I have the 7970 and I get no video banding or glitches under any conditions.
 
I had a similar problem recently. After a while gaming the whole case would start to vibrate. It seemed to only happen at a specific GPU fan speed so I waited until the noise started and noted the fan speed at which it would happen. Then I forced the GPU fan at that specific speed and opened the mac to find the noise source (all of this was done under Windows using a GPU overclocking utility such as MSI Afterburner). I finally found out that the whole graphics card would tend to vibrate a lot to the point it would transmit the vibrations to the metallic bar that's supposed to maintain the card into place. I tried to reseat the card and tighten the screws without any improvement so I moved the metallic bar into open position and left it like this. To move the bar you have to press the white plastic button that's on the inner side of the PCI fan casing and push the whole fan casing to the left. Your problem looks more like your graphics card is failing though but you might want to check if the noise comes from the card and not from the case.
 
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Hello!

Is it possible to repair a graphics card? I mean, is there a place to get original spare parts?

I sent mine back to the shop I bought it from, and they said the warranty does not count because apparently the card was mechanically damaged, damaged by a person. They sent me a picture with the damage, and the card will soon arrive back.

I will see if the card works the same as before. If not, then the people from the shop have damaged the card. This will be fun to prove.
They can not repair it either.

I don't know what to do. It's annoying. :(
 

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Jardins de Vin said:
Hello!

Is it possible to repair a graphics card? I mean, is there a place to get original spare parts?

I sent mine back to the shop I bought it from, and they said the warranty does not count because apparently the card was mechanically damaged, damaged by a person. They sent me a picture with the damage, and the card will soon arrive back.

I will see if the card works the same as before. If not, then the people from the shop have damaged the card. This will be fun to prove.
They can not repair it either.

I don't know what to do. It's annoying. :(
Click to expand...

If that is all that is wrong it is an easy fix. Looks like both pads are still there. With a DOA card next to it would take less then a minute to move over. If pad is gone can likely still be repaired as long as a trace remains. Only if the trace goes UNDER to another layer would that be irreparable.

Frequently if one SM piece gets broken off, more do as well.
 
You would need a DOA card of similar build. Good news on this is that EBay is teeming with burned up AMD Tahiti cards. They are all over the place.

Tricky part is the soldering. Ideally you would have a hot air station. These are small pieces and if you unsolder one end and pull up you can rip other end off. Easiest to coat the thing in solder so it is all melted at once to remove, then get solder off and put on the card you are fixing.

Be aware that as I mentioned, this may not be the only issue. Many is the time that I have tried to repair something like that, done fine intricate work and card is still DOA. Sometimes the damage comes after card dies and someone shoves in a junk drawer. In short, there is no common use scenario where this piece would just fall off for no reason. Would either require brusk treatment or massive heat.
 
MacVidCards said:
You would need a DOA card of similar build. Good news on this is that EBay is teeming with burned up AMD Tahiti cards. They are all over the place.

Tricky part is the soldering. Ideally you would have a hot air station. These are small pieces and if you unsolder one end and pull up you can rip other end off. Easiest to coat the thing in solder so it is all melted at once to remove, then get solder off and put on the card you are fixing.

Be aware that as I mentioned, this may not be the only issue. Many is the time that I have tried to repair something like that, done fine intricate work and card is still DOA. Sometimes the damage comes after card dies and someone shoves in a junk drawer. In short, there is no common use scenario where this piece would just fall off for no reason. Would either require brusk treatment or massive heat.
Click to expand...

I see, I think I may know someone who can do this. But I'll get back to this!

Is it possible that this was a factory damage? Wasn't the 7950 known for its poor built quality? Before I try to repair it, I thought I'd try to get it replaced first maybe.
 
If you still has warranty, contact Sapphire directly, and try to get a replacement from them. According to their policy, they require the card has no external damage as well. However, if that's not damaged by you (and TBO, we don't even know if it's a real damage or the card was like this from the factory). We better just contact Sapphire, tell them the card is not functioning correctly. No need to say the card was damaged by the seller, because we don't know if it's the truth or not. Just get the RMA code, sent them the card, let them check it and decide if they can sent you the replacement.
 
Warranty expired last week I think, I sent the card to Sapphire already over a month ago (beginning of August). They mailed me that they are sending it back now because apparently it has this mechanical damage and so the warranty is void.

Now the question is how do I prove who damaged the card… probably I can't.

Edit: Could the damage on the card look as if it was just poorly soldered/built? Or does it really look as if it was damages?
 
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