XFX Radeon 4890 XXX Hissing and Flickering Problems

[JAPPO]

My XFX 4890 XXX edition video card makes loud hissing sounds whenever I do something graphics intensive like play games. If I enable V-sync the sounds significantly settle down, but are still very audible.

And just the other day it made a bunch of hissing sounds when I was at my desktop and reverted Windows 7 to a less GPU intensive theme, without the Aero effects. I restarted and it worked normally again.

Also, I use a Dell 2709w monitor with it, and twice every hour, sometimes it's just once or twice every 4 hours or so, it will flicker for about two seconds and show the "DVI" symbol at the top-right of the monitor. VERY annoying but tolerable, I suppose.

Help would be appreciated...

Also, i've heard of "flashing bios" or something, but I have no idea what that means. If you're going to suggest it, please explain how I would do it.

 

[Shane]

Im not sure about the flickering problem....have you tried re-installing your drivers and updating DX manualy?

Whats your temps?

As for the Hissing.....Mine makes a slight hissing too but that the fan,Its just they dont put very good coolers on,Mine runs 58c idle lol.

If you hear any sort of sqeel though,I would send it back,I sent my first one back because of a squeeling noise and apparently its common from a coil or something on the pcb.

 

[JAPPO]

Im not sure about the flickering problem....have you tried re-installing your drivers and updating DX manualy?

Whats your temps?

As for the Hissing.....Mine makes a slight hissing too but that the fan,Its just they dont put very good coolers on,Mine runs 58c idle lol.

If you hear any sort of sqeel though,I would send it back,I sent my first one back because of a squeeling noise and apparently its common from a coil or something on the pcb.

Yeah, it definitely squeals. It doesn't sound normal, but I wonder could this damage my card or could that have caused the sudden change to a less GPU intensive windows 7 theme? Because something is wrong with the card?

And yes it's not a driver problem. I have latest drivers, reinstalled several times. Latest version of DirectX too. Sometimes it even flickers when I'm at the login screen.

Dunno how to check temps, but I don't *do* that much. I can't imagine it being hot.

 

[bomberboysk]

Im not sure about the flickering problem....have you tried re-installing your drivers and updating DX manualy?

Whats your temps?

As for the Hissing.....Mine makes a slight hissing too but that the fan,Its just they dont put very good coolers on,Mine runs 58c idle lol.

If you hear any sort of sqeel though,I would send it back,I sent my first one back because of a squeeling noise and apparently its common from a coil or something on the pcb.

Yup, called coil whine. Basically if a coil gets wound and it matches the resonant frequency of something or other it causes it to whine. Cant totally recall the exact reasons of it but its something along those lines. Its more annoying than it is harmful.

 

[JAPPO]

Yup, called coil whine. Basically if a coil gets wound and it matches the resonant frequency of something or other it causes it to whine. Cant totally recall the exact reasons of it but its something along those lines. Its more annoying than it is harmful.

Sooo that wouldnt cause the oddity I described? it won't do anything at all except be annoying?

 

[bomberboysk]

Sooo that wouldnt cause the oddity I described? it won't do anything at all except be annoying?

Nope, coil whine is just an annoying side product of electronics. I would RMA The card personally, may be a hardware issue..

 

[Shane]

Nope, coil whine is just an annoying side product of electronics. I would RMA The card personally, may be a hardware issue..

Yeah i would RMA it like mentioned,My first 4890 had this coil whine,It was annoying.

My new one does not do it at all....just the fan is a bit noisy but thats expected for stock cooling,I may change the cooler.