G550 buzz

[jw]

Hi,
I thought I had a bad monitor but.....
my G550 is driving two Samsung 172N flatpanels (analog). The #1 display has a high pitched buz. I can swap the monitors, the cables, change the refresh fro 60 ~75, no matter what I do the #1 display has this sound. Has anyone ever seen this problem discussed? any thoughts?
thanks,
jw

[jw]

also....I have a g450 that I pulled from another system I had, assuming the buzzing is caused by a bad video card, if I swap out the 550 for the 450 what (if anything) am I going to lose?
jw

[Kruzin]

You'd loose the all-important Headcasting feature

Actually, the secondary RAMDAC on G550 is a little stronger, and G450 can't do quite the res/refresh of G550. If you're not running at high res/refresh, you won't see any real difference.

[jw]

WOW, I had forgotten about that head casting stuff. (and that was the only reason I bought it )

Have you ever heard of the card causing this buz?
jw

[Kruzin]

First I've heard of such a thing

[rylan]

I'd guess you mean the buzzing sound is coming from the monitor. Never heard of a video card causing a monitor to make noises... I would've guessed its the backlight inverter board and/or one of the CCFL tubes making that sound from the transformer, but since it follows the first head thats -really- odd. Normally you'd only head a buzzing sound in a CRT from the high voltage parts (or the vsync chip if its dying) if its being overdriven or driven with incorrect syncs,..

[jw]

Originally posted by rylan
I'd guess you mean the buzzing sound is coming from the monitor. Never heard of a video card causing a monitor to make noises... I would've guessed its the backlight inverter board and/or one of the CCFL tubes making that sound from the transformer, but since it follows the first head thats -really- odd. Normally you'd only head a buzzing sound in a CRT from the high voltage parts (or the vsync chip if its dying) if its being overdriven or driven with incorrect syncs,..

these are analog monitors, what about the syncs?
any more thoughts?

If there isn't any adjustment I'll swap out the cards tomorrow
jw

[jw]

I thought I should report my initial findings.
I pulled the g550 and installed an old g450. The buzzing that had been so noticeable was about 50% as loud. I then installed the drivers for the monitors and the buzzing disappeared…totally.
I was happy! But wanted to confirm my observation. I then installed the wrong drivers for the monitors and the primary monitor had the slight buzzing sound once again (the secondary had none). I changed everything back to where it should have been (correct drivers) and I had silence once again. I then pulled the g450 and put the g550 back in. The primary display buzzed very loud the secondary slightly buzzed. I then installed the correct monitor drivers and the secondary got quiet and the primary continued to buz very loud. I also noticed that using the g550 I had to set the brightness on my primary display to a higher value (70 vs 40) in order to have similar display. With the g450 the brightness is set at 50 vs 40. So something isn’t right with the g550.
Now then….last year I lost two monitors over a couple of months time frame. They were crt’s and the first went out with a high buzzing followed by smoke and flames, very dramatic. The second failed a couple of months later…a quiet, smelly death. I assumed that time had caught up with them (three years old). I now start to question whether or not the video card contributed to their deaths. We’ll never know for sure but I wanted everyone to know what I have experienced.
I am now gun shy and would like to know if any other video card manufacturers have a dual head card that gives as good (or almost as good) 2 d. I'd like to keep the cost @ $150 or so.
jw

[jw]

Well now I have a new problem.
I find that with both monitors up and running (quietly I might add) my system crashes after about 10~12 minutes. I hear the hdd click and then 15~30 sec later a reboot occurs.
I have never had this type of problem before pulling the g550 and replacing with the g450.
In order to be able to use this computer I turned off the second display via the display properties. Everything is peachy with just one up and running.
Can anyone guide me to correct this problem?
wj

[Wombat]

Sounds like a power problem, if the drive is acting up. Could you enable the second display, but keep the second monitor off, to see if the computer still misbehaves?

HD clicks can be bad. It could be a thermal problem though. Can you take the case off, or increase airflow at least temporarily?

[jw]

Hi,
Remember, I had no problems until I changed cards.
I did enable and turn off and same problem.
System is water cooled with chiller….case temp is 26, cpu 27….I don’t see this as an issue.

I was getting the shut down consistently and then………….
Within the display properties I changed the selection for ‘use this device as the primary monitor’….and I have been up with no hiccups for 55 minutes.

Thoughts about this?????

jw

[jw]

I spoke too soon
several minutes after posting (and still on line) I crashed again

if anyone has a clue I would appreciate their insight.
jw