Geforce GTS 250 under load causes beeps/squeals from speakers

[beatsme]

I just upgraded from a Radeon 3850 to a GTS 250, and for some reason when my GTS is under any load, from, for example the GPU Folding@Home, my speakers emit a pulsing squealy beep sound about every second.

I have the latest Forceware drivers (190.xx), and my speakers nor soundcard (onboard Realtek Azalia HD) have never had an issue with my Radeon. I don't understand why this is happening - has anyone seen this before? I don't have any IRQ conflicts, so that's ruled out. I literally installed a brand new OCZ 600W PSU with good rails.

Specs:
Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DS5
BFG 1GB Geforce GTS 250
Onboard Realtek Azalia sound
2x2 GB memory
AMD 4800+ CP

I'm also running Windows 7 7600 RTM 64-bit.

This really sucks because I was hoping to run some distributed computing off my GPU, but the sound is unbearable.

[dirtyboy]

Are you sure that's not coming from the video card itself? Those cards do that. My 260 always does that on the loading screens from 3dmark 06.

[beatsme]

Thanks for the response.

It's not from the video-card itself, but rather it's coming from my speakers (the sound), and the video card is directly causing it (in my sound card?) through some unknown channel of interference.

The only way of ridding myself of the sound is to not put any load on the GPU (note: ordinary operating-system load like using a browser or widgets on the desktop don't cause it) by turning off F@H or anything else that seriously taxes it, or to turn off my speakers with the power switch.

I have discovered two new aspects of this problem, which may help in diagnosing what the cause is?:

One: The sound DOES get louder if I manipulate the volume on my speakers themselves, but software volume changes don't affect it (even muting all my sound devices has no effect).

Two: I discovered is that changing the clocks in RivaTuner will actually change the character of the sound. For example, if I underclock my card (normally ~750/1800/2200) to something like 400/100/500 the sound becomes lower in tonal quality and more persistent (it's a continuous beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep rather than beep..beep..beep).

Any ideas?

[CaptNKILL]

If you have an extra PCI-E x16 slot you may want to try that.

Its possible that the card just puts out an unusually high amount amount of interference from one of its components and its probably close to either your onboard sound's DAC.

[Amaury]

It's because you have vsync off in that game/app. the nvidia drivers by default let the app/game decide to turn on/off vsync. most games I've noticed have vsync off by default, which makes sense because when the game dips below 60fps, it cuts the framerate further to run at a multiple of 60hz assuming you have a lcd of 60hz. so what happens the loading screens are running at over 150, 200, or maybe even 300fps or more and there's more load on the graphics card. The squeal is coming from those capacitors on the card. Shoddy circuit design from a $300-400 modern day graphics card. Anything to increase profits I guess. Good article about it. http://theovalich.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/nvidias-deadly-flaw-and-how-to-fix-it-no-more-gtx280-squealing/

The squealing could also be from your pet pig or playing "Deliverance" too loud (nana2)(nana2)(nana2)(nana2)

[beatsme]

Thanks again for the ideas

If you have an extra PCI-E x16 slot you may want to try that.

I do have another PCI-E x16 slot, but for some reason the card is too large and doesn't snap in properly (it bumps up against a heatsink on the motherboard). I'd be worried about having it in there. Chock that up to poor design, but I guess back when they made this MoBo they had no idea how beefy cards would get...

It's because you have vsync off in that game/app. the nvidia drivers by default let the app/game decide to turn on/off vsync.

I checked my settings, you're right it wasn't on by default in the Direct3D settings, but fixing that didn't solve the beeping.

Any other ideas? :(

[xorbe]

get speakers/cables/amplifier with proper shielding

put the exterior back on your case

move audio cables away from video cables

[Inge Jones]

Sorry for reviving such an old thread, but this is directly related, I believe.

I have a GTS250, as part of my new PC received about 2 weeks ago. I get varying tones of "squeal" while playing video games (I play The Sims 3, EA Create-a-world, CitiesXL) that I can pretty much play a tune with simply by tilting my view. It sounds approximately like the old Rolf Harris "Stylophone" and comes through speakers, headphones, and even via an external USB sound adaptor that I tried to rule out problems with the sound card.

The squeal continues even with the sound muted in software - but of course stops if I physically unplug or disempower the speakers. The sound is loud enough to interfere with concentration on the game, and I do need the sound enabled during play as it is part of it!

I am very confused now as to whether to bother buying a different graphics card, or whether some other component could be the mediator of this problem.

CPU: Intel® Core 2 Quad Q8300
CPU Cooler: Coolermaster Hyper TX3
Mbd: Asus P5P43TD (Intel P43 chipset, 4x DDR3, PCI-E 2.0)
Memory: 4GB DDR3 1333mhz (2x 2GB)
Hard Drives: 500GB S-ATAII 3.0Gb/s
Optical Drive: 22x DVD±RW DL S-ATA
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 1GB
Sound card: Onboard 7.1 Audio
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
PSU: 700W EZCool Tornado
Case: Antec Three Hundred