HD 6950 gone crazy loud! Can't control fan speed!

[lesterhung]

Win7 x64, Catalyst driver 11.3, also tried 11.4pre.
Have a HD 6950 flashed to 6970. It has been running stable for 3 days.
I was running an GPU intensive program (GPU bitcoin mining). Right AFTER I quit the program, the fan just went FULL BLAST!

Here is what I have tried and my observations thus far:
1. First time this happens is when I QUIT the GPU intensive program. Fan speed went UP when the GPU usage decline from 98% to 1%. The card now sits at 40C.
2. Tried to set the fan speed manually using CCC and MSI AfterBurner, but no luck.
3. Was able to adjust settings before, but now the card just won't take any fan speed adjustments. Adjusting the clock speed still works, but only the fan speed is not working.
4. Since this occurred after I quit the GPU intensive program, so I thought if i start up the program, the fan will go down, but that did not happen.
5. Reboot also didn't work.
6. Reinstalled drivers, didn't work. Tried 11.3 and 11.4pre.
7. Flash the card back to 6950, no luck.
8. The fan speed sometimes drops down to normal when GPU temperature rises to 60C.
This is so strange, why fan speed go down when temperature rises? But this happens only sometimes.
9. Even if the fan speed does go down sometimes, it always jump back up later. Sometimes 1 hr later, sometimes 1 days later. No pattern.
10. Installed new 11.4 official driver
11. Switching BIOS to non-writable position.

After all these tries, still can't slow down the fan!
HELP!

The fan is VERY LOUD, and I can't live like this!

 

[MemberSince97]

Hi , just out of curiosity, what brand of card is it ?

I had a stock HIS 6950 that was a full on leaf blower. I tried everything to control the fan , to no avail. I RMA'd it , there must be a few faulty controllers or something out there.

 

[RussianSensation]

Have you tried non-beta 11.4 drivers? They were released 2 days ago or so.

Have you tried flashing the card with another brand's BIOS?
There are plenty to choose from: http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/...ufacturer=&model=HD+6970&interface=&memSize=0

Personally, I would try the 880/1250 bios from PowerColor HD6950 PCS+ edition. You get the full shader/texture unlock and the memory maintains HD6950 voltage settings. You can get this bios from post #2 in this thread:

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2221503

Did you check your Catalyst Control Settings? It may be that because you are not using Driver Cleaner, it keeps retaining full fan speeds from your previous settings (same with MSI Afterburner). Just double check the fan speeds for both of these (are you pressing Apply)?

 

[lesterhung]

Hi , just out of curiosity, what brand of card is it ?

I had a stock HIS 6950 that was a full on leaf blower. I tried everything to control the fan , to no avail. I RMA'd it , there must be a few faulty controllers or something out there.

Oh my goodness, that is exactly what I have!
So I will wait for your response once you get back the RMA'ed card.

 

[betasub]

I know you have flashed back to original BIOS, but have you tried simply flipping the swtich to the non-flashable BIOS instead. That will give you factory settings & can rule out the issue being BIOS-related before you start to RMA.

 

[lesterhung]

I know you have flashed back to original BIOS, but have you tried simply flipping the swtich to the non-flashable BIOS instead. That will give you factory settings & can rule out the issue being BIOS-related before you start to RMA.

Before I do that, I need to get this straight.
Switched to non-flashable means it will always use the original factory BIOS regardless of the number of times I've flashed the card? As I have flashed it 2 or 3 times already.
I know the card has dual BIOS. Is the backup BIOS ever touched? Or would it get updated every time I do yet another BIOS flash?

For example:
1. Purchased new card. BIOS 1 is Factory BIOS, BIOS 2 is also factory BIOS.
2. Flashed new BIOS abc. BIOS 1 is Factory BIOS, BIOS 2 is now abc.
3. Flashed new BIOS xyz. BIOS 1 is Factory BIOS, BIOS 2 is now xyz.
Does it work like that? Does the factory BIOS ever get erased?

 

[Mistwalker]

Is the backup BIOS ever touched? Or would it get updated every time I do yet another BIOS flash?

For example:
1. Purchased new card. BIOS 1 is Factory BIOS, BIOS 2 is also factory BIOS.
2. Flashed new BIOS abc. BIOS 1 is Factory BIOS, BIOS 2 is now abc.
3. Flashed new BIOS xyz. BIOS 1 is Factory BIOS, BIOS 2 is now xyz.
Does it work like that? Does the factory BIOS ever get erased?

The backup BIOS (or BIOS 2 in your example) cannot be flashed or overwritten, it's a read-only Factory setting.

So power down your rig, flip the switch, and you're running the cards as if you'd just bought them. BIOS 2 is the emergency fallback if playing with BIOS 1 goes awry.

 

[lesterhung]

The backup BIOS (or BIOS 2 in your example) cannot be flashed or overwritten, it's a read-only Factory setting.

So power down your rig, flip the switch, and you're running the cards as if you'd just bought them. BIOS 2 is the emergency fallback if playing with BIOS 1 goes awry.

Hum??
In my example, BIOS 1 is the one that has factory default, and BIOS 2 is the new flashed BIOS.

 

[lesterhung]

Tried new 11.4 official driver, and also switching BIOS to non-writable position. NO LUCK!