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Static noise Nvidia graphics card
Arehandoro Dec 19, 2016
Hi all,

I have a weird issue that, whilst I believe not really important, is quite annoying.

On a Debian machine <stretch>, with a GTX 970 and the latest 375 Nvidia drivers installed via the repositories, the card woks at normal speeds and fantastically on the desktop.

However, when running a game that isn't graphically demanding*, the card goes bananas and starts making a high pitch noise. Seems a bit like static though not sure if that's the right term for it. For what I've read this could be due to the graphics card throwing a lot of frames per second, but again, not sure if that's correct. Also saw somewhere it could be as a result of the fan speed and the card usage at 100%.

Funny enough, with exactly same machine, if I boot into Windows this hardly happens albeit I encountered it with the Grim Fandango Remastered version for instance.

I have tried to force the "Sync to VBlank" option from the nvidia-settings and use the libstrangle script from GitHub to not avail. Also, just now at work thus not tried yet, I've read on StackExchange and here on the forum of Bumblebee. Is this anything you would recommend? Can be used with on a Desktop or only laptops?

Lastly, the board has an integrated Intel CPU that at the moment is BIOS disabled. Could I enable it and then choose which one to use at startup? Wouldn't be a problem with two different drivers installed?

* Noticed the sound with games such as the previously mentioned Grim Fandango Remastered, Dead Synchronicity, Hot Tin Roof and other 2D or with old 3D capabilities games.

Can I limit the usage on the graphics card somehow? Are there any FPS limiters, equivalents to FRAPS, for Linux? Do you have any recommendations? Have any of you suffered this same issue?

Thank you very much for your help people!
Guppy Dec 19, 2016
"High pitch noise" is a bit vague if the it's fan noise then there are Linux apps that you can use to modify the fan curves with ( can't recall the name tho ).

if it's a a 'brrrrt' that sound a bit like an endless string of tiny farts the your card has blown a capacitor, you can verify it visually ( google image search for "blown capacitor" if you are unfamiliar with how it looks ) - if it turns out to be the case you need to RMA the card.

A final possibility would be coil whine ( sound bite here; https://youtu.be/HP73edpQwgc?t=2m9s ) I've never had this so I don't know what to do about it.


as for limiting FPS, this has been discussed here before;
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/forum/topic/2096?page=1
Arehandoro Dec 19, 2016
Quoting: Guppy"High pitch noise" is a bit vague if the it's fan noise then there are Linux apps that you can use to modify the fan curves with ( can't recall the name tho ).

if it's a a 'brrrrt' that sound a bit like an endless string of tiny farts the your card has blown a capacitor, you can verify it visually ( google image search for "blown capacitor" if you are unfamiliar with how it looks ) - if it turns out to be the case you need to RMA the card.

A final possibility would be coil whine ( sound bite here; https://youtu.be/HP73edpQwgc?t=2m9s ) I've never had this so I don't know what to do about it.


as for limiting FPS, this has been discussed here before;
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/forum/topic/2096?page=1

Thanks for the reply :)

I think is coil whine for the sound of it. However, that is a hardware issue, isn't it? I mean, it should happen independently of the OS and the games played?
Guppy Dec 19, 2016
Coil whine is dependent on what the graphics card is doing at the time - eg. in a 3d game it may change pitch depending on what your looking at. It could become inaudible at very low loads or using a different driver, I unfortunately don't believe it's considered a defect ( much like dead pixes < X isn't ).

If it's very annoying you could try lining your case with open cell foam ( works best for high frequencies ). Visit your local hardware store in the auto section, the self adhesive foam used for engine sound dampening works quite well ( just make sure to not hamper air flow )
Guppy Dec 19, 2016
Looks like this goo.gl/qwA90X

it's fairly easy to cut


edit: image cannot be linked for what ever reason...
Arehandoro Dec 19, 2016
Quoting: GuppyLooks like this goo.gl/qwA90X

it's fairly easy to cut


edit: image cannot be linked for what ever reason...

Thanks!!

Will do and see what can I improve :)
Arehandoro Dec 19, 2016
Quoting: Guestlibstrangle works for me on Grim Fandango Remastered, on Gentoo 64 bit with nvidia 375.26 on a GTX 1060. Without it the game runs at 500 FPS, and with it I get 60 FPS. So maybe there is something wrong in the way you installed it?

Mmm interesting... will double check later at home. Thanks!
Arehandoro Dec 19, 2016
Ok,

So I have done the steps indicated in GitHub and when I try to run the script I get this error:

strangle 30 /home/alejandro/GOG\ Games/Dead\ Synchronicity/start.sh 
dirname: symbol lookup error: /usr/local/lib/libstrangle/lib32/libstrangle.so: undefined symbol: dlsym
/home/alejandro/GOG Games/Dead Synchronicity/start.sh: line 8: support/gog_com.shlib: No such file or directory
/home/alejandro/GOG Games/Dead Synchronicity/start.sh: line 11: get_gameinfo: command not found
/home/alejandro/GOG Games/Dead Synchronicity/start.sh: line 12: get_gameinfo: command not found
/home/alejandro/GOG Games/Dead Synchronicity/start.sh: line 13: get_gameinfo: command not found
/home/alejandro/GOG Games/Dead Synchronicity/start.sh: line 34: define_option: command not found
/home/alejandro/GOG Games/Dead Synchronicity/start.sh: line 37: standard_options: command not found

Unfortunately I don't really get what does that mean.

If I run the game from command line without the libstrangle script works fine though. And if I run a non steam game, like that one, within steam and use the script from the properties to set the launch the game starts but FPS still show as 900 or something like that.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
Arehandoro Dec 19, 2016
Quoting: GuestTry changing the libstrangle makefile to add " -ldl" at the end of the LDFLAGS (a space then -ldl). That should hopefully fix the undefined dlsym error. (If it doesn’t work then move it to the end of both gcc commands as said in this post

And try to "cd /home/alejandro/GOG\ Games/Dead\ Synchronicity/" before "strangle 30 ./start.sh" to help with the "no such file or directory" and "command not found" errors.

That worked! Gosh, finally! Thanks so much! :D
Arehandoro Dec 20, 2016
Quoting: GuestCool, so the coil whine is gone now?

Yep, not a single noise coming from the case anymore :D
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