GTX 460 making weird fan noise (almost like grinding) and Metro 2033 crash.

Hi guys.

I got another Gigabyte GTX 460 1GB (brand new) from newegg.com to SLI. Tonight I discovered that as soon as I booted up my PC, the second GTX 460 would make this grinding fan noise. I nudged it a little upwards to see if it was just placed inproperly into my case and the sound would go away. So place it in again so the sound goes away.

The first game I tested it out with was Crysis. Ran beautifully. But as soon as I try Metro 2033, it crashes on the SPLASH screen, and asks me if I wanted to run it in safe mode.

I clicked NO, of course and exited out. I tried it again, to no avail. I decided to restart my computer and when I go to desktop, everything is in default resolution. And SLi isn't even available to choose from in Nvidia Panel like it was before.

Did I get a DUD, GPU? If I return it to Newegg, I don't plan to get a replacement. I'm pretty much done with multiple-GPU setup. It's just too much hassle at this point when I could just get a GTX 570 for much less than these two cards. Albeit I purchased a single GTX 460 1GB last year and never planned on SLi-ing two of these.

Any ideas or words of advice? Thank you in advance.

Have you 'clean' and reinstalled your drivers, checked BIOS-settings? Is your PSU efficient enough? You should get a new fan for your GPU cooler if it grinds or a whole new cooler -system...zxl

I'd also like to note that I followed the video tutorial on how to install another GPU for SLi. It said to just insert the second GPU and connect the Sli bridge. Enable SLi in the Nvidia Panel, and select the second GPU on the right side where it says "PhysX settings: Processor."

As for Metro 2033, i google'ed into it further regarding the crash and I read that I should try deleting the USER CONFIG file. I haven't tried starting up Metro 2033 since because I decided to go ahead and do a re-install. I'll put up an update later on.

Furthermore, I went ahead and tested several games: BFBC2, Crysis, Crysis Warhead, NWN2, Mirror's Edge, Half Life 2... and they all run perfectly fine. I guess it's just Metro 2033, and more than likely that Config file. The culprit is probably physX settings.

Should I still do a clean reinstall of the Nvidia drivers? I just followed the video tutorial on the Nvidia website. I hope that suffices.

What kind of mobo do you have? Does it require a jumper setting or one of those double-sided video selectors that looks like a short RAM board you have to remove and turn around for SLI? I would refer to your mobo manual if you still have it. If not, check their support site.

What kind of mobo do you have? Does it require a jumper setting or one of those double-sided video selectors that looks like a short RAM board you have to remove and turn around for SLI? I would refer to your mobo manual if you still have it. If not, check their support site.

Snotweasel530