GT 240 VG-N240D5-512I Fan is super loud, will new bios help?

[azngorilla]

So I got a gt 240 yesterday and the fan is super super loud. This is frustrating because the card is really cool (as in low temperatures). It is idling at around 28C. However, using MSI afterburner, the lowest that I can set the fan is 50%. Even at 50% I can hear it above all of my other fans (there area  lot of them).

Anyway, changing drivers didn't help anything. So I checked the gigabyte site for downloads for this card and found there there was a new bios released in January of 2011. The description states that it reduces fan noise, which sounds like a god send.

According to CPU-Z my GT 240 is using bios version: 70.15.2c.00.06.
The newest bios that I see available for download is: 70.15.45.00.07

So I have a few questions:
First, does anyone know if the new bios will actually get the freaking fan to run below 50%. It's driving me crazy, plus it's not even necessary to run at that speed to cool the card at idle.

Second, how do I update the card's bios? I downloaded the file but this doesn't seem to be an executable file (like the evga motherboard bios updates I get).

Third, realistically, what are the risks here? People keep saying that I might brick my card? Seriously? Brick it using something that the manufacturer has provided?

Fourth, what would happen if I would to take the fan off the card and just strap a 120mm case fan to it? Would the card freak out because it would think that it doesn't have a fan? One of my good quality 120mm is going to cool better than the stupid little 80mm that is provided, and be a heck of a lot quieter even at max RPM.
Alternatively, would a 120mm fan run if I plugged it into the 3 pin connector that is on the GT 240 Card? Would the card know what to do with it?



Some system specs in case you are wondering:
Core i7 860 @ 4.0GHz
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
EVGA P55 LE
80gb Intel SSD and 3 x 640GB WD drives in RAID 0
XFX HD 4890 (primary card)
Gigabyte GT 240 (for 3rd monitor and dedicated physx)
Antec True Power New 750W
8gb (4 x 2gb) G.Skill DDR3 9-9-9-24
Cogage TRUE Spirit w/ Scythe Slipstream 1900RPM
Antec 900 case

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

If you use this program you can edit the cards BIOS(firmware) and reduce the default speed of the idle fan.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Video-Tweak/NVIDIA-BIOS-Editor.shtml

[azngorilla]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

If you use this program you can edit the cards BIOS(firmware) and reduce the default speed of the idle fan.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Video-Tweak/NVIDIA-BIOS-Editor.shtml

Thank you for that program, sort of anyway. When I try to select a device it tells me that it "Cant connect to service manager"

By just loading bios files from saved locations it has shown me that the new bios does drop the minimum RPM from 50% down to 29%, which is great. It looks like it would also allow me to edit the current bios (I saved it using CPU-Z).

But how do I actually apply any changes to the old bios or flash the new bios to the card?

[Dark Mantis]

To be perfectly honest I always run AMD Radeon cards and so have never used this program although I know from others that it is useful for this. How it is actually run I don't know.     Is there no readme file or instructions included ?