Fan issues

[DirtyPolo]

Hey, I know i've brought this up nagain, but to make it easier for myself, as the BIOS and utility programs list them as "fan 1-4" i never know which fan is which so I swapped them round today so i know which fan is which now.

but when i start up my pc, as usual it all starts and the fans are fine but I open BIOS and it now says Fan 2 isnt connected, yet its happily spinning away... and that fan 3 is below reccommended RPM and fan 4 doesnt even exist :S

 

Ive check the plugs and theyre in properly, is this a faulty mobo of some sort?

 

and as for pics, they were gonna be taken today but my brothers camera battery is dead so it's charging now! :D

 

and the program I use to monitor fan speed is the BIOS and Asus PC Probe II.

 

 

EDIT:

 

I havew taken the case off and played around with the fans and it seems sockets for Fan 2 and 3 are not giving enough power out as when i plug the front fan into either, it keeps trying to start up but never does, and same with the top fan, it also doesnt send any readings of speed at all...

 

and the problem with my plug for fan 3, it also doesnt give enough power but more than fan 2, because no matter what fan i put in it, it runs them at about 450RPM :S and as for fan 4 not even registering.. any help? =/ is it motherboard problem?

Edited December 14, 2008 by DirtyPolo

[Dalo Harkin]

Hi Matt,

 

You are far better off running a fan controller than using onboard in a high spec syetem - as you can see more of whats going on and inturn control the speeds as and when you need to.

You can obviously do this on some MOBO's but no where near to the extent as a fan controller.

 

Glad the pics are on the way :D

[DirtyPolo]

okay thanks Dalo :P

 

Yeah I should get some pics today! I have a whole day off college and my brother's camera all ready to go :)

 

also, if I was going to replace one of my fans with 4 smaller ones, is there a way to use a fan controller to control them all at once? so I dont have to find like an 8 speed fan controller just-in-case i decide to change them.

[Dalo Harkin]

Fan controllers come with the slots at the back for just plugging the fans directly into them - normally via extended cables.

I would not recommend getting lots of small fans as they are normally very noisy to start with - the bigger the better running as slow as you can to get rid of the heat build up is what you need.

Most fan controllers will have 4 available slots for fans.

I would recommend that you keep the CPU one in the MOBO - so that it can shut it down should it ever need to :D

[DirtyPolo]

yeah okay :P

can you find me any decent ones? i can only find a few different ones and not many have good reviews :(

I'll leave my fans as they are so thats 1 side fan, 1 front fan, 1 top fan, and the rear exhaust fan :P

 

I would like to see the RPM and temperature [maybe] :P so I know what speed they're generally at instead of going by sound or temp changes.

 

also for now, i have plugged the top fan into the PWR_Fan socket, which i'm guessing doesnt do any harm? just to stop the slow RPM alarm going off everytime i startup :)

I read the CPU fans normally go in there but my CPU fan is in the CPU fan slot :P

 

but unusually, this PWR_Fan slot is only for 3 pin? I thought they were for 4pin?

Edited December 15, 2008 by DirtyPolo

[Dalo Harkin]

To be honest any fan slot on the MOBO will be fine for the fans - if the CPU fan goes in a port other than the 'cpu fan header' you can get issues.

I have a Zalman fan controller and it displays real time power usage :D

Its a bit pricey but very, very good Zalman ZM-MFC2 Multi Fan Controller with Display Best Seller - Scan.co.uk

 

NOTE - if you want to plug your CPU fan into this controller - you will need a stanley blade to chop some of the plastic off the arctic freezer 7 fan header

[DirtyPolo]

Ooo yes, I was looking at this one before :P

 

the only problem I read about it, was that unless you're looking at it from head-on it's completly unreadable? and as my pc is on the floor below my desk, would that then be pointless?

[Dalo Harkin]

Thats true about the display angles

it does beep though if any of the fans drop below a percentage you set.

once you have set the fan speeds on the controller all you need to really look at is the power usage

 

Sorry the pic isnt great - digital camera is out of batteries

[DirtyPolo]

Oh okay, and dont worry it's good enough to make out what it is :P

 

I might look into that then, as I will only need to set the speed once i guess :P Just make sure it's about 700RPM as thats their max speed and the ones running at 650 now are still silent as ever