Cpu Fan has stopped spinning round

[Starmonger]

I turned my pc on today, and for some reason i was watching the fans start on the side of the case, when my attention was drawn to the cpu fan as it wasnt moving propperly. basicly it would seem to twitch for a second every couple of seconds, as if its not getting power propperly. so i quickly turned off my pc before it had loaded windows. So the fan isnt spinning at all, it just twitches a little every 2 secs of so.

The fan is just plugged into the motherboard at the normal place on the board, called cpu fan power or something. i do have a fan controler which is powering the case fans, so i was thinking i could try plugging the cpu fan into the fan controller if that's a good idea.

please help, im not really sure what to do.

also is it safe to try plugging it into the fan controller? if u turn on the pc before it loads windows then does that heat up the cpu at all?


my hardware is:
core 2 duo e6600
gigabyte DS3
Thermaltake PSU game x stream (forget the exact name)
nvidia 7600gt
audigy x fi
sata 2 hard drive (western digital)
raza copperhead mouse
19 inch acer monitor

 

[neokill3r]

Did you try cleaning the fan with a can of compressed air or something? My parents had the same thing with there computer happening (I just left it like that since it just a pentium 2 and now it doesn't spin at all.)

 

[jeff_2087]

The CPU might not have heated up enough to need the fan, but if it always started right up before, that seems unlikely. Make sure there's nothing stopping the fan (wires are a common culprit), and give it a spin in the right direction to see if that starts it up.

If it doesn't go, yeah try plugging it into the fan controller plug. If it doesn't work then, but the fans normally attached to the controller do, then the fan is presumably pooched.

EDIT: I forgot to mention what you should do if it had indeed croaked. If you can't replace the fan without having to buy a new entire heatsink, you could just cut the old fan off and glue another in its place. I've had to do that before. It might not look pretty, but as long as you get decent airflow over the heatsink, that's really all you need.

 

[1Tanker]

I turned my pc on today, and for some reason i was watching the fans start on the side of the case, when my attention was drawn to the cpu fan as it wasnt moving propperly. basicly it would seem to twitch for a second every couple of seconds, as if its not getting power propperly. so i quickly turned off my pc before it had loaded windows. So the fan isnt spinning at all, it just twitches a little every 2 secs of so.

The fan is just plugged into the motherboard at the normal place on the board, called cpu fan power or something. i do have a fan controler which is powering the case fans, so i was thinking i could try plugging the cpu fan into the fan controller if that's a good idea.

please help, im not really sure what to do.

also is it safe to try plugging it into the fan controller? if u turn on the pc before it loads windows then does that heat up the cpu at all?


my hardware is:
core 2 duo e6600
gigabyte DS3
Thermaltake PSU game x stream (forget the exact name)
nvidia 7600gt
audigy x fi
sata 2 hard drive (western digital)
raza copperhead mouse
19 inch acer monitor

I'm assuming it's the stock HS/F? You should be okay plugging it into a fan controller(at least to find if that helps). It's possible that the CPU Fan header is dying, and also possible the fan itself is dying an early death. You could try plugging the fan into a different fan header(if it will reach), and if it runs fine...then the fan header is the culprit. As previously mentioned, the fan could be getting plugged up with dust, etc....not sure how long you've had it, and how dusty your area is. Be sure to check for excess dust/lint/hair, before you try anything. If the fan happens to be the problem, then you should grab an aftermarket HS/F ..and quickly. GL

 

[bigsby]

What they said to do, and just to see if your fan is dead, try spinning it around with your finger while the computer is off. If you get a lot of resistance, then your fan is hosed.

 

[Starmonger]

im not sure if ther are any other fan headers? is a fan header the part of the motherboard where the pins connect to? If so does anyone know if the DS3 board has 2, as i had a quick look and can only see the one.

yes its the stock heatskin/fan for the core 2 duo. i have only had this computer for about 4 months, and the moterboard for about 2 months. There is a lot of cat hair in the room, i noticed that just recenlty that cat hair get all over everything. you can see it flying around all over the place

Ive now realised that the case fans and the fan controller all use 3 pin connectors, but the cpu fan is a 4 pin. so thats now out of the question. Ive tried moving the fan round by hand and there is no resistence, and it looks pretty dust free and so i dont think that is the problem. im hoping that its just the fan rather than the motherboard as that would be so much of a hastle to replace

 

[1Tanker]

im not sure if ther are any other fan headers? is a fan header the part of the motherboard where the pins connect to? If so does anyone know if the DS3 board has 2, as i had a quick look and can only see the one.

yes its the stock heatskin/fan for the core 2 duo. i have only had this computer for about 4 months, and the moterboard for about 2 months. There is a lot of cat hair in the room, i noticed that just recenlty that cat hair get all over everything. you can see it flying around all over the place

Ive now realised that the case fans and the fan controller all use 3 pin connectors, but the cpu fan is a 4 pin. so thats now out of the question. Ive tried moving the fan round by hand and there is no resistence, and it looks pretty dust free and so i dont think that is the problem. im hoping that its just the fan rather than the motherboard as that would be so much of a hastle to replace

Yes, the fan headers are white plastic..with 3 pins sticking up. The 3-pin fan plugs into them. From looking at a pic, there appears to be another one by the floppy connector. If you're short of them, you can always buy small wiring "adaptors" that plug into a 4-prong(MOLEX)connector, and change to a 3-pin. If it was the fan header gone, that wouldn't mean getting a new motherboard. GL

 

[Starmonger]

thanks, so ive located the system fan header, which is spare. i just cant seem to undoe the wire which is tucked into the heatsink under a clip. otherwise the wire wont reach all the way over to the sys fan header. Anyone know how to unclip the wire from the heatsink? (it is clipped around the side to avoid it getting caught in the fan)

i was also having trouble with the actual white header things themselves, it seems tricky to undoe them from the motherboard

 

[KBM]

Most of the new motherboards (especially the ones from Gigabyte)
have excellent fan speed control and the speed is controlled
automatically based the temperature mesaurements taken from
CPU / Northbridge / Motherboard. You should be extremly happy
about the silent system that you have. My CPU / systems fans are
off or spin at very low speeds most of the time .

 

[dragonsprayer]

intel does not warranty against cat hair over heating your cpu!

 

[Dahak]

Sounds like either the fan is plugged up with dust or it just does not want to go anymore.Try a can of compressed air first.(cleaning it with the air).If that still does not work then buy a new fan.In fact if you have to buy a new fan,I would recommend getting a new fan/heatsink from a major manufacturer,such as tunique or thermaltake.They bothe offer good after market cooling solutions for cpu's and are reasonably priced.Also make sure you get a tube of arctic silver5 heatsink compound.Goodluck.

Dahak

AMD X2-4400+@2.6 S-939
EVGA NF4 SLI MB
2X EVGA 7950GT KO IN SLI
2X 512MB CRUCIAL BALLISTIX DDR500
WD300GIG HD
ACER 22IN WIDESCREEN LCD 1600X1200
THERMALTAKE TOUGHPOWER 850WATT PSU
COOLERMASTER MINI R120
3DMARK05 13,442

 

[KBM]

His processor is E6600, that means this is a relatively new build.
I don't think there would be much dust build up.

If you want, you can disable the fan speed control option in BIOS.
I am not sure why u r using a fan speed controller in the first place???.
You don't need an additional fan speed controller since the speed is
controlled by BIOS.

 

[papi4baby]

Most of the new motherboards (especially the ones from Gigabyte)
have excellent fan speed control and the speed is controlled
automatically based the temperature mesaurements taken from
CPU / Northbridge / Motherboard. You should be extremly happy
about the silent system that you have. My CPU / systems fans are
off or spin at very low speeds most of the time .

What he said, turn it on and see what happens. I believe Intel CPU's have a way to turn itself off if it overheats. My fan in my DQ6 is Blue Orb only uses 3 pins, and when i turn the computer on, it spins for a second, and dies for like 2 and then it come back on. One i had the BIOS control fan speed it looked like it didn't want to spin at all mostly, going very slowly. So go into the bios and diseable CPU Fan control, it should make the Fan spin at max RPM upon reboot.

 

[zjohnr]

There may actually be nothing wrong at all here. My first question would be what settings are you using in the BIOS of you DS3?

I have a rev 3.3 DS3 ... and maybe that is different from yours but ... when I leave the fan control settings at the BIOS default of "Auto" my CPU fan does not spin when the system is idling. The CPU fan does not spin unless/until the processor warms up "enough" to "require" the fan to cool it.

If your CPU fan is a 4-pin fan and you want it to always spin, try changing the Smart Fan Control Mode setting in the PC Health Status section of the BIOS to PWM. (And don't wig out if the PSU suddenly shuts off for a second or two and then comes back on when you reboot after updating the BIOS ... apparently a power off is needed when this BIOS setting is changed).

Hope this helps,

-john, the ostensibly clueless redundant legacy-in-transition dinosaur

 

[Starmonger]

thanks for the good answers.

Ive now managed to atach the fans power connector to the system fan header on the mobo, and now the fan works. i presume it spins at full speed and doesnt use the smart speed thing.

Is it ok to use the system fan header to power the cpu fan, instead of the cpu header?

you could be right, about there being nothing wrong in the first place. only it seemed odd that A. i hadnt noticed it before like when i installed the mobo, B. it only twitches randomly every few seconds, so the fan doesnt even get to complete a full circle, and is otherwise stationary. Though since I noticed this, i havnt let it boot to windows as i was worried about damaging my cpu. but i did leave it running for about 10 secs or so as it was going through the bios/post stuff


I use a fan controller because i went and bought this snazzy looking case called a sunbeam Transformer, however it comes with 3 noisy fans and people had recomended a fan controler to turn the speed down to reduce the noise.

 

[zjohnr]

it seemed odd that A. i hadnt noticed it before like when i installed the mobo, B. it only twitches randomly every few seconds, so the fan doesn't even get to complete a full circle, and is otherwise stationary.

While I can't say anything about (A), I can say that I saw the random twitching motion you describe when I was using the default BIOS fan settings. It didn't hurt anything because the heat sink alone was enough to keep the CPU temp in check when the CPU was essentially idling. There wasn't any need for the fan.

If you change the fan control algorithm from Auto to Intel QST then your fan should always run albeit at a "lowest speed" when the CPU temp is low. I think you'll only see the fan stop when the Gigabyte BIOS method is used to control the fan speed.

OTOH, if you're happy with the CPU fan running off of the SYS_FAN header then that works too. You're the one who'll be in the same room with the fans so you're the one whose comfort level matters.

-john

 

[corvetteguy]

His processor is E6600, that means this is a relatively new build.
I don't think there would be much dust build up.

If you want, you can disable the fan speed control option in BIOS.
I am not sure why u r using a fan speed controller in the first place???.
You don't need an additional fan speed controller since the speed is
controlled by BIOS.

You'd be surprised how fast dust collects. I had my system for 2 weeks and i opened it to find a thick, like couple milimeters of dust on everything, except the side of the cpu hsf facing the 25cm side case fan.

 

[1Tanker]

His processor is E6600, that means this is a relatively new build.
I don't think there would be much dust build up.

If you want, you can disable the fan speed control option in BIOS.
I am not sure why u r using a fan speed controller in the first place???.
You don't need an additional fan speed controller since the speed is
controlled by BIOS.

You'd be surprised how fast dust collects. I had my system for 2 weeks and i opened it to find a thick, like couple milimeters of dust on everything, except the side of the cpu hsf facing the 25cm side case fan. Especially if you have a dog/cat, and your keep you case on a carpet. :x

 

[Starmonger]

thanks, i guess thats it sorted then

about dust, ive heard that compressed air cans are good. but i wondered, are they totaly safe to use or do they damage components in any way?

yeah,i have a gray cat which gets hairs everywhere. my expensive mouse allways has hairs blocking the laser and on the mousemat. i really need to get a cover to put over it

 

[Major_Spittle]

Plug your fan back into the CPU fan header. Press Pwr Button. Fan mostly likely will spin then stop.

Reason: Bios is in Default Auto Setting. In Auto Setting the processor controls the fan. The fan will not run all the time, but kick on as needed.

If you are worried, after plugging into CPU fan Header boot it up and start a game or something. If fan does not start after running game or something for about 1 min. you have a problem. Don't worry about destroying the CPU because it is not an AMD or P4 and will be fine as long as you have a Heat sink mounted (worst that will happen is the CPU will throttle while testing it).

And congrats on an Awesome CPU and MB.