Cannot turn on fan...temps too hot!

[Johns23]

Hello. This is my first post. Thanks in advance for any help and assistance!

Ok here is my problem:-

I bought this second hand custom pc and noticed the temps were quite high on my GPU. I managed to get the heat down from about 100 degrees load with 100% fans to 82 degrees load (3DMark06 running at 1080p with all settings to max and full precision on for over an hour) with fans at 85% (adjusted with rivatuner). I managed this by removing my back panel and reseating the heatsink and applying fresh thermal paste in my GPU. And also most importantly moving the GPU down to the lower PCIe slot as my corsair psu is bottom loaded and blows cool air directly onto the GPU. According to speedfan my system is at a steady 42 degrees.

My four cores run at about 50-55 degrees at load so I am happy with these. However I checked the bios to confirm but noticed that my northbridge temp is at 57 degrees idle and southbridge is at 55 degrees idle. Northbridge rose to 68 degrees running Prime95 torture test (third one which overloads ram) after about 15 mins).

Sorry for long winded description but anyway here is the questions...

Firstly my fan on the top right of my case turns on when windows is loading but upon reaching desktop switches off. So I know it runs, but how do i get it to run continuously as even under full stress and high temps it didn't switch on so I don't think its sensor related either.

Also regarding the northbridge..are there any other tips that can lower temps, preferably without re-applying thermal paste etc as I am a novice and was uncomfortable doing it to my GPU.

Thank you.


http://i731.photobucket.com/albums/ww313/rockycolby/CIMG1391.jpg

See above for the fan that does not work,,the top right one if you follow the multi cloured cable down you can see where it goes into the mobo...it dies not reach any other 3 pin slot but i have tried taking it off and plugging it into other slots but same thing happens unless i plug it into a fan that stays on the whole time so it must be a mobo problem.

 

[Onus]

Look at the fan header for a label (e.g. "AUXFAN"). Go into the BIOS and look for controls for fan speed. What mobo is it? Did you get a manual with it? If not, you should be able to find it online.

 

[Johns23]

Thanks for the reply. I will see if i can see a auxfan slot on mobo (is that what you mean?). I have a manual but not too helpful and have been googling for days now. Mobo is in sig, its asus rampage formula. Trouble is even if i found an aux fan slot the wire does not reach anywhere other than the opt1 slot that its in but cant see it on in bios let alone adjust speed for it. However it does spin when i turn pc on up until windows loads and then it stops.

Thank you.

 

[Onus]

You don't need to find a specifically-named fan header, just find out the name of the one you're using. If it is called "OPT1", then look in the BIOS for settings to control a fan plugged into OPT1.

 

[Onus]

I found it, at http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us Look under the "Power" menu in your BIOS setup, then the "Hardware Monitor" entry. You can change the OPT fan control. For example, if you set it to "Manual," you will then be able to select a percentage. Fan life can be reduced if you run at 100%, but you'd probably get good results from running at 70%-80% or so.

 

[Johns23]

Thanks a lot. I will try that in a minute and let you know. If I remember correctly though it was saying that nothing was connected to opt 1.

Really appreciate taking your time out to help me.

 

[Johns23]

YES IT WORKED!!! Thanks alot...have got the fan running at 80%. System as a whole seems cooler. Still have a 57 degree idle northbridge and 48 degree idle southbridge though. Thing is even after running 3dmark06 for an hour it had only risen to 61 degrees northbridge. How concerned should i be about this? Everything seems to run stable but am worried about possible long term damage.

Also on PC PRobe 2 I keep getting voltage warning messages with quick spikes in voltag that quickly disappear. This happens roughly every 30 mins.

Thanks for help once again.

 

[Conumdrum]

61C isn't a worry on the NB.

 

[Johns23]

Hi...thanks for the info.

What temps would be worrying? Dont forget im running about 61 degrees constatntly.

 

[Onus]

You say this was a secondhand, custom PC, so presumably it is overclocked. If so, you might go through BIOS settings and back it down some. If you can lower voltages, you'll lower your temps. Lower voltages will mean lower stable frequencies though, so test with Prime95 to make sure your system is still stable; lower frequencies and/or raise voltages back up until it is.

 

[Johns23]

Hello

It was not overclocked im afraid...it was all set to auto. I changed voltage to manual and lowered to lowest settings. Temp on northbridge after running 3dmark06 on 1080p all high options with force precision on for an hour northbridge was at 55 degrees southbridge 49 degrees and motherboard 49 degrees.

This is much better thank you. Have also ordered an Antec spot fan which i will affix facing the northbridge and hopefully lower some more. Does 55 degrees sound normal for northbridge?

When i ran Prime95 the temp went up to 65 degrees on third test that only lasts about 10 mins but completely stresses ram. But when I ran the full length test for 4 hrs ish it barely rose above 57 degrees. How does this sound to you?

 

[Onus]

That sounds reasonable. Other than the spot fan, there may not be much else to do.

 

[Conumdrum]

The ram uses the Northbridge. So when you stress ram the NB gets hotter than a blend test.

 

[ragsters]

I have a very similar set up with similar problems. In order for me to resolve my temp problems I had to change all the stock fans on my cosmos to better ones and also got the spot cooler for my northbridge. Don't worry about the NB temps too much. Everyone who has that motherboard, or an X48 chipset for that matter, have high NB temps. There are a lot of mods you can do to that case for it to be cooler. Check out youtube. Also check out Asus Rampage formula forums for bios settings. Here is a link.
http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx?elitepost=0&SLanguage=en-us&board_id=1&model=Rampage%20Formula&page_size=20&page=1&count=828

 

[Johns23]

Huge thanks to everyone that helped me on this subject. Really appreciate you taking your time to provide me with links and info.