GA-EP45-DS3R CPU Fan at Maximum Speed !

[gantlett]

I have a terrible problem:

I just bought this motherboard and the CPU fan works at full speed constantly!

It's driving me mad and nothing I do can lower its speed.

I tried using almost every BIOS version until I gave up, I tried using EasyTune 6 (with Vista 32-bit), I tried choosing all three SmartFan settings in the BIOS... Nothing helps!

My fan is a Zalman 8700 LED. It's connected directly to the motherboard without using FanMate 2 (in order to enjoy SmartFan which should control the RPM according to temperature).

Now let me tell you - this fan running at 2500RPM is LOUD!

I used this fan with my previous motherboard (connected directly too), GA-P35C-DS3R Rev. 2.0 and SmartFan and EasyTune (5) worked beautifully. However, it worked only with F2 BIOS. Updating to any newer BIOS screwed it up and the fan would run at full speed constantly just like my new board does.

This proves that this is a BIOS solvable issue.

I wrote to Gigabyte tech support, but they simply made me so angry and blamed everything but their board: They said it's either the fan or the BIOS or something "else" in my computer, but they are not to blame, god forbid.

They even said I should replace the CPU fan but they cannot promise that the new one will work properly. Is this ridicules or what???

I am so pissed at Gigabyte by not taking responsibility on this serious matter.

I am still waiting for a reply from them, although I'm not expecting much.

I don't know why I keep buying their boards after so many disappointing tech support experiences with them.

Is anyone experiencing this problem too?
Is there any solution to this terrible problem?

Thanks in advance.

 

[blackwidow_rsa]

does the fan have a 3 pin power header? the board may only recognise 4 pin fans, my abit board can set it to 3 pin, have a rumage through your bios for such a setting

 

[bilbat]

Ok - I'm somewhat confused here. Is this fan some model from Zalman that included the FanMate controller? The one I find on NewEgg is model# CNPS 8700 NT, which, in the manual seems to infer that it is a standard four pin, PWM equipped unit. The documentation for the FanMate, however, shows a three pin fan output, inferring voltage control...

Whatever...

If you have a three pin fan, plug it into the CPU_FAN header (only it and the SYS_FAN2 are controlled, and SYS_FAN2 is sometimes buggy) using pins 1-2-3, set CPU Smart Fan to Enabled, CPU Smart Fan Mode to Voltage, and you should be good to go; conversely, if you have a four pin fan, again plug it into the CPU_FAN header, set CPU Smart Fan to Enabled, and CPU Smart Fan Mode to PWM.

I'm not sure if there might be a problem using SmartFan AND EasyTune, and it might work on some boards but not others if there IS a conflict; I'd recommend at least trying them one at a time to see if it makes a difference - remember Dogbert's Tech Support: "Our software is incompatible with your hardware, and all other known software, including our own products; and, by the way, if you've noticed the red splotches on your hands, it's because our box is made of poison ivy..."

 

[gantlett]

Ok - I'm somewhat confused here. Is this fan some model from Zalman that included the FanMate controller?

Yes indeed. It came with FanMate 2.

The documentation for the FanMate, however, shows a three pin fan output, inferring voltage control...

I'm not sure about the pin layout as I do not use the included FanMate 2.

If you have a three pin fan, plug it into the CPU_FAN header ... using pins 1-2-3

The fan has a 3-pin connector.
The design is foolproof - there's only one way possible to connect the fan as there's a plastic leg which stops you from plugging the connector to the wrong pins.

set CPU Smart Fan to Enabled, CPU Smart Fan Mode to Voltage, and you should be good to go.

I only have a "CPU Smart Fan Control" setting in the BIOS. I don't have a CPU Smart Fan Mode setting.
For CPU Smart Fan Control I have 3 modes:
Auto
Enabled
Disabled

Auto means "CPU fan speed is controlled by BIOS".

As I said I tried all options and nothing made any change.

I'm not sure if there might be a problem using SmartFan AND EasyTune, and it might work on some boards but not others if there IS a conflict; I'd recommend at least trying them one at a time to see if it makes a difference

As far as I understand (and perhaps I'm wrong) CPU SmartFan must be either on Auto or Enabled for EasyTune to be able to control the fan speed.

Thanks

 

[gantlett]

my abit board can set it to 3 pin, have a rumage through your bios for such a setting

I don't have such a setting (read on...) - thanks

 

[Newf]

Set CPU Smart Fan Control to "Enabled"
Set CPU Smart Fan Mode to "Voltage"
You should be good to go with Easy Tune.

 

[bilbat]

Well, hush ma mouf!

Here's a BIOS screen shot (from the manual) of an EP45-UD3P (same chipset, should be, pretty much, the same BIOS):

and here's the relevant text entry:

Here's your BIOS:

You be missin' sumpin!
Lemme see here, um, ahh, COULD BE the source of the problem!!!

I've dl'd and read at least a dozen GB manuals in the last two months - they're all pretty much the same, and certainly, the fan control is always the same... This is definitely a question for Janus Yeh (the GB tech rep) and Lsdmeasap (the resident GB guru), over at TweakTown:
http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69
They're usually very prompt, but with the holidays, may take a few days; by all means, re-post here to let us ALL know what's up!

Good luck, and have a great holiday weekend,

Bill

 

[gantlett]

You guys - I promise you: I don't have these two options in my BIOS. I have only the "CPU Smart Fan Control". All the other options in the PC Health section are fan fail warning settings. Even when I press Ctrl F1 nothing more is revealed...

 

[Rhuaidhri]

Same here, GB gave me the same story. It seems to be an issue with using a 3pin fan header as with a 4pin fan Smart Fan does work (at least I've seen the rpm drop to 1100 at low temps). I can use Speedfan to control only the PWR fan connector with a 3pin fan, both sysfan (which are 3pin) seem to run at full rpm, though it did drop from 1500 to 1000 at one stage, just can't figure out why. In speedfan only 3 PWM come up, one is cpu, one is PWR and I'm assuming the third is for both the SYS fan connectors, setting the PWM mode to software controlled in speedfan only allows control of the PWR connector.

It doesn't matter what smartfan is set to in BIOS (The DS3/R BIOS is not the same as the UD3/R BIOS)

I was going to switch from using the ga-ep45c-ds3r to the ga-ep45c-ud3r but no CF on the ud3r. I loved the ga-ep35c-ds3r but wanted PCIe 2.0 so switched to the ga-ep45c-ds3r as my "value" board solution for customers, now I think I might have to switch back to ASUS as GBT seem to be as bad as them when it comes to support.

 

[montyuk]

use the fan mate 2 controller, ive used them before and its so simple.

i run all my fans manually using a front panel zalman mfc1 controller and i just monitor the temperatures via everest - bit too warm - turn them up a bit.

 

[gantlett]

montyuk -

That's exactly what I DON'T want to do! :lol:

SpeedFan should eliminate all that mess and do this for you, not the other way around...

 

[gantlett]

Update:

This is the correspondence between me and Gigabyte:

Thank you for your kindly mail and sorry for the replying late. About the issue you mentioned, because there are too many kinds of cooling fans available in the retail market, it is very difficult to test all of the modules with our MB products, and because we only test the motherboard with the cooling fan which bundled with the CPU, that's why we suggest you can try to test your system with the cooling fan which came with your CPU (not to buy a new one) to see if there's a fan or motherboard problem in the previous letter.

He said "not buy a new one" because I asked him in the previous email if he expects me to simply throw my 100$ CPU fan to the garbage.

And according to your further description, because the F2 BIOS of GA-P35C-DS3R support both "Voltage" and "PWM" fan control mode, and the "Voltage" mode has no longer supported by the BIOS of GA-EP45-DS3R (it only support PWM mode), so if your cooling fan only support voltage mode but does not support PWM mode, then your cooling fan will always runs in full speed. And if you want to use the Smart Fan feature properly on GA-EP45-DS3R, please kindly make sure your cooling fan support PWM mode.

This was my response:

Why did you stop supporting "Voltage" mode? This means, still, that I cannot work with my CPU fan and enjoy the benefits of SmartFan.

99% of the CPU fans in the market which have been produced for the past several years are standard 3-pin DC fans. Do you realize that by not supporting DC fans you are making 99% of your customers throw their perfectly good CPU fans and buying new ones???

My Zalman 8700 CPU fan is only 14 months old and by no means am I going to let you render it obsolete!

I purchased a new Gigabyte motherboard because I expected it to work EXACTLY as my previous one did.

You said:
"We suggest you... test your system with the cooling fan which came with your CPU (not to buy a new one)"

and then you said:
"If you want to use Smart Fan... on GA-EP45-DS3R... make sure your cooling fan support PWM mode."

Then you --ARE-- telling me to throw my CPU fan to the garbage (or "upgrade" it, which is the same thing as far as I'm concerned) because IT DOES NOT SUPPORT PWM.

Also, it has come to my attention that you DO support "Voltage" fans in other P45 motherboards you're currently producing, GA-EP45-UD3P among them.

So there is NO reason for you not to add Voltage support to the EP45-DS3R.
None whatsoever.

This is just a BIOS programming matter and it can be easily resolved.

You said:
"It is very difficult to test all of the modules with our MB products".

But this isn't about "testing" my specific fan, this is about COMPLETELY IGNORING every DC fan in the global market. You deliberately disabled DC support for cpu fans - this is not because the fans are incompatible with your product -
YOUR PRODUCT IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE FANS!!

When I buy Gigabyte products I buy them because I KNOW that their products are RELIABLE and DELIVER what they promise.

I TRUST Gigabyte to solve problems like this.

I EXPECT Gigabyte to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY when problems like this arise, especially when it is OBVIOUS that they are responsible for the problem in the first place and that they have the power to remedy it.

It is GIGABYTE's responsibility to fix this SERIOUS MATTER!

I'm still waiting for a reply since Wednesday.

 

[bilbat]

This is really unconscionable on the part of GB. The main thing that I can't understand is WHY would they do this? As I pointed out, ALL GB boards appear to work the same in this respect, EXCEPT this particular one. The design change HAD to cost them money - is it really worth the miniscule savings in hardware (a lousy pair of low-power MOSFETs), and the aggravation to customers whom they have, quite literally, deluded? Another point to be made is that this change negates the use of the STOCK INTEL (junk) FANS! I wonder what Intel would say about this? You infer that this is simply a BIOS issue, but I don't think so - the only thing that make sense is that they eliminated the hardware. They need to make this PERFECTLY CLEAR on the MOBO homepage, and the complaint needs to be posted on every reseller's review pages, so people are forewarned. I think an RMA (actually, a LOT of RMAs) is perfectly justified, and will post to that effect to Janus Yeh (GB factory rep) on TweakTown...

 

[fcastro]

Wow I started a topic over at tweak town around the Gigabyte EP45-UD3P as well. Same issue!

http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/gigabyte-ep45-ud3p-fan-controllers-never-change-speed-29689/

 

[blackthorn001]

was this issue ever resolved. i run a GA-EP43-DS3L board and need to know how to control the CPU fan speed on a 3 pin DC. with out getting a fanspeed controller.

 

[bilbat]

No resolution I've heard of, and the current manual for your board shows that it, too, lacks the CPU Fan Mode BIOS item...