Stock intel heatsink fan not spinning

[freebagel]

I recently picked up a Core i3 processor for my new built. I'm just using the stock heatsink that comes with it.

I booted up my computer for the first time and everything was looking good...until I looked closer and noticed the heatsink fan wasn't spinning...at all. I examined it more carefully and noticed I had accidentally plugged the HSF into sys_fan instead of cpu_fan. However, upon switching it over to cpu_fan, the HSF still does not spin at all.

I waited 30 secs or so after boot (as I've read some motherboards wait 15 seconds or so to let it get going), but still nothing. Is that fan just dead? I really hope not, because that means replacing the heatsink which is a major PITA.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Did you switch it over while system was powered down ? I'd be more worried that you blew out the MoBo fan header...

<----done that


......tho I guess it is possible that BIOS settings don't have it spinning up till it hits a certain temp.....my MoBos won't allow boot if fan isn't spinning.

 

[freebagel]

Yeah, it was definitely powered down when I switched them.

I went ahead and let it run for almost a minute to see if it would kick in. By that time the heatsink was nice and warm so if it were waiting for a temperature to turn on I'd think it would have reached it by then.

 

[freebagel]

Whew, I found an old 120mm fan I had lying around (3-pin) and plugged it in. It worked fine. So I took a closer look at the heatsink fan and it looks like the wires were so poorly routed around under the fan cover that they were actually touching the fan and preventing it from spinning.

After about 10 minutes of finagling with it I was able to get them out of the way.

It's not exactly confidence inspiring though, and I could definitely see them slipping loose again and blocking the fan without me knowing it at some point in the future.

 

[Conumdrum]

I'm sure you can figure how to secure the wires. You built a PC.

Glad you found the problem.

Wire tie, brain, ingenuity, you can do it.