Case fan not spinning

[beavereater]

So I bought a new mobo, CPU, video card and RAM. Everything turned on well.

Unfortunately, only the CPU fan and two other fans of the four I have (Top, back, front, BIG side fan). All but the side fan will work with the 1 fan slot, but the side fan won't work there. I tried connecting directly to the PSU (Got a new one of those too). It's a 650watt.

New:
AMD Phenom II X6 1100T
GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD5
GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 560
8GB RAM

The stuff I still have:
Plextor DVDRW
2 x 1TB SATA drives
1 x 250GB SATA drive

What am I missing?

[SLK001]

Maybe the side fan is temperature controlled?

Perhaps you could clarify what exactly works and doesn't work.

[beavereater]

On the motherboard there are 5 fan 'power spots'. 1 is for the CPU fan, clearly marked (And working). The others are sys_fan etc. 2 are located near the bottom of the mobo and 2 near the top. One spot at the top works and one spot at the bottom works. The other 2 don't seem to be giving any power to the fans. 3 of the fans are smaller 120mm fans. If I plug any of these 3 into the working spots, they spin on startup. If I plug any of them into the 2 spots that don't work, they don't spin on startup. The big fan (On the side of the case) will not spin regardless.

In my BIOS these are fans 3 and 4. 1 and 2 are spinning along with the CPU fan.

[TBoneit]

It sounds like time to RMA the motherboard and maybe the case too.

A working fan should work on any of the 5 fan ports. One caveat, Look to be sure the two aren't designated a temperature controlled in the motherboard manual.

[redwudz]

I only see three case fan connectors on that motherboard. One Pwr fan, and two Sys fans. The MB manual says the same thing.
But it's easy enough to use a fan splitter cable and hook up the side fan to one of the other fan connectors.
Or just use a four pin molex (Power supply connector for IDE drives) to fan adapter.



I see this in BIOS:



Sorry maybe a bit hard to read.

If you haven't done it, I would probably also set the CPU fan to PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) control. You can do that in BIOS. It's a much more efficient mode of fan control.

And if all three of your case fan connectors aren't working, then I would agree with a RMA. But I would also check in BIOS to see they aren't set to some mode that might disable them.

[beavereater]

I'm about to check my BIOS...

Just a quick question, Pwr fan, and two Sys fans?

Also, sorry for my mess up...I thought there were 4 fan connections...spending all day trying to get things to work had my head dazed and confused I think. Gonna shut down now and see what I can do.

ETA: I did connect the side fan via four pin molex with adapter, but it failed to spin. The side fan doesn't have the traditional fan to 3 pin connection so I have the adapter to make it so it goes with the power supply. Gonna check things out...

[beavereater]

OK...I seem to have awakened myself a bit and got the 3rd small fan running. So all sys_fan points work. The side panel fan doesn't. I tried connecting it directly to the PSU. When I turn on the PC it gets what looks like a slight nudge but doesn't actually spin. Connecting it to the 3 pin sys_fan won't turn it either. It's a bit sad really, as it's my biggest fan in the case and takes most of the air out.

I'm wondering what to do next...replace the fan? Get a bunch of smaller 120mm fans (I have room for 8 total in my case).

[redwudz]

That sounds like a bad fan. With it plugged in and the PC running, will it start if you spin it a little with your finger?

I'm having to replace a couple like that that seem to be intermittent when starting.

The MB seems to have one SYS fan connector that's four pin near the bottom right, the same as the CPU fan. The other SYS and PWR fan connectors are three wire.

Just for your info, fan wires are Power 12VDC, then Ground. The third wire is the speed sense wire so the motherboard can read the fan RPM. The fourth wire is a PWM lead. The color code differs between some fan makers, but the socket layout is standard. A two wire or a four wire will all plug into the same socket, but you may not have all the features. There are small ribs on the backside of the plug to key it and center it on the connector.

Also, PWM fans may not start as the PC starts if they are set in the BIOS to be temperature controlled. Most newer motherboards take that into account with PWM CPU fans, but some PWM fans will set off the 'fan fail' buzzer as they don't start to turn until the CPU temp raises a bit. But they are very efficient and can run the CPU fan at very low (Quiet) speeds and still ramp up the fan speed very quickly when needed.

As far as how much cooling you need, depends on the CPU, the video card, and the case. If you plan to overclock the CPU, you usually need more cooling. I would first check the system and CPU temps in BIOS, along with the voltages. I do that first thing when I build a new PC.

After it's up and running the OS, you could try a program like HWmonitor to check the temps and voltages. http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html
If the PC is running cool enough, you may already have enough cooling.

Most side fans blow air into the PC. Usually dusty, unfiltered air. I don't use them. The best airflow is still usually in from the front down low through filters and out through the back up high. You don't need a 'leaf blower' noise level cooling system unless you are OCing most times.

I probably should mention that most newer motherboards are 'Green'. They are often set by default to slow down the CPU to save energy. Something to check if the CPU performance seems a bit sluggish. ")

[beavereater]

Thanks for that information.

I was worried I might be plugging the side fan in the wrong way. It has a 4 pin female plug (I don't know how else to explain it) instead of the 3. I figured it needed to go into 1 of the 4 pin prongs like the CPU fan or connected directly to the PSU.

I did try giving it a spin with my fingers to see if it would go but it wouldn't. My CPU temp is at 41 degrees (Been on all day downloading stuff) and my room is about 32 degrees C, system temp is about 47. I bought a smaller fan just to plug into the mobo to see if it is actually the mobo. The store I bought it from said I could bring in my entire tower and they would look at it for free (Within a month after purchase) to see if it's a mobo problem or fan problem. Since the shop is a bit far (Take me about an hour by train and subway in the heat) I figured I'd get an extra fan at the for the back.

The side fan is an 'unusual' size apparently, 22cm. The biggest fans the stores sell (According to the staff) are usually 12cm. My side fan came with my Maelstrom case.

In the BIOS it's showing me all 3 fans working and speeds. I don't quite see where I can set the fans to go into one mode or another. The mobo did come with software to control different speeds via Win 7 rather than in BIOS (Which is not what a real overclocker would do, but I'm not about to OC anything).

[lordsmurf]

Buy a name brand fan, like Rosewill or Zalman. Not cheap junk.
The good fans are silent.

[redwudz]

I looked on NewEgg (Just for reference, I realize you can't order from them.) I only found one 220mm fan, so apparently they are a bit rare.: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200055 I don't know why it has a four pin connector as it doesn't seem to be a PWM fan. Does it have four wires from the fan to the connector? Makes me wonder if it has a odd wiring pattern.

I would probably just add another rear fan 'if' your MB fan connector is OK.

Your CPU and case temps seem reasonable, though a bit on the high side. Nothing to really worry about if the CPU doesn't run over 50F during 100% CPU loads.

[beavereater]

I actually didn't know/realize until I did some reference looking online as well that the side fan has an LED switch...never knew...never used it. Dang...

It does have the 4 wires from the fan.

The side fan can actually be removed and replaced with 6 120mm fans. I bought 1 fan and will see about find space near the back of the PC...

[jman98]

beavereater - I doubt that this is your problem, but I just want to throw it out there just in case. Plus, people find our threads years later via internet searches and this might be useful to future readers.

Earlier in the year, I built my own PC. I had been maybe 9 years since I last did a build from case up. I'm an IT guy at work and I work on the software side of things. I've got experience adding/replacing parts on PCs but again I want to point out that this was my first build from case up in something like 9 years.

Anyway, I did a lot of research and got my components and I had motherboard issues I was not able to resolve. One motherboard would only spin the CPU fan and no other case fan would start up. I went through 3 motherboards and I continued to have problems of various kinds. I even paid one our guys at work who does PC repair work to come to my house and double check everything I did. In desperation I finally found a site that had suggestions to try for when a motherboard won't post. One of them was "Did you install spacers between your motherboard and case". I did NOT. I was so pissed! Nobody I talked to before starting this project nor ANY documentation, not the case docs, not the motherboard docs, anywhere said to put spacers in. Putting spacers in was the "magic" I needed to make my motherboard work. So I suggest that you be sure that spacers were put in between your motherboard and the case as motherboard shorting can cause fan connectors to not work. After I got this working, I talked to our IT guys, including the guy I hired, and the response I got was "Uh, yeah. I forgot to mention that." Spacers are pieces of metal, generally brass I think, that keep the motherboard from directly touching the case and thus possibly shorting out.

[SLK001]

"Did you install spacers between your motherboard and case".

I did NOT.

My question is how did you install the motherboard WITHOUT the spacers? Without the spacers, none of the ports (accessible thru the case) even line up.

[TBoneit]

"Did you install spacers between your motherboard and case".

I did NOT.

My question is how did you install the motherboard WITHOUT the spacers? Without the spacers, none of the ports (accessible thru the case) even line up.

I've seen it done. Customers have brought computer builds in for not working and I've seen it. What they do is put in the personality plate in the back of the case. Put the motherboard ports through it then screw down the motherboard to the case with no standoffs. The motherboard gets a nice arc in it where it bends up to the back of the case. Fortunately for them it usually won't even turn on and therefore nothing gets fried.

[usually_quiet]

"Did you install spacers between your motherboard and case".

I did NOT.

My question is how did you install the motherboard WITHOUT the spacers? Without the spacers, none of the ports (accessible thru the case) even line up.

It depends on the case. Many cases, particularly inexpensive ones, now provide bumps stamped into the motherboard tray instead of brass stand-offs, I have one of these cases, and if I used stand-offs as well, the the external connections wouldn't line up quite right with the cutout in the case that is provided for them.

[jman98]

"Did you install spacers between your motherboard and case".

I did NOT.

My question is how did you install the motherboard WITHOUT the spacers? Without the spacers, none of the ports (accessible thru the case) even line up.

Actually there was only one port that didn't line up. Again, if you don't know to do this and NOBODY in the freakin' universe tells you (remember NONE of my documentation - not my case manual, not my mobo manual - mentioned even one word about it), it's kind of hard to just figure out exactly what's wrong. I considered the possibility that there was an issue with my case rather than me having the mobo installed wrong.

I'm not proud at all of this idiotic mistake, but I post it to potentially help others. And it could explain why the original poster has fan issues, although I suspect that his problem is really not because of this.

[SLK001]

NONE of my documentation - not my case manual, not my mobo manual - mentioned even one word about it.

You actually got a case manual? All my last case came with is a box of parts (screws, standoffs, a speaker, indicator LED cables, etc). It was up to me to guess what went where.

[jman98]

Yeah. I really got a case manual. I bought a Thermaltake case. I don't remember the model, but it actually came with a small manual that was helpful in terms of getting the motherboard connected to various case features (reset switch, on/off switch, USB connectors on the case, etc.).