Problem with my PC's fan

Discussion in 'Community Discussion' started by kainjow, Feb 28, 2008.

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  1. kainjow, Feb 28, 2008

    kainjow Moderator emeritus

    kainjow

    Joined:
    Jun 15, 2000
    #1
    Tonight I purchased a new fan for my PC. It's just the one in the back, not the processor fan. Now I'm not a modding guru, so I just bought a basic fan and replaced my existing one. Screwed it in and connected the 4-pin power cable. LED turns on, but the fan doesn't turn on. Maybe it's a defect? Any ideas?

    Also, I have a little LCD display on the front. It's displaying a temperature, but I'm not sure what temperature it is. Anyone know if there is some generic software to control what's being displayed? I have a custom PC so I have no idea what I would need.

    Edit: I just realized, maybe the new fan requires too much power to run and the current connector doesn't supply enough?
     
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  2. Gelfin, Feb 29, 2008

    Gelfin macrumors 68020

    Gelfin

    Joined:
    Sep 18, 2001
    Location:
    Denver, CO
    #2
    Seriously unlikely AFAIK. A defective fan is much more likely. Those cheap bulk brushless fans have really high failure rates as PC components go. When you say "four-pin connector" do you mean the big connector you'd plug into a DVD or hard disk, or a connector on your motherboard? Admittedly it's been a while since I've built a PC, but last time I did the speed-controlled motherboard fan connectors were three-pin.

    Anyhow, if it's the drive cable, there's no way power would be the issue, though just in case you might try plugging that connector into a drive and checking whether the drive spins up. If you plug the fan into the motherboard, I'd say to check your BIOS settings. I suppose there's a chance maybe your motherboard defaults to some kind of quiet mode that won't even spin the fan at all until a certain case temperature is reached.

    Still betting on a dead fan, though.
     
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  3. kainjow, Feb 29, 2008

    kainjow thread starter Moderator emeritus

    kainjow

    Joined:
    Jun 15, 2000
    #3
    Thanks for the response.

    I rechecked the power requirements and it is the same as the old one, so I'm pretty sure that is not the problem.

    I checked through BIOS but didn't find anything except the Cool'n'Quiet option, but that's related to the processor.

    Tomorrow I'm going to reconnect my old fan and make sure that is working. If I can't get the new fan to work, I'll just return it. Fortunately I bought it from a local store and not online.

    I replaced the fan because it was too loud but I think I also need to now replace the CPU fan, which is more expensive.
     
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  4. mgargan1, Feb 29, 2008

    mgargan1 macrumors 65816

    mgargan1

    Joined:
    Feb 22, 2003
    Location:
    Reston, VA
    #4
    i remember a few years ago, i bought a fanless heatsink specifically for pentium 4's. Well, when I put it on, the machine wouldn't boot. I took the heatsink off, and put the original heatsink back on, and it still wouldn't boot!
    I have no idea what I did, but I somehow broke the machine!

    Sorry- that didn't really help your situation.
     
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  5. kainjow, Feb 29, 2008

    kainjow thread starter Moderator emeritus

    kainjow

    Joined:
    Jun 15, 2000
    #5
    Sigh. I'm an idiot. I had this metal cover thingy somehow screwed too tightly onto the fan, so I guess it was preventing it from moving. I removed it and it works fine :)

    And while I was at it, I used the XP recovery console to fix an error message during bootup. I swear, that same problem has to be fixed every year or so...
     
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