OK problem is that the exhaust fan I have fitted behind the radiator of my water cooling system is not working properly. It's still spinning but at but at a totally useless speed and making an 'unhealthy fan noise'. I tried removing the radiator to get at the fan, giving it a prod blowing all the dust off it etc... When I screwed everything back in again and restarted my system the fan apparently worked fine and my CPU temperature came back down to a normal level. However given about 30-60mins and it was acting up again. I tried this a few times and it has worked temporarily for about the same period of time. It's not really a long term solution though... I also tried unplugging it from the motherboard and then plugging it back in but this made no difference. Does this sound like the Fan itself is at fault or something to do with the connecting electronics? If anyone has any ideas on how to fix it before I get on the phone to order a replacement fan that would be great. Also I'm going to get off the computer now and let it cool down while I wait for a reply.
How is it powered? If it's connected to the motherboard then there may be a function in the bios that slows the fan down to reduce noise when the motherboard or CPU sensor is below a certain temperature.
Yes it's connected to the mother board. This time when I booted up it wasn't working as per usual but then randomly stopped making the noise and sped up and the temperature dropped from about 40c to 37c. However the temperature has been as high as like 45c and there has been no sign of the fan kicking in.
Mine goes from the MB CPU sensor which is different to the on chip CPU sensor, so even though, my CPU reports 50-60, it usually takes a while for my MB CPU sensor to catch up and the fan to kick in at full speed. 45c isn't very high for a CPU, most AMD's can run happily up to 60 and Intel's up to 99 (but I wouldn't want it much above 60-70 for general use) What fan control settings do you have in your bios? Mine is set so the fan kicks in at 40c.
I don't know anything about the fan control settings in the bios, I'm using a program called speed fan to detect the temperature. When I looked through my bios I couldn't find anything related to fan speeds.
Everything is set to 100% but changing the settings seems to make no difference. I've had a good fiddle around with it and I can't see any relationship between the fan settings on speed fan and the actual performance of the fans. The only fan I know how to control is my GPU fan via the bundled software.
It's an AMD Phenom II. I have never heard of cool and quite. After doing a quick search it's some sort of energy saving program... How do I find out if I'm running it or not?
It should be in the cpu settings in the bios, you used to need to have to install drivers for it so you may find it in add and remove programs too, although I'm not sure if now it's just handled by the CPU like Intel's speedstep is.
the bearing is failing on your fan. the "unhealthy fan noise" is due to the fan blade wobbling on its shaft due to excessive play in the bearing. the wobble then creates extra friction which slows the fan down to a speed that isnt effective for cooling your rig. randomly, when things balance out just right, the fan will operate normally and gyroscopic precession keeps it there until things becomey unbalanced enough to throw it into a wobble again.
it's about a fiver to replace it. it'll save any hassle you have, and if it is still the same, you still have a spare fan!
Sorry for letting this slip, I've been quite busy. Thanks for the advice. Whatever was happening to it has stopped and it hasn't done it again for 5 days. If it does start again I'll have the fan replaced.
