motherboard fan not working

[dustie]

hi all

check out this pic of my PC innards:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/djdust/pc.jpg

simple question - the copper "gigabyte" fan on the Intel 845PE motherboard
isn't working at all and hasn't for months - is this normal?

cheers

daz

 

[Jan Alter]

hi all

check out this pic of my PC innards:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/djdust/pc.jpg

simple question - the copper "gigabyte" fan on the Intel 845PE motherboard
isn't working at all and hasn't for months - is this normal?

cheers

daz

This is a trick question.

Yes it's normal. Northbridge fans fail and or get very noisy.
However, a normal replacement is a passive heatsink if you want to be done
with the problem, which will often suffice to do the job and avoid the
'normal' failure of the fan that you would put in for replacement.

Of course now someone will start screaming that their fan has been running
for five years without a peep.

 

[dustie]

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/djdust/pc.jpg

This is a trick question.

Yes it's normal. Northbridge fans fail and or get very noisy.
However, a normal replacement is a passive heatsink if you want to be done
with the problem, which will often suffice to do the job and avoid the
'normal' failure of the fan that you would put in for replacement.

ok, I'm a bit confused. If the PC works fine whether the motherboard fan is
working or not then what's the point of it in the first place?

 

[KC Computers]

Yes it's normal. Northbridge fans fail and or get very noisy.

ok, I'm a bit confused. If the PC works fine whether the motherboard fan
is working or not then what's the point of it in the first place?

Computer chips that get too hot can cause system problems (i.e. lockups,
etc)
and they may burn up prematurely.

 

[Mike T.]

ok, I'm a bit confused. If the PC works fine whether the motherboard fan
is working or not then what's the point of it in the first place?

It's there to generate more noise, obviously. No, really.

Northbridge chips can overheat unless they are actively cooled (with a fan),
but usually do NOT overheat unless the PC case has a cooling problem. That
is, if there is inadequate air circulation in the computer's case, the
northbridge can overheat, without active cooling.

But if your system is properly cooled, the fan on the northbridge (part of
the mainboard) is redundant. So it only serves to generate more noise.
HOWEVER, if you are going to take the fan off, you need to replace the
heatsink. Heatsinks are designed differently depending on whether they will
be used with a fan or not. So simply ripping off the fan and leaving a bare
chip or a heatsink (that used to have a fan) is not a good idea. -Dave

 

[Paul]

ok, I'm a bit confused. If the PC works fine whether the motherboard fan
is working or not then what's the point of it in the first place?

It's there to generate more noise, obviously. No, really.

Northbridge chips can overheat unless they are actively cooled (with a fan),
but usually do NOT overheat unless the PC case has a cooling problem. That
is, if there is inadequate air circulation in the computer's case, the
northbridge can overheat, without active cooling.

But if your system is properly cooled, the fan on the northbridge (part of
the mainboard) is redundant. So it only serves to generate more noise.
HOWEVER, if you are going to take the fan off, you need to replace the
heatsink. Heatsinks are designed differently depending on whether they will
be used with a fan or not. So simply ripping off the fan and leaving a bare
chip or a heatsink (that used to have a fan) is not a good idea. -Dave[/QUOTE]

Northbridge chips come with a wide variety of power dissipations
(heat output). The lowest chips are like 2 watts. Some of those,
you might even be able to remove the heatsink entirely. In
previous years, there were some manufacturers putting fans
on them, just for the bling value (to make it seem like you
had some really fast hardware).

The worst so far, are some of the Nvidia single chip solutions.
They are using 15W+ of power, and the fan really should stay
on those ones. If you replace with a passive heatsink with no
fan, the chip is still scalding hot.

As for "the PC works fine", it might not work fine, the first
time you have a hot summer day, and the room gets really warm.
Parts are given more cooling than they need, so they will
still work when the room gets really, really hot.

The computer case should be kept cool, for the benefit of the
hard drive. The hard drive is quite temperature sensitive,
and I lost a hard drive when my home AC was turned off for a
month one summer. The hard drive is the thing that benefits
from good cooling of the air inside the computer case. Many
of the other components inside the computer, can take more
heat than the hard drive. The hard drive may not fail the
first day it gets hot, but if heated, you increase the odds
there will be trouble.

Paul

 

[John Doe]

<[email protected]>, "Mike

As for "the PC works fine", it might not work fine, the first time
you have a hot summer day, and the room gets really warm. Parts
are given more cooling than they need, so they will still work
when the room gets really, really hot.

The distinct impression I get is that device temperature increases
much faster than ambient/room temperature (with every degree
increase in room temperature, your device temperature can increase
several degrees).

The computer case should be kept cool, for the benefit of the hard
drive. ... The hard drive may not fail the first day it gets hot,
but if heated, you increase the odds there will be trouble.

One quite cool solution is a case with an intake fan blowing on the
hard drive.

 

[Rod Speed]

The distinct impression I get is that device temperature increases
much faster than ambient/room temperature (with every degree
increase in room temperature, your device temperature can increase
several degrees).

Yeah, thats a real effect.