3-pin fan connector on motherboard

[dredwingz03]

I have a crappy store-bought Sony vaio, and bought a bfg tech 7800gs video card for my old agp system. Before I install it I want to upgrade my 195W power supply. Sony has proprietary everything so I will have to modify my case to make it fit. But that isn't my problem...

My problem is that there is a 3pin connector on the motherboard that had a cable from the PSU running to it, and my new PSU doesn't have a 3pin cable. Just to see, I tried running the computer with this cable unplugged and BIOS won't let the computer boot, so I'm sure it's some sort of monitoring for fan speed and since BIOS doesn't detect any fans it won't boot the computer. The fans still power up so I thought I could get away with it..guess not.

http://img457.imageshack.us/img457/7269/3pinconnector8jc.jpg

The blurry connector on the left is the one coming from my stock power supply, and you can see another 3pin cable going to the fan on the right from the mobo.

http://img457.imageshack.us/img457/7258/fanconnectors6yp.jpg

My question...
Are there any adaptors that could allow me to use one of my available 4pin molex connectors on my new power supply to plug into this 3pin slot on the mobo? 4-pin molex to 3-pin female connector. I have seen something like this, but not sure it would work in this case...

I appreciate any insight and thank you.

Paul

 

[LED]

Yes...check out svc.com

 

[dredwingz03]

I found this
http://svc.com/4to3ad.html

It's hard to tell from the pic. I would need a female 4pin end to plug into a 4pin molex off my power supply, and the other end would have to be a female 3pin plug to connect to the motherboard. This adapter says it's strictly for power...think it would work missing the last wire?

 

[Bobthelost]

You can normally disable the setting in the BIOS that makes the computer shut down if you dont' have a fan running.

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: dredwingz03
I found this
http://svc.com/4to3ad.html

It's hard to tell from the pic. I would need a female 4pin end to plug into a 4pin molex off my power supply, and the other end would have to be a female 3pin plug to connect to the motherboard. This adapter says it's strictly for power...think it would work missing the last wire?

Thats not gonna work. You definatly DO NOT want to connect a molex connector to the 3 pin connector on the motherboard, they are both there to supply power..the 3 pin connector coming from your old PSU was for a fan in the PSU. Try getting a fan with a 3 pin connector, and plug it in to that spot on the motherboard. I doubt thats the reason it's not starting up, but it is possible the BIOS is set up to not start if it doesn't detect a fan there. Did you make sure all the other power connectors were connected, including to the new video card?

 

[dredwingz03]

I was going to look around in BIOS, but the screen got all shaky, and then turned black. Now when the computer is booting and I hit F2 for BIOS (sony vaio) it just stops and displays a black screen, and it turns off immediately when the power button is pressed. So now I can't get to BIOS but the computer will turn on if I don't hit any function keys. I found an adapter, but now from the last response I don't know if it would be a good idea to plug up a 4pin molex to the 3pin motherboard.

http://www.cableclub.com/product_info.php?products_id=749

I already ordered it and express shipping on top of that because I'm tired of waiting and thought I found a solution. Dang it. Should I cancel that or not? I thought the power supply sent spikes to that 3pin place on the mother board and that's how it determined fan speed, and it definitely looks like the old connector on the old psu was sending power there, but then again maybe not. There's a blue, black, and white wire.

 

[dredwingz03]

Well I cancelled that order for the adapter. I have decided I should just return the PSU I got and get one with a 3pin cable like I had on my old one.

http://www.enermaxusa.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=21_42&products_id=74

That one has a 3pin cable but only two wires going into it. I am having a hard time finding a power supply with this cable included, and the Enermax ones only have the two wires going into it so I don't know about those. Anyone know where I can find a PSU with this cable with three wires instead of two?

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: dredwingz03
Well I cancelled that order for the adapter. I have decided I should just return the PSU I got and get one with a 3pin cable like I had on my old one.

http://www.enermaxusa.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=21_42&products_id=74

That one has a 3pin cable but only two wires going into it. I am having a hard time finding a power supply with this cable included, and the Enermax ones only have the two wires going into it so I don't know about those. Anyone know where I can find a PSU with this cable with three wires instead of two?

I would try plugging in a fan to that header first. That 3 pin connector is just for a fan, and I really don't think thats what is causing your problem. It would be a lot cheaper to try a fan, than to return your power supply.