Dumb question from a novice

[Clemenza]

I have an older Alienware Aurora R2 ALX Motherboard (I know, I know Alienware blah blah blah). It is a water cooled system. There is a heatsink and small fan (probably 40-50mm) just below the water cooler and processor. Can anyone explain the purpose of this to me. I can't figure out what it is cooling. The fan has stopped working and now my system shuts down a little after it boots up so I'm assuming it's a heat issue.

I've tried the googles and come up with no answers as to the purpose on the sink and fan.

 

[aigomorla]

can you take a picture of it and post it?

Do you mean this fan that is right below the CPU?

That is a chipset cooling fan.
If that thing died, it could mean your board is overheating as it seems to regulate the temperature for mosfet and Northbridge and Southbridge.

However it shouldnt shutdown imediately after you boot up.
I am guessing you might have a bigger problem.

The replacement of that fan is fairly simple.
Does it seem to have a standard 3 pin plug which goes into the motherboard?

 

[Clemenza]

Yes. That is the fan. It's not turning at all. I've already pulled it and ordered another one to replace. I figured I would try that first since it is the most simple solution.

It shuts down about 2-3 minutes after boot and then continually gets worse if I try to boot it again and usually shuts down during the boot cycle after the first time.

 

[aigomorla]

to me that honestly sounds like more of a PSU problem, or a CPU voltage / heat problem.

Can you verify the pump is still working?
put your finger over the pump... can you feel it vibrating or can you hear the pump turning in the AIO?

 

[Clemenza]

Yah. I actually just fired it up after removing the fan. I can hear the pump running and the PC booted up as normal and stayed on. I shut it down but it acted completely normal.

 

[aigomorla]

wait for the fan replacement and then see...

there might be a setting inside bios which is forcing shutdown when the NB gets a certain temp. The replacement fan will help on that.

If your still having problems, the next thing i am going to assume is it may be your power supply.

 

[Clemenza]

Thanks for your help. I think the new fan will be here this weekend. Hopefully that will fix it since it was so cheap. If not, my next step was to try a new PSU. I've had 0 problems out of the system since I've had it so it was pretty random for it to just shut down when I booted it the other morning.