Is it normal for my CPU fan to do this?

[Matts0344]

Just built this computer:

Core 2 Duo E6400
Gigabyte DS3
2GB Corsair 6400 dual channel
Evga 7600GT
320GB Seagate 7200.10
Stock HSF
No overclocking.
CPU Temp: 25-28C (as reported by BIOS)

Looking at my CPU fan its spins but every 8-9 seconds it stops for about 2 seconds and starts again. What is with this? Is this normal or something?

I looked in the BIOS (running F3 BIOS I believe) and for fan control there is Intel QST and Legacy, both of them make my CPU fan run like this. Is it another BIOS setting?
Gigabyte hardly explains the BIOS settings at all in the manual.

This something I should be worried about?

BTW I posted this in the mobo section since it may be specific to my mobo or the Intel 965 chipset.

Thanks for any help you can give.

 

[evilhead]

I remember reading about a guy with the same prob in a forum somewhere. in his case the problem was the OCZ 6400. when he switched to uh... something else, the fans started spinning as they're supposed to. oh, and his problem involved the PSU fan as well.

I know you're using Corsair 6400, but maybe the ram is causing the erratic behaviour?

 

[filmore crashcart]

I had that experience.... go into the bios and into the pc health part - set cpu fan control from "auto" to "disable".
I have no idea why it would stop the fan on boot up for me but I wasn't aware of it until I had enabled the cpu fan malfunction alarm.

 

[Matts0344]

Hmm, don't see how RAM would affect the CPU fan. But I'm not gonna change memory over this since the PC seems to run OK for now.

The 120mm exaust fan, video card fan, and power supply fan all seem to run normal, its just the CPU fan that does this.

 

[evilhead]

maybe you should check that BIOS setting filmore mentioned first...

 

[Matts0344]

Thanks filmore, I'll give that a try when I get home (at work right now).

If it doesn't I'll upgrade the BIOS to F4.

 

[imported_hardwareguy]

Isn't this expected behavior? It only turns on the fan when it needs to to save power and to reduce noise. It's pretty annoying at bootup though when my 70C alarm goes off on the motherboard before the fan spins up. =/

 

[Matts0344]

Yeah, I can't stand all these beeps and alarms and stuff. I took my speaker cable out of my motherboard last night. If my CPU does somehow heat up my computer will throttle or just shut down right?

 

[filmore crashcart]

Isn't this expected behavior? It only turns on the fan when it needs to to save power and to reduce noise.

Yeah, I think it's suppose to do that, and if you disable the cpu fan failure alarm, it's maybe not so annoying. What I found out though was, my cpu temp has dropped a few more degrees with it disabled and I'm not sure just how much power you save by using it.

It still bothers me though to see the fan not spin up when the computer boots up.