Northbridge fan doesn't run

[weshuang]

I have a pretty new Gigabyte 8IPE1000 Pro. I recently have been trying to get the system to run quieter and installed a new True 430 power supply. Anyway, I recently noticed that the fan sitting on top of the Northbridge chipset is not spinning. It is securely plugged into its power lead on the mobo. Is there a setting somewhere, maybe in the bios or something, that may have accidentally turned the fan off? Or am I to conclude that the fan or mobo is defective?

 

[Boonesmi]

its either a bad fan (most likely)
or possibly the fan header on the motherboard isnt working (less likely) so the fan isnt getting any power

they northbridge fans are usually just 40mm fan, and can very easily be replaced

 

[MDE]

If it's stable without the fan running, I wouldn't bother replacing the fan. Asus' high-end P4 boards have passive NB cooling, so I don't see why yours couldn't run passively.

 

[weshuang]

Thanks, guys! In fact, after a little research, I discovered that Revision 1.0 of the board I have has only a heat sink, wherease revision 2.0 of the board has the fan. It seems clear that it should be OK with no fan. If I start having problems, I'll find a replacement for a few sheckles.

 

[Boonesmi]

Originally posted by: weshuang
Thanks, guys! In fact, after a little research, I discovered that Revision 1.0 of the board I have has only a heat sink, wherease revision 2.0 of the board has the fan. It seems clear that it should be OK with no fan. If I start having problems, I'll find a replacement for a few sheckles.

but just one note of caution... the board revision that didn't come with a fan probably did come with a much larger heatsink

so if you start to notice the northbridge heatsink gets excessivly warm, or if you start to notice some system instability. then its probably time to either replace the fan, or replace the heatsink with a larger/passive heatsink