Rear fan not spinning after wake from sleep, new Intel H87 system

[CNelsonPSU]

Hi all,

I have a new system built on the Intel H87-based DH87MC motherboard, running Windows 8 x64. I have one front/"inlet" fan hooked up to the front fan header, and one rear/exhaust/"outlet" fan hooked up to the rear fan header. Both run fine on initial boot or restart. Both are also non-PWM fans - just 3-pin fans.

When I wake my computer from sleep, though, the rear fan attempts to spin, but then just stops. All other fans (front fan, CPU, GPU) spin up just fine. I've tried turning off auto fan control in the BIOS, upping the minimum fan threshold, etc., but nothing seems to fix this one issue. I've also hooked up the PWM fan from a Noctua NH-L12 cooler to the rear fan header and it won't spin up after wake from sleep either.

Could this be a BIOS problem? A Windows 8 problem? I seem to remember having a similar rear-fan-not-always-spinning-up problem on my old ASUS P6T motherboard too. I'm just confused as to why it's still happening with a new motherboard AND with different fans hooked up.

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

[crashtech]

Have you tried putting the system under some load, and seeing whether generating a bit of heat causes it to spool up?

 

[CNelsonPSU]

Have you tried putting the system under some load, and seeing whether generating a bit of heat causes it to spool up?

Ah, forgot to mention that while investigating another possible issue (high CPU temps, post in CPU forum), I downloaded the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility. I tried running the CPU stress test, CPU got super hot, but the rear fan did nothing. I'm not sure if I tried that with the PWM fan hooked up, though.

Would some sort of BIOS control actually have the fan not spinning at all?

 

[crashtech]

I've seen it when the fan controller puts so little voltage in that the fan can't generate enough torque to start, yeah. The controller then treats the condition as if there is something stuck in the blades, and tries starting the fan several times a second, then pauses a few seconds, then tries again. Where I have seen this is at very low ambient temps, though, so something is not right with your setup.I can't give you any advice specific to your board, though. Have you tried resetting the CMOS and starting over? That can be a bit of a pain, but at least it rules out anything you may have inadvertently changed in there.

 

[CNelsonPSU]

Might try the CMOS reset, although I didn't really change any of the defaults much. I might also try changing the fan "type" in the BIOS. This new Intel visual bios has all sorts of fan types (e.g., inlet, outlet, chassis, auxiliary, and so on), so maybe those affect how much power it sends them?

 

[crashtech]

Yeah, it's possible the logic is treating the headers differently depending on their function. Obviously we see that with the CPU fan header. That's another thing to try, if you can find a different header and see what it does. These problems can be a bit inscrutable. My HTPC had a problem with running the CPU fan full blast when coming out of sleep, seemingly at random. I got tired of trying to figure it out and plugged the CPU fan into a chassis fan header. Not that I would recommend that to anyone, because it's conceivable that the CPU could run too hot, but for what that machine does (also a large cooler on an i3), I knew it would be safe.

If you suspect that it is software related, you could always load up a different OS on an old hard drive and see how it acts. Have you installed any software that purports to control fan speeds?

 

[CNelsonPSU]

If you suspect that it is software related, you could always load up a different OS on an old hard drive and see how it acts. Have you installed any software that purports to control fan speeds?

Thanks for the tips. Only software I've installed is Intel monitoring software and utilities. I'll play around with the BIOS for now, maybe go to Windows 7 to eliminate any Windows 8 weirdness that might be going on.

 

[Wall Street]

Just to throw out the obvious solution - why not use the molex to three pin adaptor? It sounds like you want the fan full throttle anyways.

 

[crashtech]

I wonder how it would act with a live CD like Parted Magic.

That would eliminate the OS as a source of trouble in a hurry.

 

[CNelsonPSU]

I wonder how it would act with a live CD like Parted Magic.

That would eliminate the OS as a source of trouble in a hurry.

Some updates on troubleshooting this problem:

- I decided not to stick with Windows 8 and am now on Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. Having the same issue.
- I downloaded Parted Magic, booted from optical drive, ran "pm-suspend" in the terminal, woke from sleep, and had the same issue: fan starts to spin up, but then just stops.
- Decided to try just hooking up the Noctua rear fan to a molex, but then it ran full speed and was way too loud for my liking.

The rear fan runs great at start-up or after a reboot, it's a just a shame that I sleep my system most of the time, so the fan is now basically never running (which isn't great for the airflow in my case).

I've also posted this on the Intel support boards, so maybe they'll have some info...

 

[piasabird]

Check the settings in the BIOS.

It could be a faulty fan also.

It could also be a bad Temp Sensor or bad BIOS version.

 

[crashtech]

Hey, did you happen to try a different brand of PWM fan on that header?

 

[CNelsonPSU]

Check the settings in the BIOS.
It could be a faulty fan also.
It could also be a bad Temp Sensor or bad BIOS version.

Hey, did you happen to try a different brand of PWM fan on that header?

The settings in my BIOS are fine - no disabling or anything of the rear fan header. Set to auto and such, just like the front fan header.

I originally had a non-PWM fan from Lian-Li hooked up when observing this behavior. Of course the behavior continues as I've tried two separate Noctua PWM fans as well. This is why I'm thinking it's the MB fan header and not any other hardware malfunction.

With the H87 chipset and this Intel motherboard being fairly new, I'm thinking maybe these are just early BIOS bugs or something? I also have my computer randomly restarting during POST sometimes (starts up, turns off after about 3 seconds, off for a second or two, turns back on to retry POST, and so on until it finally boots to Windows). I can't figure out what's causing that after remove RAM and other stuff, so maybe my MB is bad too?

To be clear, when I'm in Windows everything works fine - I've had the computer on for hours while browsing, playing games, etc. with no problems.

 

[CNelsonPSU]

Just another update:

Due to this fan problem, the random power-down-and-restarts during POST sometimes, and another issue where DDR3 1600 XMP profiles (tested with multiple sets of RAM sticks) won't work (BIOS setting just resets itself every time), I'm returning this motherboard. Ordered a lower end ASUS Z87 board (Asus Z87-PLUS) to see if that eliminates some of these issues.

My last ASUS board was mostly issue free - I'm really frustrated with this Intel board, which I thought would be one of the best boards to buy...

 

[CNelsonPSU]

Hi all,

So I have my system rebuilt with the ASUS Z87 PLUS and it did fix the strange problems I was having with the Intel H87 board (I think I just got a bad board), but now I have a new issue.

The fan speed control on the ASUS board is way too granular/aggressive. Even with the fan profiles set to "Silent" in the BIOS, I can hear them spinning up and down constantly in response to actions on the PC. Some installer could be doing something, and I'll hear the fans spin up a little - things like that.

The Intel board seemed to be the exact opposite - even when running a CPU stress test, the fans would barely spin up - just enough to keep the CPU at around 80 C. My stress test temperatures are now around 70 C, but of course the fans are loud. The main issue, though, is the constant spin-up-spin-down - it's pretty annoying.

Does anyone know how I can get the board to stop being so sensitive w/ the fan speed? Do I need to use the ASUS Fan Xpert 2 software? Is there something I'm missing in the BIOS?

Thanks!

 

[birthdaymonkey]

You could probably have success with the Fan Xpert software, as it allows you to customize your fan profiles however you wish.

Another option if you don't want the notoriously unreliable Asus software installed on your computer would be to just hook up the fan to your PSU via molex, but throw a resistor in the line to limit the fan speed. All Noctua fans come with these "low noise adapters," usually in a couple different potencies. That way your fan will stay at a constant low/moderate speed.

For additional fun, you can turn your 3-pin to molex adapter into a 7v mod or a 5v mod with a pair of needle-nose pliers.

 

[THRiLL KiLL]

i gave up a long time ago and use fan controlers. scythe

 

[Binky]

The fan startup voltage is too high. Put another fan in and it should be fine.

 

[flurazepam]

Quote from Binky: "The fan startup voltage is too high. Put another fan in and it should be fine."

No, that is incorrect. The problem lies within the bios itself and affects all 8 series chipsets regardless of configuration.

"...There's a bug in the BIOS code that restores the state of the SIO. This results in the SIO being only partially reprogrammed. This is a general problem and affects all of the 8 Series board BIOSs. We're in the process of verifying the fix and we will hopefully roll out updated BIOSs in about a week's time..." from Intel themselves.

Source: https://communities.intel.com/thread/43221?start=15&tstart=0