The Asus P4T, Enermax Fans, and PC Probe, etc.

[Mr.Diggler]

I'm trying to monitor fan speeds in Win98se.

The Asus P4T has three 3pin connectors on board: CPU_FAN, MAIN_FAN, and PCI_FAN.

Asus PC Probe has three monitors for fans: CPU, Power, and Chassis. (Side note to Asus, nice way to make your products have some consistency in the names, morons.) Different names aside, a monitor is a monitor, it shouldn't matter of course.

I plugged the 3pin connector for my CPU fan (Thermaltake P4 Golden Orb) into the CPU_FAN connector on the P4T. Works fine, monitors perfectly in PC Probe.

I plug the 3pin connector from an Enermax case fan into the PCI_FAN connector. PC Probe can't detect it.

I plug the 3pin connector from the Enermax PSU into the MAIN_FAN connector. PC Probe can't detect it.

Fans spin fine, the motherboard connectors will power the ones that need it, but no monitoring (except the CPU).

I uninstall PC Probe which seems to me to suck for other reasons too. For instance, the allowable range to set your motherboard warning temp is 30-60 degrees. Your allowable range to set your CPU warning temp is 67-90 degrees. 67? Come on, I want to know when my CPU hits 55 at least.

I install the Intel LCDM Client Manager that comes with the P4T. It can't detect the CPU temp correctly, up around 50-70 degrees (no, I'm not using the old BIOS 1002 where the CPU temp was reported too high). PC Probe at least detected the CPU temp correctly (compared to the BIOS reading). After install it constantly hangs up my system so I have to uninstall it (in Safe Mode even.)

Do any of you P4T users monitor your fan speeds and CPU temp? What do you use? Am I doing something wrong?

I want something like Motherboard Monitor, but apparently that doesn't work with the P4T yet.

 

[Wingznut]

I've been using the Asus Probe with success, with three fans. But I could've sworn that my motherboard is labeled consistant with the Probe. But I'll take a second look tonight, when I get home.

 

[Mr.Diggler]

Thanks, Wingznut PEZ. If they are labelled consistent with PC Probe, see what Revision number your board is. Mine is 1.06.

Did you have to do anything special to get them to be monitored correctly? It's just a matter of plugging them into the board and then clicking the checkbox in PC Probe, right?

 

[Wingznut]

Sure enough, you're right... "Main Fan", "CPU Fan", "PCI Fan".

I have my rear fan plugged into Main, CPU fan plugged into CPU, and my BlueORB plugged into PCI.

And yeah, I just plugged the fan in and enabled the monitoring. You might want to switch the fans around to troubleshoot whether it's the board, fans, or monitor at fault.

 

[fkloster]

Hey Mr. Diggler. Hows it goin? Make sure you update your BIOS as soon as possible to 1004. It helps with temperature readings and gives your rimms turbo mode!

 

[Sharkmeat]

On my P4T Some case fans run to slow to be picked up by the probe I tried three diff fans and only one out of three showed up.Great MB but I can tell you with the rdram the MB will run above 31 c unless you find away to draw off the heat because the memory slots are close to the MB temp monitor.No big deal just throught I would mention it.

 

[Mr.Diggler]

<< Hey Mr. Diggler. Hows it goin? Make sure you update your BIOS as soon as possible to 1004. It helps with temperature readings and gives your rimms turbo mode! >>


Hey fkloster, not much of your old SCSI box left here now, just the monitor and speakers which will be gone within a month. Miss it?

Oh yeah, I'm on 1004. I just happened to check the Asus site the day after it came out a few months back I think it was and I flashed right away hoping it would solve some of the problems I was having.



<< And yeah, I just plugged the fan in and enabled the monitoring. You might want to switch the fans around to troubleshoot whether it's the board, >>


Thanks for checking on that, Wingznut. I did switch the fans around (except the CPU_FAN.) Actually I tried about five different fans in each mboard connector, but they were all these Enermax Ball Bearing Thermal Control ones so I'm wondering if they ... suck. Or if the Thermal Control is interferring with the rotation sensor...I don't know. None of the other 80mm fans I have sitting around here are 3pin.

I'm tired of messing around with this system, it's taken waaay too long to get it running so I think I'm just going to say Screw It and not monitor the extra two fans.



<< On my P4T Some case fans run to slow to be picked up by the probe I tried three diff fans and only one out of three showed up. >>


I thought that might be the case with mine, but I heated up the thermal sensor and got them spinning pretty fast without any detection in Probe. Thanks though, at least I'm not alone here.

 

[Apex]

I have a very similar configuration:

Asus P4T bios 1004
P4 1.7 Retail at 2006Mhz
1GB of PC800 ECC Rambus (two 512mb rimms and 2 crimms) at 944mhz (472mhz), turbo enabled
Leadtek GF3
Win2k

Retail heatsink/fan is attached to the CPU header
Enermax PS w/80mm thermally controlled enermax fan is attached to main

What I've found is PC Probe was very unreliable with the fan readings. The CPU one worked fine. The main one attached to the enermax fan read 0 most of the time, then worked once in awhile.

Motherboard Monitor 5.07b on the other hand, works reliably, ALL THE TIME. Voltages, fans, and temperatures are all fine. I have a thermistor taped to the Rambus which, coincidentally, runs hotter than the CPU.

 

[Apex]

I just tried both Asus PC Probe version 2.12.03 and 2.12.07. Both seem to have this problem. Stick with MBM5.07b for your P4T. It works great.

 

[Big Lar]

I use mobo monitor as well on the Asus P4T, does a great job of keeping track of the temps/ I don't have a cpu fan tho, nor do I run any fans off the board, so no help there from me

 

[Mr.Diggler]

Damn, this thread generated some high class response...a Golden Member, a Platinum Member, a Diamond Member, and the GotApex guy.

Apex: I could kiss your feet, Motherboard Monitor 5.07b works great on the fans, temps, everything! I didn't see the P4T in the motherboard list and so assumed it wasn't ready for the new chipset yet...dumb assumption I guess.

 

[Apex]

Heh, no problem. Now if we can only get someone to make a quiet, powerful cooler for a P4, eh? I'm still on the retail one on mine (tried the blue orb. WAY louder, 2 degrees F better cooling.)

 

[Mr.Diggler]

Yeah, though I'm not sure if these chips will really OC any higher with better cooling (without going frigid). I tried running it with an open case near an open window a few months ago (room temp around 45 degrees F) and got the CPU temp quite low, but couldn't get any more speed out of it.

The golden orb isn't great, but it gives me the same performance without any heat to be concerned about...and it is quiet.

 

[Sugadaddy]

PC Probe doesn't detect my Enermax PSU fan when I boot up because it spins too slow. When the system heats up a little, it picks it up. That's probably your problem.

 

[Apex]

Well, I've found 2076mhz on the retail heatsink to be possible (RDRAM set to 3x instead of 4x), but reliability is shoddy. At 2006Mhz with retail heatsink and Arctic Silver II, I'm at 41 degrees C idle (which is lower than the 46 degrees C the rambus is at) and 56 degrees max with burn-in software (My Rambus goes to 52 degrees C max)