Video Fan Failed--for two different video cards???

[Questing]

I just don't get it! I replaced my video card and I'm getting the same message! The fan is running; I can see it!

I installed a new mobo in the fall and got a "Video Fan Failed" message with an MSI Ti4200 card. I replaced it with a new MSI FX5500. It worked fine for two weeks. Now I'm getting "Video Fan Failed" every time I boot. The fan is working.

I noticed my case was running warmer (up to 40 de. C from 30) so I vacuumed the case fans. Temperature dropped back to usual 30 de.

Could that be the problem with the video fan as well? I really don't want to have to vacuum the video fan every couple weeks. I've never heard of having to do that.

Do you think that's the problem?

 

[Questing]

Am I getting the video fan failed message because the video card is overheating?

Could there be something wrong with my new mobo? I never got this message using the MSI Ti4200 with my old mobo.

Is it safe to continue using my computer after getting this message?

Help! I'm really out of my depth here. I think I built a whole lot more computer than I really need or can handle.

 

[Creig]

I've never heard of a "Video fan failed" error message. I don't think most video card fans support RPM monitoring.

Are you sure it's not your CPU fan that's giving the error message? I know that some motherboards will monitor your CPU fan RPM and give an error message if either it's not spinning at all or spinning below a certain RPM.

 

[Questing]

The message is "Video fan failed." ASUS has an option to use recorded messages and the voice actually says, "Video Fan Failed," instead of giving me POST beeps.

I think you're on to something. How could the mobo know that the video fan failed when the video fan is plugged into the video card, not the mobo.

Maybe I just have to plug the fan connector into the mobo _somewhere_ although I don't see where! Or maybe I just have to disable checking the video fan speed in BIOS. I've been afraid to disable it in case there really is a problem.

That said, it looks like my video card's okay and there's just a communications problem to resolve.

Thanks Creig! This is starting to make sense!

 

[Creig]

If your video card fan has only two wires (99% of them out there) then the fan doesn't support RPM monitoring. Only fans with the third wire (usually blue) allow speed detection.

 

[mwmorph]

check settings. how fast is it spinning and how high is the alert? tone ti down to about 20% lower than normal operating rpm and see if it beeps.
ex. my fan on the asus gefoce 2 ti usually spins at 5000rpm. i set my alert to 4000rpm. if you set it to say, 10000rpm, it's gonna tell you the fan failed because it's not spinning that fast.
aslo, check temps. if it's temp is good. just decrease the alert rpm setting and be done with it. if both dont work, get the newest version of smartdoctor.

 

[Questing]

Video fan has two wires (black and red); so I guess I'll disable checking video fan speed in the BIOS.

Thanks Creig. You have lifted a pile of worry off my mind!

 

[Questing]

Hey, that's interesting mwmorph. I'll check it out. I'd much rather change the settings than disable it completely. Thanks!

What's a good way to check the temperature?

 

[Creig]

Originally posted by: Questing
Hey, that's interesting mwmorph. I'll check it out. I'd much rather change the settings than disable it completely. Thanks!

The fan on your card only has two wires, power and ground. It doesn't have the 3rd RPM sensing line that mwmorph's GF2 Ti has.

I'm not exactly sure why the motherboard is complaining about RPMs, but I would simply disable the alarm entirely.

What's a good way to check the temperature?

Stick your finger on the back of the card opposite of where the GPU is mounted while running a graphically intense demo or benchmark.


Really.


As far as I can tell from reading the feature set of your MSI FX5500-TD256, it doesn't have any sort of temperature monitoring capabilities. So the empirical method (finger) is the next best option.

Just make sure to touch the metal frame of your computer before doing so to make sure you're grounded. If the back of your card is very hot where the GPU is, then you might need a better heatsink/fan. If it's cool while running an intense demo/benchmark then the heatsink is doing its job of ridding your GPU of excess heat.

 

[mwmorph]

well, the smartdoctor programfrom asus has 3 tabs. voltage, temp and fan speed. the midde one is temp.