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PWM fan stuck at max speed, ignores speedfan settings

Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 2:56 pm
by PartEleven
Has anyone encountered this problem? I'm not sure what's wrong with my system. It's an old file server running an MSI G41M-E43. I have a Slip Stream PWM fan plugged into the pwm fan header, but the fan just runs at max speed regardless of what settings I have in speedfan. I've disabled all forms of automatic fan control (motherboard and speedfan) that I'm aware of and tried adjusting the fan speed in speedfan manually. No dice. The fan just spins along at max speed even if I try to manually turn down the fan to like 0%. Quite frustrating.

Re: PWM fan stuck at max speed, ignores speedfan settings

Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 12:20 am
by Mats
Have you configured Speedfan to control the specific fan with PWM?

Readings > Configure > Advanced > Chip: Choose fan controller and check the settings. (No, I don't know what all the settings are for. ;) )

It could also be a 4-pin fan header that doesn't support PWM, although I doubt that since it's the CPU fan header.

Are you sure that PWM works at all? You didn't say if BIOS control worked.

Re: PWM fan stuck at max speed, ignores speedfan settings

Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 12:28 am
by lodestar
Does the fan control section in MSI's OverClocking Center utility work?

Re: PWM fan stuck at max speed, ignores speedfan settings

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 5:40 pm
by cmthomson
This might not apply to your MB, but the last few boards I've had, it was necessary to first configure the BIOS to manual or disable, and then in SpeedFan, go to configure, advanced and then select the controller chip (Nuovotron on my current board), then select PWM manual. Then you can configure speeds. YMMV.

Re: PWM fan stuck at max speed, ignores speedfan settings

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 5:46 pm
by Abula
Are you using CPU_FAN1 header ?

Image

Re: PWM fan stuck at max speed, ignores speedfan settings

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 3:11 pm
by PartEleven
Sorry guys, got busy for the past week.

Mats: Yeah, I've checked the speedfan settings and as far as I know I've set everything to what it should be. I have another PC that has speedfan controlling the fan properly.

lodestar: Haven't tried MSI overclocking software. Not even sure if it's compatible with this old board.

cmthomson: I've tried with both the BIOS enabled and disabled, and I don't see any difference.

Abula: It's the only 4-pin header on the board, so I'm assuming it's the right one.

It's not listed under speedfan's compatible boards list, so it just may be incompatible.

Re: PWM fan stuck at max speed, ignores speedfan settings

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 12:18 am
by quest_for_silence
PartEleven wrote:It's not listed under speedfan's compatible boards list, so it just may be incompatible.

I don't think so: but at any rate, more probably that not some screenshots of speedfan settings, and at least a phoneshot of the relevant bios screen would help more than one thousand posts, if you mind.

Re: PWM fan stuck at max speed, ignores speedfan settings

Posted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 1:07 pm
by lodestar
PartEleven wrote:...Haven't tried MSI overclocking software. Not even sure if it's compatible with this old board...
The MSI OverClocking Center/Control Center software is listed under Download->Utility on the MSI web page for this board so it ought to work. I suggested it because if the manufacturer's fan control utility works then it shows that the motherboard is at least working as designed.

I also note from this screenshot from the Tom's Hardware site that the CPU fan can be set to run at 100% and this seems to tie in with what you are experiencing (but there does at least seem to be a Silent option which may help) :

Image

Re: PWM fan stuck at max speed, ignores speedfan settings

Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 7:28 pm
by PartEleven
So the problem seems to have fixed itself, and the fan now responds to speedfan settings. I'm a bit at a loss, since all I really did was change the PWM mode in Advanced to "temperature", then back to "manual". It has been on manual this whole time. Initially this didn't do anything, but a few days later the fan started responding to speed settings. I'm at a total loss why this happened.

On a side note, does anyone know exactly how speedfan controls fan speeds? I was under the impression that it works off the DESIRED and WARNING temperatures you set by increasing the fan speed gradually from min to max based on how high your component temperature is. I did some quick testing though, and at least on this system this is NOT how it works. Apparently it works like a simple on/off switch. My fan speed stays at MIN until my temperature hits the WARNING temperature, where the fan speed then shoots up to MAX. The fan stays at MAX speed until the temperature reading settles down below the DESIRED temperature. So instead of having a range of speeds, my fan essentially has two speeds: min and max. Is this how it's supposed to work?

Re: PWM fan stuck at max speed, ignores speedfan settings

Posted: Fri Oct 25, 2013 5:02 am
by Tzeb
There are 3 speeds.

1. Minimum value.
2. Desired temp gets reached ---> Maximum value
3. Warning temp gets reached ---> 100%