heatsink fan dead but,

[rago88]

As I was burning a disk Sat I noticed the burn speed was slowing down alot..
set for 8x and it was fighting to maintain 2x.
I clicked on my performance tab and saw that I was at 100% and also all RED bars.....
I quick shut down, I opened the pc up and blew out a lot of dust around the heatsink thinking this was the problem.
I turned it back on [with the cover off] and to my amazement the heat sink fan was not running.
[ I since have replaced it and all is fine] but,
when I booted up, I got the familiar 1 beep meaning all hardware was ok to start windows .
If the fan was not working wouldn't the pc have caught that?
the only thing I can think of is that a pc will detect if there is no electrical signal but will not detect [ at turn on] if the blades are actually turning which is a mechanical thing.
Is this correct?

[ed klein]

Just electrical speaking:

One 12v direct current CPU fan going out is not likely going to trip any alarm condition. But if the two leads plus & minus shorted together than usually a high current draw or blown fuse should occur, short circuit.

It appears your condition is what is called an open circuit the fan burned out to an open condition, meaning the plus & minus leads did not short together.

I think you did the right thing, open the case and check out the problem.
If you can replace the CPU fan and it appears no other ill effects pop up, I think you have fixed the problem of an overheating CPU.

You probably have done this, but check out the other fans and see if they are making any noise or not running at all. Anything you can do to get more air flow thru the case should help in cooling, even adding additional fans.



There are no alarm conditions to tell you if the blades on a cooling fan are spinning, only if the fan unit draws too much current, then an alarm condition should exist, like a blown fuse or circuit breaker, the fan going out caused the other hardware parts to heat up.

[rago88]

kewl...
thanks for the info....

[Chewy]

your bios might have a setting for overheating protection, some disable it, you must have had a intel cpu, they are usually more forgiving

[rago88]

You Sir are correct!!!!