Case Fans not spinning

Jamma88 · 31 Mar 2011 at 20:51

Hi all. Just got a new case, the lancool PC-K62. Absolutely love it, it is quiet and amazingly simple to build in (although there could have been more room for feeding cables near the top of the case).

My problem is with the top case fans. For some reason, they light up but don't spin. Usually after a while they start being "bumped" every second or two, and if I give them a nudge, they start spinning.

I prefer having a quiet case and as little fan speed as possible, but obviously need some airflow and I don't want to have to keep prizing the top of my case open to nudge the fans. It seems that they aren't getting enough power, although I have a reasonable power supply (600W), which I think should be large enough for my system.

The fans are just plugged straight into the power supply- I think through a molex converter to 3pin.

Any help with this is much appreciated. New to forum, so will upload system specs to sig shortly.

Sayso · 1 Apr 2011 at 08:02

mmm sounds like not enough voltage, try them one at a time..use the mobo headers etc

Tealc · 1 Apr 2011 at 09:11

Just a guess but they may be plugged into the 5v part of the Molex rather than the 12v. Check that the fan wires go into the yellow and black wires of the Molex.

5v would be insufficient for a lot of fans to start by themselves but would be enough for them to spin once pushed.

Jamma88 · 1 Apr 2011 at 12:30

Ok, will check it out, thanks. I think they are plugged in one at a time to separate cables from the PSU.

I think that they were 3-pin, but came with molex converters, which I left on simply for extra length of cable. I reckon that the connections probably came loose when I was setting it up. I don't see how the fans would be going into the incorrect colour of wires though, there's only one way of plugging them in isn't there?

Tbh, I quite like them like this, to an extent, because it's so quiet. Do you know of a good fan controller that I could get? That could be used to give them a nudge instead of me having to rip open the top of the case to do it =D

mast3r · 1 Apr 2011 at 14:52

This, as already mentioned, sounds like a problem with power, you are obviously getting power but i would suggest not enough, do you have a fan controller?

Reldar · 1 Apr 2011 at 18:45

If you have a multimeter you could test to see how much voltage it's putting out.

Jamma88 · 2 Apr 2011 at 12:41

No, I don't have a fan controller, or a multimeter (

). I haven't had a chance to fiddle about with it yet, but will let you know when I do. Tbh, I think that there are probably just some connections loose in there.

King Damager · 2 Apr 2011 at 13:21

Bit odd this one;

I recently tested my fans out when they came in my K62, and had no problems what so ever.

Plugged them into the adapters provided, and straight into the molex cables on my 650W with no issues what so ever :S

kd

Jamma88 · 5 Apr 2011 at 20:46

Hmm, now this is weird. Not pulled everything apart yet but I've noticed that when I immediately start up my computer, all the fans run. Then, after a loud couple of seconds, they all quiet down (I think this is normal, at least for mobo controlled fans). The top two case fans actually stop after this.

If I go into bios, they don't start moving either, they don't even "wiggle". When I get into windows, they start wiggling sufficiently enough so that a nudge will get them going.

Bit weird this one, but doesn't this imply that they are plugged in fine and the fans are fine and there's something else going on? They aren't plugged into mobo, how can anything be controlling them? Maybe I really don't have enough power from my PSU, which doesn't make much sense to me.

In the first few seconds of booting up, is everything turned "on" on your pc? If things turn on later, then could it be that there isn't enough power except for the first few seconds of boot?