"CPU Fan Error - Press F1 to Resume"

thezeronumber · 13 Mar 2011 at 19:09

Stock Intel heat-sink was doing a horrible job and i wanted some room for over-clocking in order to get bit more punch from my CPU which is starting to show its age, so i splashed out on a Noctua NH-C12P SE14. I've not got round to the over-clocking yet but i can confidently say the cooler is doing an amazing job, aside from one hiccup: Every-time i start up the Desktop it gives me the usual "beep" to show that it's working but a few seconds later it gives me another long beep followed by 4 shorter ones, by which point the monitor displays "CPU Fan Error! Press F1 to Resume".

The fan itself doesn't rotate correctly half the time on start-up. By that i mean it rocks on its axis and never makes a full rotation. Half the time it will start up fine, but for the other half the blades will sway back and forth and it cannot perform a 360 spin. If that happens then i usually tilt the Desktop and it will churn over, running fine there-after: Minus the odd start, the fan itself seems to work perfectly and it does a great job at keeping temperatures down during high loads. Literally, if you ignore the dodgy start then you would never think anything was wrong.

I've checked the connections and it's all secure. Not quite sure what is going on, any help to offer me?

Jokester · 13 Mar 2011 at 19:10

Have you plugged it into the CPU fan header?

brigzilla · 13 Mar 2011 at 19:11

Sometimes it means you have just plugged it into the wrong header. If its in a regular case fan header that will be why. Try changing where it is plugged in

cjgardens · 13 Mar 2011 at 19:13

As above.

Go into bios and set it to ignore it or put it on the cpu plug

thezeronumber · 13 Mar 2011 at 19:17

Oops, posted a bit too early and didn't finish off the first post! Now edited the extra bits in, appreciate if you guys could re-read it. Sorry about that.

I will double check the headers.

cjgardens · 13 Mar 2011 at 19:32

If a different header does not work looks like the fan is faulty

Helios1234 · 13 Mar 2011 at 19:54

There will be a header that's specifically for the CPU and it'll be labelled CPU Fan header. Just make sure you connect the fan to that. I doubt there's anything wrong with the fan itself.

cjgardens · 13 Mar 2011 at 19:57

Helios1234 said:
There will be a header that's specifically for the CPU and it'll be labelled CPU Fan header. Just make sure you connect the fan to that. I doubt there's anything wrong with the fan itself.

Does not matter which one you put it one. You will get a bios error if its not on the cpu one but you can just set it to be ignored. That's what everyone does who water cools

Jokester · 13 Mar 2011 at 20:08

If he plugs it into CPU header though it'll speed control the fan depending on CPU temperature.

Helios1234 · 13 Mar 2011 at 20:27

cjgardens said:
Does not matter which one you put it one. You will get a bios error if its not on the cpu one but you can just set it to be ignored. That's what everyone does who water cools

I realise that but I meant to avoid the CPU fan error.

thezeronumber · 14 Mar 2011 at 13:43

Turns out i had plugged it into the wrong socket, instead of CPU FAN i had it in the CHA FAN2. However the same problem is still happening with it not always automatically rotating correctly on start-up. Minus the change of connection everything is the same as before, error message and everything.

Not sure if this is obvious already (i'm not a hardware savvy person) but the reason i initially had it in the CHA FAN2 header is because it's 3 pinned, much like the wired connector is for the fan itself. The CPU FAN is 4 pinned (but accepts 3 pins), so could that be why my fan isn't starting correctly half the time? Is it not getting enough "juice" from those 3 pins and requires a 4 pin connector to reach full potential and run perfectly?

paradisiac · 14 Mar 2011 at 13:52

pretty sure the 4th pin is just for speed control, but might be wrong.

Hagar · 14 Mar 2011 at 15:14

It is because it is temperature controlled and will not run at full rpm until the cpu heats up. Just set to ignore fan error on start up or set a fan profile to keep it running at low temperatures.

R.C.Anderson · 14 Mar 2011 at 15:26

I had the same problem with my Asus p8p67 pro, for me, it was just that it thinks the CPU fan isn't spinning fast enough (and therefore thinks there's something wrong), so I just set the fan warning rpm to a lower value (400rpm if memory serves), and it's fine. Also, the reason it might not start up, is it's trying to spin too slowly to get started, not sure if there's a minimum fan speed that you can set, but if there is, try inceasing the value.

thezeronumber · 14 Mar 2011 at 16:10

Thanks for the replies. Would those minimum RPM/Fan settings be in the BIOS menu that you can access during start-up? Sorry if that's a stupid question, this stuff is pretty new to me and i feel a little out of my depth.

R.C.Anderson · 14 Mar 2011 at 17:34

For the Noctua D14, the motherboard in the pictures is actually the deluxe, but the ram/HS/CPU orientation is identical.

thezeronumber · 14 Mar 2011 at 19:53

Not sure how that helps the current issue but thanks. O_o?

cjgardens · 14 Mar 2011 at 19:56

paradisiac said:
pretty sure the 4th pin is just for speed control, but might be wrong.

Yes this is right. You can plug it into any fan header and it will work but only at full speed rather that heat controlled. If its not working right in any post its faulty fan

thezeronumber · 14 Mar 2011 at 20:14

Are there any other possibilities/things i can try before i deem it faulty? I mean, it's only the start-up spin which is an issue so it seems odd that the fan would be the problem if it effectively cools and does it's job. Hope that made sense.

R.C.Anderson · 14 Mar 2011 at 20:15

thezeronumber said:
Not sure how that helps the current issue but thanks. O_o?

Meh, sorry, was the wrong topic, in another topic, someone was wanting to know cooler capability for the Asus P67 boards, and I forgot I replied in 2 threads about CPU coolers today, so thought this was the one, nevermind then