CPU fan stopping and starting

Yeah, could just be idle time making the system going into standby if you havent told it not to do that...

Unless your running download programs in the night, and telling them to shut off once the downloads are complete.
 
No download programs have been running and there are no power settings to tell it to turn off. I am on XP and there isn't a single log in event viewer to suggest any kind of shutdown, crash or instructed. It doesn't happen every night though. 3 out of 5 I think so far. This isn't standby either. It's a full power off.
 
And its the same story this morning. Last system log entry was around 1:30AM. After that it turned itself off. Is there anything I can do, any piece of software I can use to monitor the situation more closely?
 
This sounds like a long shot but it's the only thing I can think of. We have a Christmas tree in here with the lights attached to a timer and a surge protector. This was put in about the time the random shut-downs happened. Looking at my event viewer logs, the Pc usually goes down around 12:15 - 1:30 AM, which is about the time the automatic timer switches off the Christmas tree lights. I think the lights actually blew their fuse last night. This is literally the only thing I can think of which would cause the shut-downs. All the rails are within limits, all PC temperatures are fine and in performs perfectly under load such as games etc.
 
On my old DS3 (rev 2.2) although i never used the stock HSF, i never got that stop/start issue with the fan on my scythe ninja.
It looks almost like the fan is losing power, do you have any other fans plugged into to either of the other headers?
 
Case fans are plugged directly into the PSU. The fan isn't bothering me too much at the moment. It only seems to do it on a cold boot and works fien the rest of the time. I will probably replace it in the new year with a Freezer 7 but for the moment it's the odd power downs that are the main bother.
 
If the system has been off for a while and the room is cold then expect the CPU fan NOT to run when the system is first turned on. Once the temp rises above the threshold it will spin the fan. If the temp drops back below the threshold then expect the fan to stop again. From memory the CPU temp needs to be detected at or around 20ºC for this to happen. It shouldn't happen if the CPU temp is above this and certainly not if the CPU temp is 50ºC.

Shutting down may be caused by a faulty fan. If the system thinks that the fan has stopped and it's not because of a low temp but because of a faulty fan then it can shut the sytem down. The settings for fan behaviour and also for fan rotation monitoring can be altered in the BIOS.
 
You could disable the fan setting's in the bios.

If you look in your manual, it tells you what all of the settings do. (lke the Legacy one you said about..)

Well, atleast the manual on the web did :)
 
Okay cheers guys. I'll have a fiddle with the fan settings in the BIOS. AS I said I'll get a shiny new Freezer 7 when my next pay check comes through. Also, can spinning the fan while the power is off damage it? I cleaned out the heatsink recently with some compressed air and obviously the air span the fan round.
 
I've disabled smart fan control so it's just going a the full 1800RPM now. Let's see what happens with that.
 
Ross - the PC I'm posting from (my girlfriend's) is almost exactly the same spec as yours (6300, DS3, 520W Corsair), and we had a weird issue with the fan stopping & starting - only noticed it after some random reboots during WoW. From looking at CoreTemp & Speedfan, it seemed the fan speed regulation was faulty, because sometimes the CPU was getting *really* hot (90C+).
We set the fan control to legacy (i.e. full speed like you have done) and it's 28C idle now at stock.
 
Cheers for that. I think that must have been the problem for me too. The Pc stayed on fine last night.:)
 
IAmATeaf said:
The stock HSF fan shouldn't stop all together, it's not that good a HSF that it can afford to do this. Check the connection of the fan with the mobo, pull it off and plug it back in to see if things get better.
Click to expand...

rubbish. the stock Intel HSF stops and starts all the time, as combination of CPU load and temperature. i've not got the stock HSF on my CPU, but i am using the fan to cool down my ram. its almost always off except when a game or prime or something is running :)

<edit>

it would seem from the posts above, that it isn't always accurate...
 
It would appear that the problem is still not solved. Just returned home 5 minutes ago to find the PC off. The Christmas lights have been plugged in again tonight so I shall have to test that theory again.

Edit: Never mind. Was a genuine power cut that turned off the PC -_-
 
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