Possible Zalman problems?

Jonesiani · 26 Oct 2007 at 14:42

Hi everyone.
Yesterday i installed the Zalman tritium cpu cooler onto my motherboard, and plugged the 4-pin switch into the 4-pin socked labeled cpu fan on my motherboard.
I wanted to test it out, 1 to see if the fan worked, and 2, to look at the nice green light :cool:

Anyway, i turned on my machine (please bare in mind that i dont yet have a graphics card, or hard drive plugged into the mobo)
The green LED was fine, but the fan didn't spin, it looked like it wasned to spin, as there was slight movement, but it wouldnt start spinning until i span it with my finger.
Is this a problem with my mobo or the cooler itsself? or is it to do with the settings i have to change in the bios, which causes the fan to speed up when the temps are higher.
Thanks!

naudiz · 26 Oct 2007 at 15:23

What CPU you running? When I built my machine my fan didn't spin up, got well worried about it until someone told me they don't usually spin up until they need to, during boot up

Naud

Jonesiani · 26 Oct 2007 at 16:21

The cpu is the Intel 6600 energy efficient version. Quad core.

naudiz · 26 Oct 2007 at 17:32

I don't know the ins and outs of Zalman coolers, but as I say most won't spin up until half way through boot up, I know mine doesn't, the fact that the light comes on suggests that the fan works ok, so try it with a HDD and see if it comes on

Naud

Bomag · 26 Oct 2007 at 19:03

The MB has probably got thermal control switched on by default i.e. it stops the fan if the temps are low. Unless that fan is dodgy you will have to go into then bios to change the fan settings.

Jonesiani · 27 Oct 2007 at 00:26

Ok, thanks for the helpful information.

Snapshot · 27 Oct 2007 at 06:34

Get your graphics card installed then go into the mobo BIOS and change the fan control from voltage to PWM. With voltage control the fan won't spin until the CPU warms up a bit. I'm guessing you don't have a speaker attached either as that normally squeals until the fan is spinning. The four-pin fan is designed for PWM control and will spin at a low speed almost as soon as the PC starts up.