Asus AI Suite caused dead case fan

[DebenPoison]

Running an Asus TUF X570 motherboard and had Asus AI Suite which includes Xpert Fan.

I have a 3 way fan splitter connected to CPU_OPT header on motherboard and never had any issues with it, but when playing with my RPM in Xpert fan by setting the CPU Fan to 100% RPM ; it caused one of fans connected to CPU_OPT to stop spinning. I'd seen it do this in the past and I would usually just low the fixed rpm again and the fan would begin spinning again, but this time it did not start spinning.

I always thought it very strange that changing the CPU fan (which I can tell my the fans on my AIO were spinning up faster so I know I'm changing the correct fan speeds) would impact the CPU_OPT fans or at least this one. On reboots and cold boots of the machine, the fan spins up for a few seconds then dies as soon as it starts booting the BIOS. The LEDs on the fan are still lit just that the fan won't spin after booting.

I've tried:
- Resetting BIOS
- Uninstalling AI Suite and resetting BIOS
- Testing the 3 way fan splitter to ensure all splitters are working (they are)
- Moving the fan which has the issue to its own dedicated CHA_Fan header or directly to CPU_OPT and not sharing with the others

None of the above get the fan to spin again - is this fan dead?

Its one of these:

Corsair HD Series, HD120 RGB LED, 120mm High Performance Individually Addressable PWM Fans​

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01LA0R2X6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[cvaldes]

The fan is probably dead since you've already tried it on a separate CHA_Fan header by itself.

The fact that you used ASUS AI Suite is probably purely coincidental. It's not like the software is going to send 36V of power to the fan by mistake (which isn't even available from your PSU).

 

[DebenPoison]

My question is if the fan is dead, why does spin on boot? It spins normally for like 2 seconds then BIOS has finished posting and bam it dies down.

 

[cvaldes]

My question is if the fan is dead, why does spin on boot? It spins normally for like 2 seconds then BIOS has finished posting and bam it dies down.

Beats me. Maybe the fan's PWM circuitry failed.

At power up, it's probably getting the full 12V DC. Once it passes POST, the UEFI BIOS tells it to slow down per the programmed fan curve and maybe the PWM control signal (pin 4) is being misread by that particular fan's PWM circuitry to stop completely.

I suppose you might be able to test this by configuring a CHA_Fan header to run as DC Control and see if the fan starts spinning. But ultimately you don't really want to run a 4-pin PWM fan in 3-pin DC mode, do you?

For sure, you can't blame AI Suite while it's running in the UEFI BIOS, i.e., before booting any operating system (Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, whatever).

Regardless of the underlying reason, that unit isn't working as advertised. Have the retailer replace it if that's an option or RMA it.

 

[DebenPoison]

It is very strange and I had assumed it would spin in BIOS and die in Windows as I suspect AISuite was the culprit but I have seen others mention that to undo any change from AISuite uninstalling the software alone did not revert its changes to fan speeds, they had to reset BIOS too which implies it’s configuration is deeper than simply the application layer. The issue only became present when using AISuite to fix the rpm at 100% ; within a second or two the fan stopped spinning and couldn’t get it going again thereafter - so it’s one HELL of a coincidence if that’s all it is lol…

open to any other suggestions or comments , I may just try setting to DC for testing anyway, but inclined to hear what you all think

 

[cvaldes]

You know, if AI Suite was regularly killing fans (not sure how it would do that), I think the Internet would be flooded with complaints about that danger. It's not like the X570 chipset nor AI Suite shipped last week.

I stand by my opinion that it was mere coincidence.

I own a ROG Strix X570-I (see my System Specs) and for sure I have played with AI Suite from time to time without ill effects to the fans in my current build nor in previous builds where I used that motherboard. I have two ASUS B550 motherboards as well in other builds.

 

[DebenPoison]

Fan is working again, reseated the CPU and when booting back up fan is operational again.

 

[agent_x007]

Check how fan is controlled (PWM or DC).