did a fan just kill my motherboard?

[madmanmarz]

i just received a 92mm tornado fan and i installed it in my computer. i hooked it up to a 4 pin molex, but it was way too loud. the other solution i came up with was to hook it up to the motherboard 3-pin fan thingy so i could control it with smart guardian. well basically i spliced that fan together with another regular 80mm fan into the 3pin fan thingy (individual wires for both). i booted up my computer and everything was fine and it worked, i installed the cat 7.5 drivers, rebooted and upon loading windows, my monitor would turn off (no signal). i rebooted in safe mode, uninstalled 7.5 and rebooted, and re-installed cat 7.4. it was during this time that my computer shut down out of no where. at first i thought i killed the power supply, because i might've been pushing it with the new fan. well nothing smelled burnt or anything so i basically disconnected everything except the cpu/hd/ram and tried to see if the computer would at least beep or something, but all i get is a red led lit up (bottom one) when the power supply is plugged in, and when i hit the power button, another led lights up on the motherboard (near the cpu) and that's it. the power supply fans don't turn on, system doesn't post, nothing.

this leaves me to thinking that i did one of two things. fried the motherboard (maybe it was draining to much power from the fans) or i dunno if this is possible, but killed one of the rails on the power supply (hence why i get led's but no boot).

fortunately my buddy has the same power supply and motherboard as myself. problem is, that one of the capactiors on his motherboard got ripped off during shipping.

right now, my next steps for troubleshooting are to try his power supply, and if that doesn't work, to look over my motherboard more carefully, and then de-solder one of the capacitors from my board to replace his, and then try his motherboard.

what do you guys think, any suggestions?

i'm overseas right now, so i want to make sure i narrow down the problem as much as possible before i start ordering stuff.

ps - power supply calculator says i'm using about 331w.

 

[Wile E]

Power supply would be my first guess, personally.

 

[Munkul]

the tornados have a 4 pin molex connector for a reason - they take an awful lot more power than than most fans.
there is a definate possibility that you have overloaded your motherboard, but whether that would have fried it...
well, check the PSU first and then if its fine, then you have got a fried mobo

sorry pal

 

[madmanmarz]

thanks guys, that's what i figured. i'll update tomorrow. i just found this thread, so i'm wondering if it's the fan header. http://www.twistedforums.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-976.html

 

[madmanmarz]

i would like to report that i am a retard. i just realized that i had the 4 pin motherboard connector plugged in sideways (how that's possible with the grooves is beyond me). i guess i did that after the computer shut down and i started messing with stuff. ends up the motherboard is fine and the power supply is fine as well. i hooked everything back up and started installing some games and realized my chipset temps were really high. seems the wires for the fan on my chipset popped out of where they were routed and stopped the fan from spinning. this probably caused my chipset to overheat which is why my system shutdown.

in the end i am ordering a fan controller to hook that fan up directly to, but right now i have it setup the same as it was the first time (spliced into the fan header) and everything is a-ok.

thanks!

 

[Munkul]

yup, you are a retard

just kidding, glad that your system is fine. i think that its something ive done before too?

 

[ex_reven]

At least the spacers were on the mobo....

 

[WarEagleAU]

IVe done some stupid things with my pc too. Glad things are ok and nothing needs to be replaced or reordered.

case in point. with my monitor and graphics card being a retard yesterday, I was unhooking my monitor and wound up unhooking a piece of my water cooling setup. Needless to say, I went into lockdown mode on the pc and turned it off. Scared the hell out of me ::rofl:

Things are fine now.

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

IVe done some stupid things with my pc too. Glad things are ok and nothing needs to be replaced or reordered.

A tornado can use an amp easily..

pulling an amp through a mobo header.... is NOT GOOD.

 

[madmanmarz]

yeah i unhooked that fan for now just to be safe and ordered a 550w ps along with a fan controller.

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

yeah i unhooked that fan for now just to be safe and ordered a 550w ps along with a fan controller.

With a tornado you actually have to be careful with a fan controller, as some can easily be burnt out from the current a tornado draws.


Something I did was just wire it into the 5v instead of the 12v with a molex adaptor.

Works great.

Then I added a switch. I can select 12v or 5v

 

[MunkeyQ]

I think most PWM fan controllers will take it, but the cheaper series resistor ones will probably overheat and fry.

My retard moment came about a week ago - I came home a *little* drunk and thought I'd finish off assembling a few machines. I managed to jam a floppy power connector on upside-down, which actually melted a conductor in the ribbon cable. Somehow, both motherboard and floppy survived. Seeing smoke and a flame from inside a computer = PANIC.