Cooling fan problem?

[frogbeastegg]

For the last few days my GPU idle temperature has been 5 degrees hotter than before. The PC also kicks the fans in a lot sooner than I'd expect when gaming. Is there anything which might be responsible for that aside from a cooling fan problem? Ambient temperature can be ruled out; it's gone quite cold here and I don't have the heating on much. All fans are reported as working at their normal speeds.

Yes I know open the case and check the fans are spinning, I'm trying all alternatives first as this case is a real evil beggar to open and close. If I do open it up I want to check every single possibility at once.

:bow:

[caravel]

The heatsink may simply be clogged with household dust - which acts as an insulator. I have to take the heatsink off my graphics card every few months, clean it thoroughly and replace the thermal compound, otherwise there are temp related problems (down-clocking, etc). When I do that, I usually do the same for the CPU heatsink and fan as well.

[naut]

^^^ Heatsink dust. Depending on the shape you might be able to get it out with compressed air.

[CrossLOPER]

I'm trying all alternatives first as this case is a real evil beggar to open and close. If I do open it up I want to check every single possibility at once. Do you have to sacrifice humans for it to open?

Seriously, it sounds like you haven't opened it in a while. Get like three cans of compressed air and blow out everything. Remember to keep the can right-side up and spray horizontally. I would recommend a bit of disassembling to get at everything. Also, don't put components on carpet. Additionally, use clean, dry hands and discharge them on metal during work. Do not touch the PCB or gold connectors. Sorry if these suggestions seem obvious, but I've seen people put upwards of a thousand dollars worth of equipment on carpet, destroying all of it.

[frogbeastegg]

I'll check for dust in those areas when I open it up. Thanks. If there's anything else people can think of I shall be happy to hear of it, provided it's before I touch the case ;p


Do you have to sacrifice humans for it to open?
That would be easier. The side panels are made out of soft iron which can be bent with minimal force. They are held in place by 8 sliding catches. If you don't get all of them lined up with their slots you end up bending some. Getting them lined up with a complete nightmare because individual catches pop out of alignment as you work on others. I've already got one rattling side panel from where I bent a catch while building the machine. This case is horrid; in addition to that it's got a poor interior layout, and cradles which should be detachable are not. It's the sort of crap you would build a cheap office PC in, except it came as part of gamer grade bare bones* bundle for an i7 2600k! I sealed it up, hoping never to open it again, and know that if I need to replace the hard disk drive I will have to go for a SSD because there's no way in heaven or hell I am repeating the ordeal of inserting the current one. I miss my old Tsunami Dream case; that one was a joy to work with.

PC's 5 months old now, haven't opened it since the day I finished building.


*UK definition of barebones bundle differs from other regions. It's case, power supply, motherboard, CPU and RAM in a pre-assembled package ready for the user to build the rest.



EDIT: Ok, I opened it up because I didn't like the sound it was starting to make and the temp reports had climbed to 37 degrees idle. None of the case fans are working, only my CPU and GPU fans are functioning. I should have known the case would find a new way to get me. Time to go wave my warranty at the shop.

[Sp4]

Sounds like you are having a lot of fun. I think it has something to do with dust/dirt and stuff, maybe even the case itself.

[frogbeastegg]

The interior of my PC is nice and clean, hardly anything to clear out. That's pretty much what I expected; since I keep my house clean I've never had a PC get clogged with dust. It's most likely a wiring failure somewhere with the case, or broken solder or something. Neither case fan is receiving any power. Thanks to the case's brilliant design I can't get a good enough view of those wires to spot the source of the problem. The shop will be open tomorrow so I'll see what they want to do about getting it fixed.

[frogbeastegg]

Question: how do you connect a molex like the 4 pin (http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html) in the picture here into a power supply which only has sockets for the 6 pin PCI-e type illustrated further down? You can't, can you? There isn't a plug converter. I'd like to be certain before I return and tell the warranty people that this, like all of their prior suggestions, is stupid.

[Sp4]

A soldering rod and some idea of what you are doing xD No seriously, don't, it can go seriously wrong and I wouldn't try it on any halfway expensive equipment ^^

After some more serious research: http://www.hitmeister.de/schnittstellenkarten/6-pin-pci-e-zu-2-x-4-pin-power-adapter-konverter-kabel-11066-138892101/?utm_source=googlebase&utm_medium=organic&id_unit=933262100059&ts=20111128_160919

Sorry about teh language, I am sure you will find something like that in English as well but I suppose the technical stuff is the same.