What would cause a GPU's fans to not turn.

[Brethern]

So I was playing KSP the other night and I experienced a hard crash, black screen and fans working overtime in my PC.

After some investigating I discovered that my graphics cards fans are not spinning. Called up computer place and they said my power supply might not be large enough, however I've been running this set up for months without problems.

So my card is the Gtx 760 overclocked editions, 2GB memory according to the site it draws 55 watts

I'm running the AMD Fx 4130 quad which I believes draws 125 watts.

unsure of how much power my ram draws I have ten gigs spread over four sticks. 1 tb HDD and a Dvd drive plus two fans. My main power source is 600W

Other info, when I first turned my PC on my video card was at 51*C I fired up grey goo on minimal settings and the temp jumped to 70 degrees.

Right now just idling my gpu temp is at 36*C I have a desk top fan cooling it ATM.

So my question is are the fans power starved or did they stop working?

[windows_x_seven]

They might be dead. Use defibrillators.

[Brethern]

They might be dead. Use defibrillators.

Sigh, you don't use defibrillators to revive someone, CPR and other methods are used to start the heart, defib is used to bring the beat to normal.

If you don't know the answer at least be unhelpful correctly.

[Frybert]

Hey I'm not the only one who gets annoyed at the depiction of defibrillators restarting hearts, awesome.

Back on topic: Have you tried double checking the power to the card? Maybe its not a good connection? How old is the card?

[Brethern]

Hey I'm not the only one who gets annoyed at the depiction of defibrillators restarting hearts, awesome.

Back on topic: Have you tried double checking the power to the card? Maybe its not a good connection? How old is the card?

The card is only a couple of months old, I think I got in January but I'm not completely sure, As far as I can tell the connections are solid as everything is working save for the fans... Unless there was a way to accidentally disable them.

[Frybert]

Are you using a program to overclock/manage fan speeds? If you are you might want to look there. Also how old is the power supply?

[Brethern]

Are you using a program to overclock/manage fan speeds? If you are you might want to look there. Also how old is the power supply?

No everything is windows seven default, as for the power supply I got it the same time as the card so only a few months at best.

[11of10]

No dirt in them I presume? I don't know about that PSU thing, they should at least turn a little bit. Are they even installed correctly?

You can try to unplug everything but the most basic stuff, leave only Motherboard, CPU, GPU and fans connected, and see if they work then. If yes, PSU doesn't have enough power for all that + HDD, et cetera...

However, you might be risking losing your warranty if you tinker inside it by yourself, check first.

[Cyrious]

So I was playing KSP the other night and I experienced a hard crash, black screen and fans working overtime in my PC.

After some investigating I discovered that my graphics cards fans are not spinning. Called up computer place and they said my power supply might not be large enough, however I've been running this set up for months without problems.

So my card is the Gtx 760 overclocked editions, 2GB memory according to the site it draws 55 watts

I'm running the AMD Fx 4130 quad which I believes draws 125 watts.

unsure of how much power my ram draws I have ten gigs spread over four sticks. 1 tb HDD and a Dvd drive plus two fans. My main power source is 600W

Other info, when I first turned my PC on my video card was at 51*C I fired up grey goo on minimal settings and the temp jumped to 70 degrees.

Right now just idling my gpu temp is at 36*C I have a desk top fan cooling it ATM.

So my question is are the fans power starved or did they stop working?

Mechanical failure of the fan's bearings (dirt getting in, erosion of the metal between the shaft and the sleeve or ball bearings, the lubricant drying out and becoming paste) or electronic failure of the fan motor, as every fan used in a computer since the early 80s use brushless DC motors. If the card is still under warranty you can send it in for replacement. If it isnt, you can easily purchase third party VGA coolers and do it yourself.

If it was a power supply failure, you'd have much bigger issues, like your computer catching fire.

[Brethern]

Mechanical failure of the fan's bearings (dirt getting in, erosion of the metal between the shaft and the sleeve or ball bearings, the lubricant drying out and becoming paste) or electronic failure of the fan motor, as every fan used in a computer since the early 80s use brushless DC motors. If the card is still under warranty you can send it in for replacement. If it isnt, you can easily purchase third party VGA coolers and do it yourself.

If it was a power supply failure, you'd have much bigger issues, like your computer catching fire.

Yeah I'm almost positive it's not a power issue I've blown power supplies before during games, there's no way the card would be smart enough to not activate the fans if it wasn't getting enough juice, if it was the card would be triple the price.

[Cyrious]

Yeah I'm almost positive it's not a power issue I've blown power supplies before during games, there's no way the card would be smart enough to not activate the fans if it wasn't getting enough juice, if it was the card would be triple the price.

If it was a matter of the card not getting enough power, the default action (at least it was with my now long gone 7900GS) is to lock the card at the idle clocks and voltages, and if the driver is installed, have the driver pop up a message that the card requires its PCI-E connectors to be plugged in before full functionality is restored. Except for the rare/low end cards designed to run fanless, the fans never ever stop on a video card unless there's no power, or they have failed.

[Superfluous J]

Yeah dirt or mechanical failure of the fan are the two biggest probabilities, followed I'd guess by the power cord running to the fan itself. Maybe you snagged it and broke it or pulled it loose.

With the computer in a situation where the fan would move, reach in there and give it a spin if you can, or at least tap on the case. It may just need to shake loose an obstruction.

But if your computer is only a couple months old, I'd warranty that bad boy. If it's already having problems it's more likely to get worse than better from here on out. Not to mention the possibility that it's already been damaged from heat.

[Brethern]

Yeah dirt or mechanical failure of the fan are the two biggest probabilities, followed I'd guess by the power cord running to the fan itself. Maybe you snagged it and broke it or pulled it loose.

With the computer in a situation where the fan would move, reach in there and give it a spin if you can, or at least tap on the case. It may just need to shake loose an obstruction.

But if your computer is only a couple months old, I'd warranty that bad boy. If it's already having problems it's more likely to get worse than better from here on out. Not to mention the possibility that it's already been damaged from heat.

Tried spinning it and tapping don't think that's the issue, as far as I can tell it spins easy so I don't know.

[Cyrious]

Tried spinning it and tapping don't think that's the issue, as far as I can tell it spins easy so I don't know.

The fan spins freely? Then that points to an electrical fault of some kind. What is the specific model of card that you have?

[Brethern]

The fan spins freely? Then that points to an electrical fault of some kind. What is the specific model of card that you have?

GTx 760 amp edition.

[Cyrious]

GTx 760 amp edition.

http://www.zotac.com/products/graphics-cards/geforce-700-series/gtx-760/product/gtx-760/detail/geforce-gtx-760-amp-edition/sort/starttime/order/DESC/amount/10/section/gallery.html

This?

If so, I'm not seeing any consumer feedback regarding failed fans, so its not a common problem.

Is the card still under warranty? If no, how comfortable are you with pulling the heatsink/fan assembly off and putting a replacement on?

[Brethern]

http://www.zotac.com/products/graphics-cards/geforce-700-series/gtx-760/product/gtx-760/detail/geforce-gtx-760-amp-edition/sort/starttime/order/DESC/amount/10/section/gallery.html

This?

If so, I'm not seeing any consumer feedback regarding failed fans, so its not a common problem.

Is the card still under warranty? If no, how comfortable are you with pulling the heatsink/fan assembly off and putting a replacement on?

That's the one, I don't know if it's under warranty and the store i bought it from is closed since the owner is on vacation, if I had to I could take the fan off providing I know for sure that is what the problem is.

[Nuke]

mechanical wear, no power, somethings stuck in it. \

i replaced the fan on one of my older video cards fairly recently. infernal sleeve bearings.

[Cyrious]

That's the one, I don't know if it's under warranty and the store i bought it from is closed since the owner is on vacation, if I had to I could take the fan off providing I know for sure that is what the problem is.

I was asking because you may have no choice but to get a third party cooler. We've already determined that the card itself is functional, but that something involving the fans isnt working. With any card manufacturer, generally removing the stock heatsink is enough to void the warranty.

If the problem is with the fans, then the issue will be resolved with the install of a new cooler. If the problem is with the card though, it CAN be fixed with a new cooler, but the new cooler cannot be a PWM cooler as the card cannot feed power/a PWM signal out through the fan header.

[Brethern]

I was asking because you may have no choice but to get a third party cooler. We've already determined that the card itself is functional, but that something involving the fans isnt working. With any card manufacturer, generally removing the stock heatsink is enough to void the warranty.

If the problem is with the fans, then the issue will be resolved with the install of a new cooler. If the problem is with the card though, it CAN be fixed with a new cooler, but the new cooler cannot be a PWM cooler as the card cannot feed power/a PWM signal out through the fan header.

And me being the moron I am forget to register for the warranty, I'll have to wait till he gets back so I can talk to him and go from there. I've been monitoring the temp throughout the day and just watching twitch and listening to music on youtube the card isn't going above 40, you'd think after having fans go on cards before I'd check them more often.

[Cyrious]

And me being the moron I am forget to register for the warranty, I'll have to wait till he gets back so I can talk to him and go from there. I've been monitoring the temp throughout the day and just watching twitch and listening to music on youtube the card isn't going above 40, you'd think after having fans go on cards before I'd check them more often.

Heh, thats why I always have a chunk of screen real estate taken up by monitoring graphs and stuff. Its how I know that with firefox and KSP running at the same time I have ~600MB free out of 8 gigs of ram.

[Brethern]

Heh, thats why I always have a chunk of screen real estate taken up by monitoring graphs and stuff. Its how I know that with firefox and KSP running at the same time I have ~600MB free out of 8 gigs of ram.

Yeah speaking of which I'm using speed fan right now, are there any better ones?

[Nuke]

when i replaced the fan i didnt have to do anything to the heat sink, i had to unplug a small header with a pair of tweezers and remove 3 screws to take the fan out. then i looked up the model number on ebay and bought a new one for $12.

[PB666]

Are you using a program to overclock/manage fan speeds? If you are you might want to look there. Also how old is the power supply?

Power supply is composed of several components, frequently the voltages are produced off different wirings of the same transformer, but individual segments can short between two wirings producing inadequate voltage. I had trouble with my computer after upgrading my video card, it was intermittent and it was the power supply.

Many of the chinese made power supplies rate the power as if each circuit is pulling maximum load, while other circuits are at nominal load, in reallife situations their maximum power rating is between 75% and 90% of the stated wattage. To overcome this problem calculate all the load at a particular voltage, then get a supply that is at least 25% and make sure the power supply produces the wattage under all circumstances, not just ideal circumstances for that voltage. This will fix your voltage.

The other issue is that many cooling fans have step amperages depending on the temperature on the board, if the thermostat is broken this will cause the fans to run either all of the time or never.

If you computer shuts down, don't necessarily blame the component that looks like is may have issues, the power supply is a first choice of many experts and also myself. Over the last 2 decades I've seen alot of failures and my typical long-lived computer generally has been through 2 power supplies. This was not the case a decade ago, mainly because it was senseless to keep a computer over 5 years.

[Cyrious]

Yeah speaking of which I'm using speed fan right now, are there any better ones?

OpenHardwareMonitor when it works is pretty solid. CPUID's HardwareMonitor is guaranteed to work on anything but doesnt come with the snazzy graphing feature of OHM.