Case Fan, CF Connector or MOBO problem?

[3WAYsplit]

I've had this new system up and running since this past December. It has been working fine until now.

Here are the specs:

DIYPC J180-W White SPCC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Corsair RMx Series RM850X 850W 80 PLUS GOLD Haswell Ready Full Modular ATX12V & EPS12V SLI and Crossfire Ready Power
Corsair Air Series AF120 LED 120mm Quiet Edition High Airflow Fans (3 Installed)
ASRock Z170 Pro4S LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core i5-6600K 6M Skylake Quad-Core 3.5 GHz LGA 1151
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120 mm PWM Fan
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2133
SAMSUNG 850 EVO 2.5" 500GB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive
Seagate Desktop HDD ST4000DM000 4TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" HDD
MSI GeForce GTX 1060 DirectX 12 GTX 1060 ARMOR 6G OCV1 6GB 192-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready ATX Video Card
Samsung Internal SATA 24x DVD CD +/-RW DL Disc Burner Re-Writer Drive
Windows 10 Home 64bit

I was just listening to music, surfing the net. When I heard a click sound. A few seconds later my computer went off.

I thought it may have been a power outage/surge. So I just restarted my PC. Nothing shown up on my monitor. I checked my connections and tried again. I noticed one of my case fans was not lit up or spinning.

I assumed that most be the problem. I replaced the fan with the same model. I tried starting up my computer with the new fan. It appeared to fix the problem. The computer started up ok, all fans lit and spinning, monitor showed all boot info, etc.

So I started to use my PC again when I heard another click. PC went off. The fan I replaced stopped.

I decided to try running my PC without using that fan connection. It started the same, but nothing is showing on my monitor. The monitor is kinda waving, like it wants to show something, but doesn't.

What is wrong with my computer? How do I fix it?

Is there something really wrong with both those fans? Or is it the fan connector? I hope it's not the MOBO.

Please help me figure out this problem.

 

[Spartacus]

Another system failure with a Corsair 850..... hmm.

Try disconnecting everything from the system that is not needed to power up and POST, fans, hard drives, and optical drives mainly.
Then shut down and start adding things back one at a time until you get a failure again.

Don't change any connections with the system powered up! We had a guy who blew up his system recently doing that.

It could indeed be a mobo problem if you are using the mobo fan headers. It used to be really common to burn those out.
It's been better in the last few years, but it still happens that the fans can pull enough current to kill the fan header circuitry.

If you don't need the mobo to control fan speed, then connect those fans directly to the PSU or to a separate fan controller.
That will help limit how much power you are pulling through the mobo for fans.

As I hinted at above, it may also be that the fans (everything really) are pushing a marginal PSU too hard.
You have some testing to do to figure that out.


Here's a related story that some may find interesting....

Years ago I used to work for a company that built mini systems (mini mainframes). The systems had cabinets the size of home washers
and dryers with several cabinets often bolted together. We got some newly designed systems in and they were having shutdowns and various
problems with several cabinets connected. I told one of the techs working on it to disconnect all of the cover panels and fans (clusters of fans
on each panel) and set them aside and use several box fans on the floor to cool the cabinets.

Systems ran fine for days like that, no problems. I got called into the bosses office and he was on a conference call with engineering.
They asked why I suggested disconnecting the fans and why I think that worked. I told them because you have a shit-load of cooling fans
all drawing power from your 5vdc logic supplies. It's too much power and noise for the 5vdc logic power bus.

I couldn't believe they had all of those fans on the 5vdc logic PSUs when I traced out the fan wiring. I recommended replacing the fans with 120vac
fans on the cabinet panels and leaving the few internal 5vdc fans they had on the logic board cages.

That's what they ended up doing and it solved some reliability problems they were having.

I still cringe when I see a lot of fan headers on mobos.

.

 

[3WAYsplit]

All three of my case fans are connected directly to MOBO.

Top (is not working), Front (working fine), Back (working fine)

Should I just disconnect inside case, or do I need to bench test it outside of case?

 

[Spartacus]

If it was working normally, probably no need to pull the mobo right now.

If you disconnect all of the fans (except CPU fan), does it power up and POST?

.

 

[3WAYsplit]

So far I tried to reseat the videocard. I restarted and get a message RGB Analog signal check connection, etc..

I dread taking this thing apart.

Every time I need to restart the problem PC, I need to shutdown this one to use the monitor.

Later on I will have access to an HDTV to test the problem PC on.

It would be great if you could list things to check before I take it completely apart.

This is a mid-tower case, so working inside it is a real pita.

 

[Spartacus]

I can't list everything it could be. lol

You didn't answer the question about the fans, you said you were having trouble with the fans.

Did you disconnect the fans?

Try without the GTX 1060, use the on-board video for now.

Disconnect as many things as you can to see if it will POST.
All you need is the CPU/cooler, RAM, and connect the monitor cable to the on-board video.

No drives, no keyboard, no mouse, nothing else.

Does it POST?


.

 

[3WAYsplit]

Ok here is what I was able to try so far.

I have three Case fan connections

# 3 is located behind the CPU and I can't get to it without removing the MOBO. But it's working fine.

# 1 & # 2 are located at the bottom right side of the MOBO. I unplugged both of them and tried starting my PC.
It seemed to start up ok. So I tried both fans one at a time in connections # 1 & # 2.

Both fans started fine in connection # 2. While neither started using connection # 1.

So something may be wrong with Case fan connection # 1.

Another thing I noticed was my PSU fan powering down after it starts. My computer seems to be running. but the PS fan stops.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________

I disconnected:
the two case fans I can get to easily.
videocard
SSD & HDD
DVD-RW

I connected the HDMI to MOBO & HDTV.

When I started the computer up I couldn't find a signal. I cycled through all HDMI1, 2,3, etc.

The only other option is connecting it the my LED monitor later.

I may have just take the whole PC apart and rebuild it.

 

[Spartacus]

Yep, sounds like the case fan header is bad.

Just connect it to the PSU directly, it will run full speed that way but it will run.
Or you could get a lower RPM, lower noise fan in place of the existing one if it's too loud.

You may need an adapter cable, like a Molex to 3/4 pin fan connector.
Newegg should have those.

It's normal for the PSU fan to stop until the PSU gets hot, then it will spin up.

So from what you are telling me, it's just one bad fan header on the mobo.

And then you have some other issue with not being able to get video from the desktop to your HDTV.
Did that ever work or no?


.

 

[3WAYsplit]

When I was building this PC four months ago I used my HDTV to test it and it worked fine.

But now I'm not getting any signal through the HDMI connections..

The computer powers up, but I don't hear or see anything.

________________________________________________________________________________________


I said to heck with it and put it all back together again. Now the darn thing works.

It POST and booted to desktop using my HDTV. I moved back to my desk and it still works. I'm using it to type this right now.


What would have caused this to stop working, and after 10+ hours decide to work again?

 

[Spartacus]

Maybe a bad connection.

Sometimes that's all it takes.
Take it apart, put it back together and then it works.

Seen it many times.
Don't be surprised if it does it again though.

Could be a bad connection/cable, bad PSU, etc.

Good luck!

.

 

[3WAYsplit]

How could a bad connection happen after being in the same spot for four months?

All three case fan connections are working now. Hopefully it it stays working.

Thx for the help.

 

[Spartacus]

When you have a bad connection, it can get worse over time.
Sometimes all it takes is a minor vibration to finally make it fail.

Make sure the 24-pin ATX connector is good.
Power down the system, pull it off and check for burnt pins.

Check the 12v CPU power connector too.

Also make sure all connections are tight and you don't have any
loose screws rolling around in the case.

There was a reason it was failing, so as I said, don't be surprised
if it fails again. If so, just be slow and methodical and check everything.

.

 

[3WAYsplit]

Well it's all nice and tight, no loose screws, wires, pins look good etc. Must've been a fluke.

There was a reason it was failing, so as I said, don't be surprised
if it fails again. If so, just be slow and methodical and check everything.

That's fine when stress levels are low. But when everything else is getting fubar you don't need a unexplained PC failure.

Thx, again.

 

[deaedius]

Well it's all nice and tight, no loose screws, wires, pins look good etc. Must've been a fluke.



That's fine when stress levels are low. But when everything else is getting fubar you don't need a unexplained PC failure.

Thx, again.

Gremlins! That is one goofy issue and glad the issue is fixed!