Replacing GPU fan - funky behavior
Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2018 5:19 pm
Hi all - sorry for the long post but I'm really stumped here!
I recently added a low profile 1050ti (https://www.gigabyte.com/Graphics-Card/ ... TOC-4GL#kf) to my mITX build. The case I'm using, Realan E-i7, has room for a pair of case mounted 80x15mm fans if I remove the GPU shroud and built in 50mm fan. So naturally I bought a pair of Noiseblocker 80x15mm PWM fans (https://www.blacknoise.com/site/en/prod ... hp?lang=EN) as I had experience using one previously to replace the stock fan in my Silverstone 450w SFX power supply.
The 1050ti I purchased has a mini 3-pin fan connector. I cut the power connector off of the stock fan and soldered it to a full size PWM fan connector leaving the PWM wire detached. I then used a 4pin Y cable to connect the two fans.
Booting up my system I noticed that the two Noiseblocker fans were spinning at incredibly high RPM. Some investigation led me to learn that my card has a minimum 30% fan speed that is BIOS locked and cannot be modified. No problem I thought, I'll simply add an in-line Noctua PWM 4-pin low noise adapter to the mix! Sure enough this brought the two fans down to a more reasonable (albeit not perfect) minimum fan speed.
To ensure stability, I loaded up Furmark to test for temperatures and tune the fan curve. However, the fans never increased speed, they simply maintained the same RPM. Using HWMonitor I confirmed that the GPU fan speed % was increasing, but the resulting RPM remained constant. The next thing I attempted was removing the low noise adapter and plugging the two fans directly to the GPU. Still got the same very high RPM at idle (30% fan speed) and I confirmed that the RPMs did increase under load with the increasing fan %. I also used MSI Afterburner to check to ensure I could manually select fan speed, which worked as expected (and was unable to go below 30% fan speed as locked in BIOS).
I have since tried the following:
1) Used a different Y cable, the first one I used had a tach wire for each fan that was leading to some oscillations. The next one I tried (Noctua) did not have a double tach wire but still did not allow me to change fan speeds with the low noise adapter.
2) Using the Y cable and low noise adapter plug the fans into a PWM motherboard header. This resulted in expected behavior, the fans were able to run between 0-100% and the RPMs scaled accordingly. I also tried Speedfan to see if I could automatically adjust the fan speed based on the GPU temperature, but alas the outdated Speedfan did not recognize my GPU.
3) I did some reading on the Noctua low-noise adapter and found that Noctua does not recommend a single adapter for two fans! So I plugged a low noise adapter into each fan, before plugging in the Y-cable. When plugged into the GPU this resulted in the same behavior - unable to control fan speed.
4) I feel that the mini 3-pin to PWM fan connector cable I built functions properly as I am able to read and adjust the fan speed of the Noiseblockers without a low-noise adapter in line.
So I'm stumped here - as far as I know the low noise adapter is just a resistor in series that should cause the fans to receive less voltage from either the motherboard or GPU header. As far as I know the adapter cable I built works properly. As far as I know using these PWM fans off of a 3-pin header shouldn't cause any unexpected behavior. I'm also surprised that at 30% minimum fan speed the two Noiseblockers spin SO FAST! I just checked and the stock fan from this GPU is 12V and 0.19A. The Noiseblockers are 12V and 0.13A so it makes sense they spin a little faster.
I think I can try the following but I don't really want to spend money:
1) Buy a mini 3-pin to 3-pin adapter cable
2) Buy the Noctua 3-pin low noise adapters
3) Buy a different set of low profile 80mm fans (3-pin)
Any other thoughts, ideas, tips, or things to troubleshoot would be greatly appreciated!
I recently added a low profile 1050ti (https://www.gigabyte.com/Graphics-Card/ ... TOC-4GL#kf) to my mITX build. The case I'm using, Realan E-i7, has room for a pair of case mounted 80x15mm fans if I remove the GPU shroud and built in 50mm fan. So naturally I bought a pair of Noiseblocker 80x15mm PWM fans (https://www.blacknoise.com/site/en/prod ... hp?lang=EN) as I had experience using one previously to replace the stock fan in my Silverstone 450w SFX power supply.
The 1050ti I purchased has a mini 3-pin fan connector. I cut the power connector off of the stock fan and soldered it to a full size PWM fan connector leaving the PWM wire detached. I then used a 4pin Y cable to connect the two fans.
Booting up my system I noticed that the two Noiseblocker fans were spinning at incredibly high RPM. Some investigation led me to learn that my card has a minimum 30% fan speed that is BIOS locked and cannot be modified. No problem I thought, I'll simply add an in-line Noctua PWM 4-pin low noise adapter to the mix! Sure enough this brought the two fans down to a more reasonable (albeit not perfect) minimum fan speed.
To ensure stability, I loaded up Furmark to test for temperatures and tune the fan curve. However, the fans never increased speed, they simply maintained the same RPM. Using HWMonitor I confirmed that the GPU fan speed % was increasing, but the resulting RPM remained constant. The next thing I attempted was removing the low noise adapter and plugging the two fans directly to the GPU. Still got the same very high RPM at idle (30% fan speed) and I confirmed that the RPMs did increase under load with the increasing fan %. I also used MSI Afterburner to check to ensure I could manually select fan speed, which worked as expected (and was unable to go below 30% fan speed as locked in BIOS).
I have since tried the following:
1) Used a different Y cable, the first one I used had a tach wire for each fan that was leading to some oscillations. The next one I tried (Noctua) did not have a double tach wire but still did not allow me to change fan speeds with the low noise adapter.
2) Using the Y cable and low noise adapter plug the fans into a PWM motherboard header. This resulted in expected behavior, the fans were able to run between 0-100% and the RPMs scaled accordingly. I also tried Speedfan to see if I could automatically adjust the fan speed based on the GPU temperature, but alas the outdated Speedfan did not recognize my GPU.
3) I did some reading on the Noctua low-noise adapter and found that Noctua does not recommend a single adapter for two fans! So I plugged a low noise adapter into each fan, before plugging in the Y-cable. When plugged into the GPU this resulted in the same behavior - unable to control fan speed.
4) I feel that the mini 3-pin to PWM fan connector cable I built functions properly as I am able to read and adjust the fan speed of the Noiseblockers without a low-noise adapter in line.
So I'm stumped here - as far as I know the low noise adapter is just a resistor in series that should cause the fans to receive less voltage from either the motherboard or GPU header. As far as I know the adapter cable I built works properly. As far as I know using these PWM fans off of a 3-pin header shouldn't cause any unexpected behavior. I'm also surprised that at 30% minimum fan speed the two Noiseblockers spin SO FAST! I just checked and the stock fan from this GPU is 12V and 0.19A. The Noiseblockers are 12V and 0.13A so it makes sense they spin a little faster.
I think I can try the following but I don't really want to spend money:
1) Buy a mini 3-pin to 3-pin adapter cable
2) Buy the Noctua 3-pin low noise adapters
3) Buy a different set of low profile 80mm fans (3-pin)
Any other thoughts, ideas, tips, or things to troubleshoot would be greatly appreciated!