Fan light

[Wolfgang]

On a lark, i bought myself a CPU fanlight that has embedded LED lights.

I mounted it last night and connected it to my mobo straight and it seemed to work just fine. Earlier today, it started to flicker quite fast like a disco strobe..... :sweat:

Does anyone have any idea at all why this is happening? :sweat: :dunno:

Kindly advice.

 

[kahheng]

On a lark, i bought myself a CPU fanlight that has embedded LED lights.

I mounted it last night and connected it to my mobo straight and it seemed to work just fine. Earlier today, it started to flicker quite fast like a disco strobe..... :sweat:

Does anyone have any idea at all why this is happening? :sweat: :dunno:

Kindly advice.

Hmm, let me hazard a guess: I'd imagine that this happens when the speed of your fan varies. It's possible that the LED circuit is a pulsing one and you see the flicker when the fan is at certain rotational speeds which match the pulsing rate of the LED.

If you can manually adjust the fan speed (some mainboards allow that), see if you can force this to happen - that should confirm things.

Disco is cool leh. I still remember those days when I used to wear bell bottoms and point upwards regularly with one hand.

 

[coldman]

On a lark, i bought myself a CPU fanlight that has embedded LED lights.

I mounted it last night and connected it to my mobo straight and it seemed to work just fine. Earlier today, it started to flicker quite fast like a disco strobe..... :sweat:

Does anyone have any idea at all why this is happening? :sweat: :dunno:

Kindly advice.

could it be a die-ing led light?

 

[tan131]

from wat i know, led lights should not filcker, unless a chip is program with and clock to make it flicker... hmmm, wolfgang, can u try it on other usb ports to see if there are any difference? also, it could be the fan thats affecting the led.

 

[Wolfgang]

Hmm, let me hazard a guess: I'd imagine that this happens when the speed of your fan varies. It's possible that the LED circuit is a pulsing one and you see the flicker when the fan is at certain rotational speeds which match the pulsing rate of the LED.

If you can manually adjust the fan speed (some mainboards allow that), see if you can force this to happen - that should confirm things.

Disco is cool leh. I still remember those days when I used to wear bell bottoms and point upwards regularly with one hand.

Haha.. thanks. How do i adjust the fan speed? :dunno:

 

[Wolfgang]

from wat i know, led lights should not filcker, unless a chip is program with and clock to make it flicker... hmmm, wolfgang, can u try it on other usb ports to see if there are any difference? also, it could be the fan thats affecting the led.

The fan is plugged straight into the mobo so i don't think i connect it to any USB port... :embrass:

 

[zekai]

ben, you very beng leh... fixed led fan... lol

 

[ycchen]

just wondering is there any fan light for laptop ??

shd be nice ~~ like those modification car where you have neon light on the bottom

:bsmilie:

 

[kahheng]

Haha.. thanks. How do i adjust the fan speed? :dunno:

Either through the BIOS or via a software utility. The latter is sometimes part of your mobo's software. I presume this is a fairly recent board?

This is an intermittent problem right? So I suspect it varies with the fan's speed.

 

[Wolfgang]

Either through the BIOS or via a software utility. The latter is sometimes part of your mobo's software. I presume this is a fairly recent board?

This is an intermittent problem right? So I suspect it varies with the fan's speed.

But the funny thing is a did not make any changes at all the light started flickering.. :sweat:

It's not that recent a board though... it's an Intel D865GBF board like abt 1 year+

 

[Bluestrike]

Take the Fan out, connect to a direct 12V from teh PSU's molex. See if the problem still persist. If it does.. Dun call mi. Thanks~

 

[Wolfgang]

ben, you very beng leh... fixed led fan... lol

:embrass: It's one of those intermittent (no pun intended) phases i go through lah...

 

[Wolfgang]

Take the Fan out, connect to a direct 12V from teh PSU's molex. See if the problem still persist. If it does.. Dun call mi. Thanks~

Yo! It works! It has stopped flickering :thumbsup: :sweatsm:

Thank you thank you.

Does that mean my mobo is dying on me soon?

It shouldn't be a PSU problem since it's a 420w PSU. :dunno:

 

[kahheng]

But the funny thing is a did not make any changes at all the light started flickering.. :sweat:

It's not that recent a board though... it's an Intel D865GBF board like abt 1 year+

1 year is still considered 'recent'.

Your heatsink fan may not be set to run at a constant speed. It's could be set to be thermally throttled, which is very common (meaning the hotter it gets the faster it spins, and the reverse)

If you connected it to a 12V supply, I presume it now spins a lot faster, and the LED circuit is getting the right voltage that it needs. Did you check the instructions for the fan that will tell you which supply rail 12v or 5v to connect it to?

 

[Wolfgang]

Your heatsink fan may not be set to run at a constant speed. It's could be set to be thermally throttled, which is very common (meaning the hotter it gets the faster it spins, and the reverse)

I see... hmm... how do i check if this is happening? :dunno:

If you connected it to a 12V supply, I presume it now spins a lot faster, and the LED circuit is getting the right voltage that it needs. Did you check the instructions for the fan that will tell you which supply rail 12v or 5v to connect it to?

It's a coolermaster fan with no instructions on how to mount it. It came with a white coloured small 3 pin "female" connector that you can affix to the mobo but it also came with an adaptor where you can connect the white part and convert into the normal 12V connector.

The fan did spin faster and and can feel an increased air flow...

Now.. this may sound silly but do i have to install the fan so that it is sucking air into the CPU casing or out of the casing? :embrass:

 

[Bluestrike]

I think you shld just stop everything and ... stop playing with it.

now that shld solve all problems...
hehehhehee..e..

 

[Wolfgang]

I think you shld just stop everything and ... stop playing with it.

now that shld solve all problems...
hehehhehee..e..

:sweat: Thanks hor. I was even thinking of installing a UV light tube... :devil:

 

[Wai]

try not to draw power from the motherboard directly because some fans may take so much current until your motherboard fried.

always connect the fan to the power supply (best if u use a dedicated cable for fans), try not to share one cable with the hard disk because the back current from the fan may shorten the life of the hard disk

 

[kahheng]

Now.. this may sound silly but do i have to install the fan so that it is sucking air into the CPU casing or out of the casing? :embrass:

Er, now you're getting me puzzled. You had mentioned it was a CPU fan so is it for a heatsink or not?

In a typical fully assembled tower case, you'd have the following fans:

1. Chassis fans
2. CPU Heatsink fan
3. Northbridge fan (sometimes the manufacturer just use a large heatsink)
4. Graphics card fan (sometimes there isn't one)
5. PSU fan(s)

Chassis fans blow both in and out depending on their locations - the ones in front/on top/ by the sides are meant to suck cool air in, the ones at the rear typically suck warm air out.

CPU Heatsink fans and the fans found on chipsets typically blow DOWNwards onto the heatsinks.

So which fan type is yours? Doesn't sound like a CPU heatsink fan now.

Typically on the mainboard, there will be at least one power header for one 12V chassis fan (usually two these days) and another for the CPU fan, both speed controllable by the motherboard itself via the bios or the fan utility that comes with the board. I had a brief look at your board on the Intel website and I would guess, just like my Intel board, you just set the fan to be controlled by your mainboard through the bios. But check your manual for details.

When you have too many chassis fans, the case can get very loud of course. What I do is run my two front intake chassis fans at 5V (they usually run at 12V but I made a line adapter to power them with 5). The one at the back runs at a variable speed which is determined by the mobo heat sensor. I am also using a massive Zalman heatsink with a very quiet fan that is also running at variable speeds controlled by the mobo thermostat. I gave up on all other chassis fans because things got too loud! (I have something like 10-15 chassis fans of different sizes lying around waiting to used for whatever crap project next time.)

 

[kahheng]

:sweat: Thanks hor. I was even thinking of installing a UV light tube... :devil:

Once you install a UV light tube, you need to go all the way and get UV reactive cabling as well!