Fan Speed Monitoring

[Dumb_Question]

I have just downloaded HWMonitor and Speedfan, in addition to MBM5 which i had previously. I wanted to check up on MBM5's measurement of the speed of the one fan in my system, the CPU cooler fan.

All three programs agreed that the fan speed was 377,500 rpm. Not only is totally unrealistic, but my fan is at the present time visibly turning (it does get faster) which means that it is unlikely to spinning at more 2000 rpm, which even accounting for the fact that it has 9 blades, is nowhere near the reprted value.

Am I misinterpreting the reading ? Do fans really spin THAT fast ? Or is the reading to be ignored as spurious ? I can understand that the 3 programs get the same number because they are probably all using the same voltage o/p from the inbond sensor chip.

Dumb_Question
28.January.2012

Compaq Presario S5160UK (DT261A Celeron 2.7GHz) - MSI MS-6577 v2.1 (030) - 1.5GB RAM - XP/SP3
Fan - 9 bladed 50mm diameter AVC L33637

[shnerdly]

I don't know anything about the software utilities you are using but the 337,500 fan speed is definitely an error. At that speed, the blades would fly from the fan. It may be getting the incorrect readings from a sensor on the mainboard that is being incorrectly read by the bios.

[Dumb_Question]

oops ! correction, the number is 337,500 rpm

I'd include a post of the actual eg MBM5 readings if I knew how to do attachments

Dumb_Question
28.January.2012

Compaq Presario S5160UK (DT261A Celeron 2.7GHz) - MSI MS-6577 v2.1 (030) - 1.5GB RAM - XP/SP3
Fan - 9 bladed 50mm diameter AVC L33637

[Dumb_Question]

ah, found it.
The speed says it's fallen to 0 rpm but in fact I can see the fan is still turning as before, if not faster

Dumb_Question
28.January.2012

Compaq Presario S5160UK (DT261A Celeron 2.7GHz) - MSI MS-6577 v2.1 (030) - 1.5GB RAM - XP/SP3
Fan - 9 bladed 50mm diameter AVC L33637

[shnerdly]

Even the 337,500 is a very unrealistic number. The fan would self destruct before it ever got there.

[shnerdly]

I looked at your attachment, even the average speed of 110,288 would blow the fan apart.

It's probably something with the mainboard that is giving the bad numbers. Are you running the most current bios?

It might also be something in the fact that it's a Compaq computer. They run some very peculiar bios configurations on some of their machines.

[Dumb_Question]

Originally Posted by shnerdly

I looked at your attachment, even the average speed of 110,288 would blow the fan apart.

It's probably something with the mainboard that is giving the bad numbers. Are you running the most current bios?

It might also be something in the fact that it's a Compaq computer. They run some very peculiar bios configurations on some of their machines.

In fact I'm working with the most recent BIOS bar one -Phoenix v3.25. I looked at the HP website and the most recent BIOS doen't seem to offer any features that I consider it worthwhile updating for (same goes for most updates - I've found that they generally degrade the performance of one's PC, clog it up, and make life more difficult in general [except in special cases]. If a company did things right in the first place why would they need updates ?? rant over)

It's the fact that the 3 programs give the same reading that convinces me it's not the monitoring software, but that is what that O/P of the hardware is. It might be how that O/P is interpreted ? It also occurred to me that maybe I'm missing a decimal and it should read 337.500 rpm (but would I need the result to 3 dps ?)...

My machine's long out of guarantee and so there's no hope getting any answer from HP/Compaq

Compaq Presario S5160UK (DT261A Celeron 2.7GHz) - MSI MS-6577 v2.1 (030) - 1.5GB RAM - XP/SP3
Fan - 9 bladed 50mm diameter AVC L33637

[shnerdly]

Originally Posted by Dumb_Question

In fact I'm working with the most recent BIOS bar one -Phoenix v3.25. I looked at the HP website and the most recent BIOS doen't seem to offer any features that I consider it worthwhile updating for (same goes for most updates - I've found that they generally degrade the performance of one's PC, clog it up, and make life more difficult in general [except in special cases]. If a company did things right in the first place why would they need updates ?? rant over)

I too am not a big fan of upgrading the bios for every thing that comes along but you are experiencing a problem although it's just an annoyance type of problem. I'm not saying it will fix the problem but it might. Also the fact that it's a Compaq may be the problem and flashing the bios may not help at all. Compaq uses some very peculiar properties in some of their bios firmware. It may be that type of oddity in the Compaq bios causing your problem.

[mjnc]

Have you tried going into the BIOS settings at boot time to see what it says, just for comparison.

[cachehiker]

I've been using Speedfan on an old P3 that I'm overclocking. I'm tweaking it to run as fast as possible while keeping the processor at or below 50°C. It's just an old, cobbled together P3 so I'm not out much if it blows.

Anyhow, my case fan speed was wrong (way high, like 200,000 rpm) until I updated the BIOS. No HD temperature was indicated until I replaced the 40GB 5400rpm unit with a newer 80GB 7200rpm drive. It displayed a video processor temperature equal to the case temperature until the 64MB GeForce card was replaced with a 128MB ATI.

I suppose this is to be expected since much of the initial hardware was probably older than the program. It appears to be reading everything correctly now that I've scavenged up some newer hardware and flashed the BIOS.

If it was me, I'd just live with it as long as it was consistent. If it dropped to zero or by half I'd be checking on that fan.

[Dumb_Question]

Originally Posted by mjnc

Have you tried going into the BIOS settings at boot time to see what it says, just for comparison.

No; the only time which I access BIOS settings is at boot time, and as my PC has serious start-up problems (see elsewhere in the forum) this is very difficult for me.

I could build a variable stroboscope to determine the fan speed, bearing in mind it's a nine bladed fan...(but haven't got round to it yet !!)

Dumb_Question
3.May.2012

Compaq Presario S5160UK (DT261A Celeron 2.7GHz) - MSI MS-6577 v2.1 (030) - 1.5GB RAM - XP/SP3
Fan - 9 bladed 50mm diameter AVC L33637