ALL fans (CPU, GPU, PSU) suddenly too slow

Hi, I'm having the problem that literally from one day to the next, all of my PC's fans are malfunctioning.

The PC was working fine with no problems until recently. I turned it of, turned it on again the next day an immediately heard a "crunching" noise from inside the case.

Of course I turned it of immediately, opened the case and checked for any damage, obstruction of the likes. I found nothing at first glance, so I left the case open, turned it on again and observed.

While the crunching noise did not come back, I noticed the following things:

• First: The CPU fan did not rotate, but it seemed to try: Sometimes it moved a bit and then stopped again. It never made a full rotation.
• Second: One of the two GPU fans seemed to slow down sometimes and then speed up again. The other GPU fan was rotating continuously as it should.
• Third: Noises I would describe as clickering came from the PSU.

On a software side, I noticed no malfunctions of any kind. The PC booted up normally. From the desktop (Win7) I watched the CPU and GPU speed for some time, felt the heat sinks and everything seemed OK temperature-wise. Interestingly, the CPU fan started rotating after some time, although very slowly and definitely slower than usual.

I rebooted the PC and deactivated Smartfan in the BIOS. Now the CPU fan was rotating at high speed, so it does not seem to be damaged mechanically. The clickering noise from the PSU remained.

Rebooted and went to BIOS again, activated "Alarm if PSU fan stands still". After leaving the BIOS, the alarm sounded up immediately, so the PSU fan seems to be malfunctioning as well. When I deactivated the PSU fan alarm and activated Smartfan and "Alarm if CPU fan stands still", the CPU fan stopped as it did before, and as expected I heard an alarm as well.

In summary, it seems that all of the PCs fans, but at least the CPU and PSU fans are malfunctioning. The CPU fan does not seem to be damaged mechanically. I did not notice any other malfunctions aside from the fans.

Does anyone have an idea what could be broken? The mainboard? The PSU? The heat sensors? Something else?

My system's components:
OS: Windows 7 Professional 32bit
Mainboard: Gigabyte 870A-UD3
CPU fan: Scythe Mugen 2 Rev. B
GPU: MSI N460GTX Hawk
GPU fan: MSI Twin Frozr II (came with the GPU and was already built in)
PSU: Cougar SE 400

Thanks for any help!

 

First i would try to Clean all the fans if you have a Air Compressor set it to high gage blow the heck out of the fans and make sure the blade's stay put so they don't spin too fast.

If you live in a dusty place like me then i guess would be a good time be for winter is to super clean the case and see if that helps even a Can of air works if you do not have Air compressor like me.

Does it look like there is a ton of dust every where in the case well if so then most likely that can be the issue most of the time.Dust can clog the fans motors and it can make them turn harder and burn them out easy.

 

I would most definitely suspect the psu,if it's clicking and it's not the fan it's most definitely not good and I would stop using the psu immediately.

Is the power supply hot to the touch when the computer is under load? I ask because you have a 400w power supply and a GTX460, Nvidia recommends a minimum of a 450w. Does the power supply have two dedicated 6pin pci express power connectors or are you using a Y splitter?

Could you post your cpu model?

 

Thank you Goldenskull, however I don't think it's just dust (although my system isdefinitely too dusty and cleaning it would be a good idea ) because several different fans became malfunctional at the same time, and that would be a weird coincidence.

Rikky, thank you too. I'm not using a separate Y splitter for the two PCI-E connectors, but they are connected to the PSU via the same cable. Here's a photo taken with my crappy cell phone camera

My CPU is an AMD Phenom II X4 955

I haven't felt the PSU's temperature before, and I obviously did not put much load on the PC when I tested it after the problems occurred, but in idle desktop mode it did not feel very warm.

 

I'm considering whether the 12v is drooping but for this to droop so far as to slow all the fans down would shut the computer down and testing a power supply under load for power drops and spikes requires specialised equipment.

The noise inside the psu is troubling I've come across ticking power supply's before but none of them would function let alone power a computer, it could only be one of two things,a relay turning on and off or electricity arcing via a faulty component,both are bad because relays only turn on the instant the power supply switches and stay on, the second is pretty obvious.

If just the system fans slowed down that could be explained by the motherboard but the fact that all fans including the power supply fan which is usually controlled by the temperature of the power supply or run at a constant speed leads me to believe it's the power supply.

If it were in front of me I'd try a different power supply,you could also enter bios,go to health and check your voltages are roughly within +-0.5v of their value,check your fan rpms correspond to the approximate speed of the fans.

Do you have any fans connected to molex connectors,if so are they slowing down also?

 

That's definitely the next thing I'm gonna try, unfortunately all my old PSUs don't have an 8pin / double 4pin connector required to connect the CPU to the PSU, so I had to order a new one which will probably take few days.

That's a good idea, unfortunately I don't know what the voltages were like before, so I have no reference to compare the current values to.

Unfortunately not.

I'm definitely going to report if changing the PSU fixes the problem.

 

It doesn't matter the voltages will be labelled 3.3,5,12 and beside each will be a real time reading,none of them should be fluctuating wildly and each should be within about 0.5v of it's respective value.

This is just a basic test,all readings should be taken with a pinch of salt unless as in your case you have power related fault symptoms,these numbers can be verified using a multimeter on a molex connector under load.

Alternatively run this program and keep and eye on fan speeds and voltages,they shouldn't move together and should be read just like the bios voltages.

http://majorgeeks.com/SpeedFan_d337.html

But if it's within your scope to try a new power supply by all means that's the route to go, not worth damaging everything or burning your house down with faulty psu

BTW Welcome to the forum