Fan not turning... uh oh

So, I'm sitting here doing nothing when I glance over at my PC and notice that the CPU fan is not turning, at all. I know that sometimes, like during startup, it will turn a little and stop a few times before running solid, which I assumed was because the automatic control sensed that it wasn't hot. This, however, I really don't understand. Looking at HWmonitor, the temp seems to stay between about 61c and 66c(I'm just running IE and hwmonitor). It worries me that the automatic control would stop the CPU fan all together. I just tried pushing usage up a little to see if the fan would kick in, but starting Excel, Word, Powerpoint and Outlook simultaneously failed to get it to kick in. What's going on? The temps went up to about 70c and once the apps were loaded it dropped back down to the low 60s... ????????????? Any ideas? Would an automatic fan control do something like this?

MB is a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
CPU is an Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 w/ stock cooling.

 

It's not going to let me edit my post, but here's an update. I rebooted and the fan started and has yet to stop. The temps for both cores are now sitting between about 45C and 50C accoring to HWmonitor.

 

Sure doesn't seem right...mine slows down to around 400 revs when it's running rite, and that's when it's around 50c ...when it goes up to low sixties, then fan really gets going...but unless it's really cold where you live...but even so, no, it shouldn't be anywhere near stopping at those temps...I know I'd be looking in bios, in hardware, at the fan setup, see if anything looks weird...did you say you have a fanreader: ihave a little pcprobe app on my dekstop, which gives accurate fan and temp of cpu...and mine never stops...I'd check wiring and stuff...my problem turned out to be the paste between fan and cpu...once I cleaned it off, and took off the crummy gummy factory paste, it dropped 10 degrees...hardly ever gets up to sixty anymore, and I don't game, only email and browsing...

I did have a bad fan tho, once, and it caused me all kinds of problems...I finally just got a thermaltake, I think, and now it's fine...runs cool: I just don't like their past...

Doubt any of this helped, just know I've fiddled a lot w/fans, and feel a lot more comfortable w/a fan reader on my desktop, cuz I get paranoid

 

Jeez, 70C for an Intel is basically the top of the heat chart! Glad the temps went down after the reboot but maybe your HSF is starting to go bad.

 

May be. It really concerns me that the fan would stop all together. Might be time for a HSF upgrade, but I wish I knew exactly what caused it to stop, and not have to just guess.

In the bios, if I turn off the "smart fan control" or whatever it's called, will the fan simply turn at a specified speed? What speed will that probably be? Are there tools to manually adjust CPU fan speed like there are for adjusting GPU fan speeds?

What should my temps idle around? 30C probably? I know it depends on some things, but ballpark figure?

Thanks

Edit: I'm pretty sure there's a setting in the bios that allows you to set a custom shutdown temp... I'll have to look through it and see what all is there...

 

Probably an unnecessary question, but did you check for dirt, dust, or a hair wrapped around part of the fan? The hair that was wrapped around mine let it start 4 days out of every 10.

 

Good question, but I keep my PC pretty clean. I blow any dust out every time I backup since I have to open the computer anyway to hook up the backup drive. I don't necessarily back up weekly, but I'll rarely if ever go more than a month. The fan seems to turn freely.

I found the setting I was looking for in the BIOS, it doesn't change the shutdown point but is an alert setting. It's set to 70C at the moment, but I just now put in the speaker. I noticed that when I turn the computer on, I get two short beeps, but it's before the splash screen even and the two beeps are different. Same length, as far as I can tell, but one is louder and more high pitched. Not sure if it's actually a two short beep code, or what. During splash screen and post I don't think there are any beeps. Two short beeps indicates an improper bios setting. Honestly I'm not sure what to look for.

 

When I couldn't get it to act right, it just wouldn't recognize a hard drive I was trying to boot from, I reset everything to "defauld" on the exit, on mine, that's f5, and after rebooting, a couple things, including the fan reader, worked all of a sudden, the I changed whatever cmos stuff I had to, and it's been alright since...even standby finally starting working again, and I'd set that every way I could...

Guys used to recommend it more, and I've done that on XP, but not sure if it applies...I don't know why it would read it differently, more likedly something I missed...