JT1 and JT2 are both standard intel fan with tach pinout. JT3 is for fan with temp sensing to adjust rpm of fan.

Check your bios for settings to turn it up or turn on for these two 1 and 2.

Cheers,

pentiumspeed wrote:

JT1 and JT2 are both standard intel fan with tach pinout. JT3 is for fan with temp sensing to adjust rpm of fan.

Check your bios for settings to turn it up or turn on for these two 1 and 2.

Cheers,

Unfortunately, all three fans are marked N/A in BIOS. I've cleared the settings and CMOS a couple of times — nothing's changed.

Check with a multimeter both pins on JT1 and JT2, its the fastest way to see if there is actually power there to turn on the fans or not.

What does the BIOS report for the voltages and temperatures which also come from the W83781D SIO chip?

while the manual does state the cpu fans should be on when you turn on the power, the board does have built in health monitoring features.

PC Health Monitoring
• Seven onboard voltage monitors for CPU core(s), CPU I/O, +3.3V, ±5V and ±12V
• Three-fan status monitors with firmware/software on/off control
• Environmental temperature monitor and control
• CPU fan auto-off in sleep mode
• Chassis overheat alarm, LED and control

since we all know that the manuals are not always updated with later board revisions, i would try booting to your favorite utilities distro and see if you can put a load on the cpus to see if that will activate the fans.

also, is that an oem board? could be a custom bios with the fan headers disabled by the oem if the original cpu cooling was passive or provided elsewhere.

Emu10k1 wrote:

Check with a multimeter both pins on JT1 and JT2, its the fastest way to see if there is actually power there to turn on the fans or not.

If there is no power try also checking the transistor that drives the fan. They could be blown if the board was used with power hungry or jammed fans.

red-ray wrote:

What does the BIOS report for the voltages and temperatures which also come from the W83781D SIO chip?

The CPU temps went up 2 degrees Celcius while I was making these shots.

Well, I figured the easiest way would be to get a molex adapter that would provide me with some fan headers. Like this:

Another option would be to get a fan controller into a drive bay (and get that extra "workstation" look), but I couldn't find anything cheap in beige — only black, silver or white.

wirerogue wrote:

since we all know that the manuals are not always updated with later board revisions, i would try booting to your favorite utilities distro and see if you can put a load on the cpus to see if that will activate the fans.

also, is that an oem board? could be a custom bios with the fan headers disabled by the oem if the original cpu cooling was passive or provided elsewhere.

The CPUs get hot (like 50-60 degrees Celsius) even without extra load, so I wouldn't risk damaging them.

It's a Supermicro board. AFAIK the USA flag in the corner means it's a retail release. My other Supermicro board didn't have one.

Try reflashing the BIOS. Maybe a custom BIOS for silent operation or watercooling was flashed before.

Doornkaat wrote:

Try reflashing the BIOS. Maybe a custom BIOS for silent operation or watercooling was flashed before.

I’ve just tried that — nothing has changed.

I'm with the others on the defective transistor thesis then.
Did you hook up the aux connector btw?

Doornkaat wrote:

Did you hook up the aux connector btw?

Yes.

jheronimus wrote:

It's a Supermicro board. AFAIK the USA flag in the corner means it's a retail release. My other Supermicro board didn't have one.

No, the flag means that particular board was made in the USA.
Some where, some were made is Asia.
The USA and Asian versions actually have a different BIOS (at least the splash-screen).

The BIOS fan controls disabled in the BIOS suggests that ACPI is turned off.
That does not explain why they aren't running at all, just why the settings are disabled.

There is a 'switch' in the BIOS to turn ACPI on. It's under "Power Management".
Choices are: APM, ACPI, or Disabled.

I dunno if it affects that board but some Supermicro BIOSes had a glitch where if you changed the power button setting to 'instant off' (or equivalent) it would turn ACPI off in the process. I think those all got fixed with BIOS updates but a Slot-1 board might have slipped through the cracks.

The last BIOS for that was R3.1.
I've been building a Supermicro BIOS archive and I already have that one if you need it.

The fan transistors are individual (one for each fan) and located right next to the associated fan header.
As they are ALL not working that isn't the most likely suspect.
More likely is some small SMD component between the Super-I/O and those transistors such that the transistors aren't turning on.
.

PCBONEZ wrote:

There is a 'switch' in the BIOS to turn ACPI on. It's under "Power Management".
Choices are: APM, ACPI, or Disabled.

I'll have to double-check when I'm home, but I'm pretty sure that there was no ACPI option there, only APM or Disabled.

PCBONEZ wrote:

I dunno if it affects that board but some Supermicro BIOSes had a glitch where if you changed the power button setting to 'instant off' (or equivalent) it would turn ACPI off in the process. I think those all got fixed with BIOS updates but a Slot-1 board might have slipped through the cracks.

Interesting, I'll look for that.

PCBONEZ wrote:

The last BIOS for that was R3.1.
I've been building a Supermicro BIOS archive and I already have that one if you need it.

PCBONEZ wrote:

The fan transistors are individual (one for each fan) and located right next to the associated fan header.
As they are ALL not working that isn't the most likely suspect.
More likely is some small SMD component between the Super-I/O and those transistors such that the transistors aren't turning on.

Unfortunately I don't have the equipment or the skills to diagnose and replace such components, so I hope the bug you've mentioned could be the cause of the issue. Still I figure the Molex adapter could be a nice alternative since I think motherboards like that did not really control fan speeds. So it's not like I'll miss a lot by not using motherboard fan headers.

You don't need equipment to flash a bios, just reading comprehension and balls, oops, I mean intestinal fortitude.
Supermicro's instructions are usually screwed up so ask for guidance from someone that knows them.
Lots of people here can help if you haven't done it before.

The ACPI setting is stated in the manual, at least the manual revision I read.
It may not have been present in earlier bio's and was added later.
If you have an older BIOS there may be some random fix for your fan problem in a newer version that isn't documented.

Is that board with the current BIOS capable of booting to USB sticks?
.

Nope, there is no ACPI option in Power Management. I’ve enabled ACPI control register as per manual, but that did nothing.

PCBONEZ wrote:

You don't need equipment to flash a bios, just reading comprehension and balls, oops, I mean intestinal fortitude. Supermicro's […]
Show full quote

You don't need equipment to flash a bios, just reading comprehension and balls, oops, I mean intestinal fortitude.
Supermicro's instructions are usually screwed up so ask for guidance from someone that knows them.
Lots of people here can help if you haven't done it before.

The ACPI setting is stated in the manual, at least the manual revision I read.
It may not have been present in earlier bio's and was added later.
If you have an older BIOS there may be some random fix for your fan problem in a newer version that isn't documented.

Is that board with the current BIOS capable of booting to USB sticks?
.

I meant that I don’t have equipment for soldering, e.g. to replace a broken component on the motherboard 😀

Like I said, I’ve flashed the last 3.1 version of BIOS. I got it from Supermicro.com, but maybe I need a different BIOS version?

Not sure about booting off USB — I certainly can’t choose it as a booting option. What did you have in mind? Maybe I need a LiveCD of some sort?

Quick update: found an archived page on Supermicro.com about ACPI:

Turn your computer off, wait five seconds and turn it on again. Access BIOS SETUP by pressing DELETE when the computer is testin […]
Show full quote

Turn your computer off, wait five seconds and turn it on again. Access BIOS SETUP by pressing DELETE when the computer is testing its memory on the second screen displayed.
Using the mouse or keyboard, enter the CHIPSET section of the BIOS setup.
Close the Chipset window and open the Power Mgmt (Power Mangement) section.
Find the Power Management Mode option (usually at the top of the list).
If the options are ACPI / APM / DISABLED, choose ACPI. If the options are APM / DISABLED, choose DISABLED (this will be the case if you have recently flashed your BIOS).
Save and exit the BIOS setup screen.

Did that (switched power management to disabled), but that did nothing for my fans.