I never heard of TX3 compatible fans. What is this and what this adapter look like?
Please provide photos of these two items.

Lecture:

The correct terms for using fans for this vintage is 3 wire fans which is power, ground and tach signal for rpm information. The correct adapter to provide power using molex plug provides 12V for to a male 3 pin connector for a fan with one wire attached to a female 3 pin connector to plug into motherbaord for RPM signal.

You can also use PWM fan plugged into motherboard's 3 pin and will work, but no PWM feature.

Cheers,

I had an Intel 44LX board that had a fan header that wouldnt work and it turns out it was a transistor that was hooked to that header, I replaced it and the header is working again...... I'm guessing a former owner hooked up a fan that drew to much power and blew out that transistor but then again....

I have another board (ATC-6120) that I was using and and all the fan headers were working, I took it out of the case and set it a side for a few months and the next time I went to use it none of the fan headers are working. I'm thinking it might be a problem like the board I mention above but since its an ATC design motherboard maybe all the headers are powered through a single transistor. Until I get around to tracing that one down I'm unsure why all the headers have stopped working and it has not been a high priority to get the headers working again.

Dont know if any of that is helpful.

I’ve found fan headers to be unreliable at best, just wire the fan directly into one of the hd power connectors straight off the supply

By looking it over, pretty much only 3 things need to be considered to have working fans on this board (or a lot of other boards that work similarly):
1. 12V is making it to the fan header
2. Working low side switching FETs, the little 3-pin SOT-23 components next to the headers with DGS labels on the board that interrupt the ground side of fan power to control speed
3. Working SuperIO chip (IT8705F) which drives the gates of the FETs with its FAN_CTL pins

Not thinking #1 is the issue, don't see any blown trace or fuse for the 12V. #2 would be my most likely culprit, not difficult to damage such small parts by plugging in too powerful/too many fans on one header and blowing out the transistors. #3 not as likely to me but you never know.

I had an issue with a motherboard and it turned out to be the IC controlling the fans and temp. Replaced and it works perfectly.

Can you see temps and fans speed in bios? Is there the bios menu for temp and fans?

My issue was:
no voltage to 12V, 9V on neutral and 4V on tachometer.
The chip responsible for fans control was failing and then it died, with 12V finally to 12V and no V to neutral. Dead tacho.
If for any reason it is failing you might have this same issue.
The bios menu for temp and fans disappeared. Then reappeared after replacement.

Find the chip responsible for the fans and temp and check if it is shorting to ground. Schematics are easy to find.

pentiumspeed wrote on 2022-01-16, 01:15:

I never heard of TX3 compatible fans. What is this and what this adapter look like? Please provide photos of these two items […]
Show full quote

I never heard of TX3 compatible fans. What is this and what this adapter look like?
Please provide photos of these two items.

Lecture:

The correct terms for using fans for this vintage is 3 wire fans which is power, ground and tach signal for rpm information. The correct adapter to provide power using molex plug provides 12V for to a male 3 pin connector for a fan with one wire attached to a female 3 pin connector to plug into motherbaord for RPM signal.

You can also use PWM fan plugged into motherboard's 3 pin and will work, but no PWM feature.

Cheers,

See here for the adapter: https://www.ebay.com/itm/312123018369.

The adapter included with the above fan is what I am using. The fan shown is not what I’m using, but you get the idea of the setup used for my Startech socket 370 cooler to function connecting via molex. The other connection is a case fan using the same adapter.

Grem Five wrote on 2022-01-16, 02:22:

I had an Intel 44LX board that had a fan header that wouldnt work and it turns out it was a transistor that was hooked to that header, I replaced it and the header is working again...... I'm guessing a former owner hooked up a fan that drew to much power and blew out that transistor but then again....

I have another board (ATC-6120) that I was using and and all the fan headers were working, I took it out of the case and set it a side for a few months and the next time I went to use it none of the fan headers are working. I'm thinking it might be a problem like the board I mention above but since its an ATC design motherboard maybe all the headers are powered through a single transistor. Until I get around to tracing that one down I'm unsure why all the headers have stopped working and it has not been a high priority to get the headers working again.

Dont know if any of that is helpful.

It sounds like a similar situation, but what I gather is, it’s not worth the time and money to resolve? It’s unlikely this failure is a sign it won’t spread to the rest of the board?

rmay635703 wrote on 2022-01-16, 02:34:

I’ve found fan headers to be unreliable at best, just wire the fan directly into one of the hd power connectors straight off the supply

This is what I was doing. Another vote to not worry about it?

pancakepuppy wrote on 2022-01-16, 11:28:

By looking it over, pretty much only 3 things need to be considered to have working fans on this board (or a lot of other boards […]
Show full quote

By looking it over, pretty much only 3 things need to be considered to have working fans on this board (or a lot of other boards that work similarly):
1. 12V is making it to the fan header
2. Working low side switching FETs, the little 3-pin SOT-23 components next to the headers with DGS labels on the board that interrupt the ground side of fan power to control speed
3. Working SuperIO chip (IT8705F) which drives the gates of the FETs with its FAN_CTL pins

Not thinking #1 is the issue, don't see any blown trace or fuse for the 12V. #2 would be my most likely culprit, not difficult to damage such small parts by plugging in too powerful/too many fans on one header and blowing out the transistors. #3 not as likely to me but you never know.

What tools do I need to test all 3 suggestions?

Meatball wrote on 2022-01-16, 12:57:

Grem Five wrote on 2022-01-16, 02:22:

I had an Intel 44LX board that had a fan header that wouldnt work and it turns out it was a transistor that was hooked to that header, I replaced it and the header is working again...... I'm guessing a former owner hooked up a fan that drew to much power and blew out that transistor but then again....

I have another board (ATC-6120) that I was using and and all the fan headers were working, I took it out of the case and set it a side for a few months and the next time I went to use it none of the fan headers are working. I'm thinking it might be a problem like the board I mention above but since its an ATC design motherboard maybe all the headers are powered through a single transistor. Until I get around to tracing that one down I'm unsure why all the headers have stopped working and it has not been a high priority to get the headers working again.

Dont know if any of that is helpful.

It sounds like a similar situation, but what I gather is, it’s not worth the time and money to resolve? It’s unlikely this failure is a sign it won’t spread to the rest of the board?

I dont know if its worth the time and effort to fix on my ATC board, it sounds like it could be exactly what Nexxen posted above. I dont care if my chassis fan header works but I am disappointed that the cpu header is not working.

For my Intel 440LX board it was #2 that pancakepuppy mentioned in his post but thats because it was only one fan header that was dead not both of them. As it was a chassis header that I never use anyway the only reason I fixed that was to see if I could, it works but I dont use it.

Grem Five wrote on 2022-01-16, 13:36:

Meatball wrote on 2022-01-16, 12:57:

Grem Five wrote on 2022-01-16, 02:22:

I had an Intel 44LX board that had a fan header that wouldnt work and it turns out it was a transistor that was hooked to that header, I replaced it and the header is working again...... I'm guessing a former owner hooked up a fan that drew to much power and blew out that transistor but then again....

I have another board (ATC-6120) that I was using and and all the fan headers were working, I took it out of the case and set it a side for a few months and the next time I went to use it none of the fan headers are working. I'm thinking it might be a problem like the board I mention above but since its an ATC design motherboard maybe all the headers are powered through a single transistor. Until I get around to tracing that one down I'm unsure why all the headers have stopped working and it has not been a high priority to get the headers working again.

Dont know if any of that is helpful.

It sounds like a similar situation, but what I gather is, it’s not worth the time and money to resolve? It’s unlikely this failure is a sign it won’t spread to the rest of the board?

I dont know if its worth the time and effort to fix on my ATC board, it sounds like it could be exactly what Nexxen posted above. I dont care if my chassis fan header works but I am disappointed that the cpu header is not working.

For my Intel 440LX board it was #2 that pancakepuppy mentioned in his post but thats because it was only one fan header that was dead not both of them. As it was a chassis header that I never use anyway the only reason I fixed that was to see if I could, it works but I dont use it.

If it is that you order, desolder, solder new chip and you are good to go.
Not at all difficult, easy fix. Don't be beat down.

Problem solved! It occurred to me this morning I should try plugging in the fan “backwards.” I had nothing to lose, so why not give it a shot. I snapped off the guides cleanly and plugged in. It worked! And the fan onboard hardware monitoring shows the RPM. Both headers are working. Amazing!

I could have just switched the end wires around on the fan, but I didn’t think about that until just now while I was typing. Oh well, It works and I’m satisfied.

Meatball wrote on 2022-01-16, 21:22:

Problem solved! It occurred to me this morning I should try plugging in the fan “backwards.” I had nothing to lose, so why not give it a shot. I snapped off the guides cleanly and plugged in. It worked! And the fan onboard hardware monitoring shows the RPM. Both headers are working. Amazing!

I could have just switched the end wires around on the fan, but I didn’t think about that until just now while I was typing. Oh well, It works and I’m satisfied.

Would be interested to know which end was deviating from spec here...

Is it an oddball (PC-Chips/ECS/Amptron) motherboard, or is it some badly designed adapter?

What do these fans do if plugged into a different motherboard with same adapter?

dionb wrote on 2022-01-16, 22:25:

Would be interested to know which end was deviating from spec here... […]
Show full quote

Meatball wrote on 2022-01-16, 21:22:

Problem solved! It occurred to me this morning I should try plugging in the fan “backwards.” I had nothing to lose, so why not give it a shot. I snapped off the guides cleanly and plugged in. It worked! And the fan onboard hardware monitoring shows the RPM. Both headers are working. Amazing!

I could have just switched the end wires around on the fan, but I didn’t think about that until just now while I was typing. Oh well, It works and I’m satisfied.

Would be interested to know which end was deviating from spec here...

Is it an oddball (PC-Chips/ECS/Amptron) motherboard, or is it some badly designed adapter?

What do these fans do if plugged into a different motherboard with same adapter?

The fans work fine and reports RPM correctly in hardware monitoring in all of my other equipment. It’s probably better off that I didn’t swap the wires on the fan itself since I move it around all of the time.

Good for you to understand and now speaking the terms we understand this time.

Cheers,

Meatball wrote on 2022-01-16, 21:22:

Problem solved! It occurred to me this morning I should try plugging in the fan “backwards.” I had nothing to lose, so why not give it a shot. I snapped off the guides cleanly and plugged in. It worked! And the fan onboard hardware monitoring shows the RPM. Both headers are working. Amazing!

I could have just switched the end wires around on the fan, but I didn’t think about that until just now while I was typing. Oh well, It works and I’m satisfied.

Probably the plastic guides of the headers were plugged in the wrong way.
You can just pop them out and put them back the on the correct side, those plastic guides aren't glued.

Nexxen wrote on 2022-01-17, 11:20:

Meatball wrote on 2022-01-16, 21:22:

Problem solved! It occurred to me this morning I should try plugging in the fan “backwards.” I had nothing to lose, so why not give it a shot. I snapped off the guides cleanly and plugged in. It worked! And the fan onboard hardware monitoring shows the RPM. Both headers are working. Amazing!

I could have just switched the end wires around on the fan, but I didn’t think about that until just now while I was typing. Oh well, It works and I’m satisfied.

Probably the plastic guides of the headers were plugged in the wrong way.
You can just pop them out and put them back the on the correct side, those plastic guides aren't glued.

Darn. I forgot about that, too.