Motherboard fan controlling?

[chibi_man]

I got to noisy fans hooked up to my motherboard. Fans do a wonderful job while there running, however I am tired of having to unplug them to turn the bloody things off. Mind you I could get a switch for them but I would rather find something to use with my computer.

I looked into what ever AMD has to offer and so far it has done squat for me.
There is a program called "SpeedFan" and it's apparently unsupported on my M3A32-MVP Deluxe board, tried and failed.

Honestly all I want is to be able to turn them on and off in windows, other than that is just a bonus.

Thanks

[Cptn Vortex]

Only 1 or 2 of the ports on the motherboard will work to control the fan speed. Usually CPUFan, CHSFan or Sysfan, but the pwrfan ones only report speed, and can not control speed. I suggest to just get a fan controller. The sunbeam is on sale for $12 right now. Worth it.

[chibi_man]

I'll keep it in mind.

[Supergrover]

I second a fan controller, the sunbeam is a good no-nonsense unit. I prefer to run all my fans through a controller instead of putting the extra load on my mobo's.

[burebista]

Originally Posted by chibi_man

There is a program called "SpeedFan" and it's apparently unsupported on my M3A32-MVP Deluxe board, tried and failed.

Could you be more specific, please? What failed, the program or the control of fans?
If it's program I'm surprised because it runs fine on me on XP32 SP3 and Vista64 SP1.
If it's fan control maybe you don't do the right things. As Cptn Vortex said usually there are 2 fan headers on MB which can be controlled: CPUFan (with a 4 pin PWM fan) and SYSFan (ordinary 3 pin fan header).
Below I'll describe how it works on me (ABIT KN9, but procedure is the same):

1. We define fan speeds. Select the fan, choose minimum and maximum values and check Automatically variated box.



2. We bound fan speed with a temperature. Below I have a fan linked to CPU temperature and other on GPU temperature.



3. Check Automatic fan speed and from now SpeedFan takes care about fan RPM's linked with your temperatures.



How it works on me: Let's take Inside fan which is linked with GPU temperature. It spins with 50% RPM's if GPU temperature in under 50°C. If GPU temperature rise above 50°C and below 60°C it spins with 80% RPM's, and if GPU temperature rise above 60°C it spins with 100% RPM's.
The same for Exhaust fan which is linked to CPU temperature.

[tzetsin]

you could check in your bios to see if you can adjust the fan's duty cycle...you wont be able to control it on the fly, but if your fans are working alot harder than they need to all the time you can drop the duty cycle on the fans (leave the cpu fan alone though) and they wont spin up to 100% anymore leaving them nice and quiet. then just monitor your temps for a while to be sure your not strangling them causing heat build up. i've got my pc overclocked to the max, but because of the high number of fans i have in the case its extreemly noisy, so i fiddled with the duty cycle of some of the fans and the noise level is much more reasonable with no detriment to the cooling effect.

[chibi_man]

I've check the Bios and there does not seem to be anything for it. My board may also be incompatible for the SpeedFan program. sigh....

[DarKStar]

SpeedFan is probably the best program out there to control fans - It works on my old ASUS A8V Deluxe, the scary part is that you can COMPLETLY shut down the CPU fan to 0% :D So you gotta be very careful with it. Try getting the latest version. Sometimes they also post new betas that supports new chipsets. From the looks of it, it seems your board is not supported.

What I did on one of my systems is cut the power cables and installed my own on/off switches that I put directly outside the case after making holes. You can buy those switches at your local RadioShack, assuming you are comfortable and know what you are doing , if you don't have someone who knows how not to screw anything up.