[SOLVED] Are the fans on radiator supposed to spin at all time?

[Cpt_Quirk]

So I recently installed a cougar helor 240 water cooler to my PC, its the first time doing so l however upon booting it i noticed all the lights are working, the pump that is on the CPU is spinning, but the fans on the radiator aren't spinning. Is this normal? I've seen conflicting things on the issue saying they should be on at all times or they kick on at certain Temps. Please help?

 

[velocityg4]

That's all up to the how the manufacturer setup the fan curve. It's probably set to park the CPU fan below a certain temperature threshold. There's probably BIOS options for quiet and performance cooling modes or something similar. Your Power Options may also be set for passive cooling vs active cooling. Your motherboard likely includes downloadable utilities to configure your own custom fan curve.

 

[rubix_1011]

Depends on how this is setup. The Cougar Helor doesn't have software which controls it from the AIO itself and relies on your motherboard PWM headers to manage the fan curves. This includes the possibility that the curve is not setup correctly for AIOs or allows fan RPM to drop low enough to stop at specific CPU thermal load. This might include AIO pump speed, but you'd also want to check that curve as well.

In short, you'd want both the pump and fans running at all times, although this might depend on how the PWM curve is set. Normally, you would not want or expect either of them to reach 0 RPM.

 

[Cpt_Quirk]

That's all up to the how the manufacturer setup the fan curve. It's probably set to park the CPU fan below a certain temperature threshold. There's probably BIOS options for quiet and performance cooling modes or something similar. Your Power Options may also be set for passive cooling vs active cooling. Your motherboard likely includes downloadable utilities to configure your own custom fan curve.

Thank you for the response! And I did notice in the bios there was something about a fan curve and there was a "smart cooling" feature I clicked on that and tried to game a little to see if they would kick on but still no. I'm kind of on the fence to mess with the bios honestly.

 

[Cpt_Quirk]

Depends on how this is setup. The Cougar Helor doesn't have software which controls it from the AIO itself and relies on your motherboard PWM headers to manage the fan curves. This includes the possibility that the curve is not setup correctly for AIOs or allows fan RPM to drop low enough to stop at specific CPU thermal load. This might include AIO pump speed, but you'd also want to check that curve as well.

In short, you'd want both the pump and fans running at all times, although this might depend on how the PWM curve is set. Normally, you would not want or expect either of them to reach 0 RPM.

Okay so I did notice that it showed all my fans rpm in the bios but the 2 radiator fans sat at 0. So then I would need to mess with the curve is what I'm understanding? Its an msi x470 btw.

 

[rubix_1011]

What is the header the fans are plugged into? That is the PWM curve you need to check and possibly alter.

 

[velocityg4]

You should be able to control fan speeds in MSI Dragon Center.

 

[Paperdoc]

You have not specified exactly which MSI X570 board you have, but I believe it has both a CPU_FAN1 and a PUMP_FAN1 header. The Cougar AIO system you have is designed so that the PUMP unit power cable should plug into your mobo PUMP_FAN1 header, and it will always run full speed. The fans on the radiator are to be connected (using the Splitter supplied) to the CPU_FAN1 header. IF you have only two fans and the Splitter has three outputs, be sure that ONE of those fans is plugged into the only Splitter output with all 4 pins. The speed of that one rad fan will be shown as the CPU Fan Speed, and the speed of the other will be ignored completely.

In BIOS Setup, each fan header is configured separately. It is not clear in your mobo manual what Profile options you have. For each of those two headers you should start with the Standard Profile (that's the "fan curve"). At the upper left of the screen (see p. 36) set both to use the PWM Mode. Now, the specs shown for those fans say their speed range is 600 to 1800 RPM. So check the fan curve shown for the CPU_FAN1 header that the rad fans are plugged into, at the lowest temperature and speed. The lowest speed set should be around 600, but maybe a bit lower if you wish. That is the one you might want to change if it is set too low. You can just drag it with your mouse cursor up or down. When you have made all the changes you want on each header, use Esc to get back to Main Menu, then F10 to get to the Exit Menu. There choose to SAVE and EXIT to save your settings and reboot. See if that gets the fans to start and stay running. If not, try again with a higher minimum speed in the fan curve.

 

[Cpt_Quirk]

You have not specified exactly which MSI X570 board you have, but I believe it has both a CPU_FAN1 and a PUMP_FAN1 header. The Cougar AIO system you have is designed so that the PUMP unit power cable should plug into your mobo PUMP_FAN1 header, and it will always run full speed. The fans on the radiator are to be connected (using the Splitter supplied) to the CPU_FAN1 header. IF you have only two fans and the Splitter has three outputs, be sure that ONE of those fans is plugged into the only Splitter output with all 4 pins. The speed of that one rad fan will be shown as the CPU Fan Speed, and the speed of the other will be ignored completely.

In BIOS Setup, each fan header is configured separately. It is not clear in your mobo manual what Profile options you have. For each of those two headers you should start with the Standard Profile (that's the "fan curve"). At the upper left of the screen (see p. 36) set both to use the PWM Mode. Now, the specs shown for those fans say their speed range is 600 to 1800 RPM. So check the fan curve shown for the CPU_FAN1 header that the rad fans are plugged into, at the lowest temperature and speed. The lowest speed set should be around 600, but maybe a bit lower if you wish. That is the one you might want to change if it is set too low. You can just drag it with your mouse cursor up or down. When you have made all the changes you want on each header, use Esc to get back to Main Menu, then F10 to get to the Exit Menu. There choose to SAVE and EXIT to save your settings and reboot. See if that gets the fans to start and stay running. If not, try again with a higher minimum speed in the fan curve.

Yeah I have the water block connected to PUMP_FAN1 and it works fine, and both radiator fans are connected to the splitter but that connects to a SATA connection. Now I'm thinking about it im second guessing I need to double check.
Thank you for the response and all the details!

 

[Cpt_Quirk]

Yeah I have the water block connected to PUMP_FAN1 and it works fine, and both radiator fans are connected to the splitter but that connects to a SATA connection. Now I'm thinking about it im second guessing I need to double check.
Thank you for the response and all the details!

You have not specified exactly which MSI X570 board you have, but I believe it has both a CPU_FAN1 and a PUMP_FAN1 header. The Cougar AIO system you have is designed so that the PUMP unit power cable should plug into your mobo PUMP_FAN1 header, and it will always run full speed. The fans on the radiator are to be connected (using the Splitter supplied) to the CPU_FAN1 header. IF you have only two fans and the Splitter has three outputs, be sure that ONE of those fans is plugged into the only Splitter output with all 4 pins. The speed of that one rad fan will be shown as the CPU Fan Speed, and the speed of the other will be ignored completely.

In BIOS Setup, each fan header is configured separately. It is not clear in your mobo manual what Profile options you have. For each of those two headers you should start with the Standard Profile (that's the "fan curve"). At the upper left of the screen (see p. 36) set both to use the PWM Mode. Now, the specs shown for those fans say their speed range is 600 to 1800 RPM. So check the fan curve shown for the CPU_FAN1 header that the rad fans are plugged into, at the lowest temperature and speed. The lowest speed set should be around 600, but maybe a bit lower if you wish. That is the one you might want to change if it is set too low. You can just drag it with your mouse cursor up or down. When you have made all the changes you want on each header, use Esc to get back to Main Menu, then F10 to get to the Exit Menu. There choose to SAVE and EXIT to save your settings and reboot. See if that gets the fans to start and stay running. If not, try again with a higher minimum speed in the fan curve.

Hey so I figured I got it working. I double checked the wires and saw I zip tied the the wire that needed to be in the CPU_FAN1 header with the rest of my wires thinking the SATA was all I needed to plug in. BIG ROOKIE MISTAKE ON MY END.
THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR RESPONSES!!!

 

[Paperdoc]

Glad you found the problem and fixed it. Thanks for the update.