Asrock AB350 Pro4 - Odd Fan control

[pcfav4life]

CPU: Ryzen 1200
MOBO: Asrock AB350 Pro4
PSU: Evga 550 G3
RAM: 16 GB DDR 4 3000MHZ
SSD: Crucial 270gb
Case: Fratal Define r4
OS: Win 10


I had the OE wraith cooler and decided to upgrade to my old CM Hyper 212 plus. Once installed, I noticed that it operated very audibly. Investigating with Hardware Monitor revealed that the fan operated at max frequency (around 2000rpm) no matter if it was under load or idle. The cooler fan was plugged into the 4pin CPU FAN header. (Idle temps ~30C, load temps ~65C)

Going into my bios and placing the CPU PWM fan into silent mode, or making a custom profile, did not change the rpm and the fan is always running audibly at 2000rpm. CPU temps stayed the same.

I then connect the CPU fan to a case fan 4pin header, and Set up the same custom profile based off the CPU temperature and notice odd behavior. The fan operates in one of the two following ways:
1) Computer boots and the CPU fan operate at the loud 2000rpm no matter what. (50% of the time)
2) Computer boots up and the CPU fan operate at the set settings. (50% of the time)

When it is running loud, I reboot multiple times until the computer decides to use the set quiet setting.

I am not sure if this is a motherboard problem and I should RMA or if I have to tweak a setting?


Side Note: when I try to overclock weird things happen with the PC booting. As long as the CPU is below 3.7 GHZ (no voltage increase threshold), PC boots up well. Increase past that point, sometimes it restarts up to three times before loading into windows (even with setting high voltages) or it is running without actually starting. 80% of the time it gets into windows. Once loaded, it will be stable running benchmarks like cinebench and prim95 (temperatures never going past 75C.

 

[DRagor]

What about your Wraith cooler? Did it behave same way when connected to CPU_FAN header? If it did not, I don't see a reason to suspect motherboard (esp that you tried two different headers on mobo). It would rather appear as the fan of your 212 has problem. The behavior you described suggests that sometimes motherboard is able to detect it as PWM fan and it works as it should, at other times it fails to detect PWM and then it works full speed (or it may be the opposite - it's the fan that can't recognize the PWM header).

 

[pcfav4life]

What about your Wraith cooler? Did it behave same way when connected to CPU_FAN header? If it did not, I don't see a reason to suspect motherboard (esp that you tried two different headers on mobo). It would rather appear as the fan of your 212 has problem. The behavior you described suggests that sometimes motherboard is able to detect it as PWM fan and it works as it should, at other times it fails to detect PWM and then it works full speed (or it may be the opposite - it's the fan that can't recognize the PWM header).

Thanks for the reply DRagor, I can't recall the fan noise of the Wraith Cooler. I remember seeing 2000 RPM when i was using HWmonitor when checking my overclock. I don't think it bothered me because the noise was lower and not as bothersome.

Interesting point with the fan potentially having a problem. I believe i have an extra fan lying around that I will try. However, the fan on there now is a 120mm BitFenix Spectre.

Can an improper installation of the cooler be a factor in this?

 

[DRagor]

Can an improper installation of the cooler be a factor in this?

Nope, as long as you connect the plug from fan to the header in correct way (and is's rather hard to do it otherwise), it does not even matter if fan is on cooler at all, or if cooler is installed or standing next to motherboard. This is strictly electrical problem between fan and motherboard header.

 

[pcfav4life]

What about your Wraith cooler? Did it behave same way when connected to CPU_FAN header? If it did not, I don't see a reason to suspect motherboard (esp that you tried two different headers on mobo). It would rather appear as the fan of your 212 has problem. The behavior you described suggests that sometimes motherboard is able to detect it as PWM fan and it works as it should, at other times it fails to detect PWM and then it works full speed (or it may be the opposite - it's the fan that can't recognize the PWM header).

Hey! It worked! I put in my original Cooler Master fan into the CPU header and it work seamlessly with the bios PMW control. I tried the BitFenix Spectre again and the problem came back.


You were right, something about my BitFenix Spectrefan didn't want to work with the PMW.

Thanks!