Front panel & CPU fan pin connections

driss

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Aug 4, 2009
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Hi.
Have a "Dell" motherboard M3918 from a Dimension 4700. Try to mount it
in a new mini ATX casing (box). Have problems with how to connect front
panel cables (HDD, Power led,Reset..etc..) to said mainboard, Same goes
for CPU fan 5 pins connector. Dell can´t help with diagrams, and I can´t
find any diagrams as nearly all motherboards usually have in their manual.
Front panel cables I can probably manage by trials and errors, but fear to burn MB when it comes to CPU fan connector.
Can anybody help ?
regards,
driss
 
Well with the front panel connectors you can experiment safely. Though I'm wondering what you mean by CPU fan connector. Is this something that will show the CPU fan speed in a display? A switch? Or simply the actual connector of the CPU fan to the motherboard. In that case, what's the connector for the fan? 4-pin or 3-pin?
 
As far as I know there are no "5 pin fan connectors" on any MB. If you look closely most boards are labeled. The print is extremely small, but it should be there printed on the board by each connection.
 




Hi.
Well, on this board, there are no 2-pins, 3-pins or 4 pins that are
usually used for connecting for ex. a system fan n the likes. NOTHING !
there is though near the CPU something that looks exactly like a place to connect the audio cable from lets say a CD-rom, with 5 pins within the black
plastic... Have never seen a CPU fan with more than 4 cables, normally it is 3... Have rearranged and soldered cables from a fan with 4, but the fan only "trembles", as if hindered to start.
thx fopr yr answer.
Regards,
Driss
 



Hi.
there are NO 2 or 3 or 4 pins connecting places on the board (you know,
to connect a system fan etc.. as on nearly all boards I have seen in my days) !!! there is only one that says "CPU fan"on the board, and it looks
exactly like the black with plastic encapsuled connectin for the audio cable from a CD-rom, if you see what I mean. Inside the plastic are 5 pins.
I have CPU fans both with 3 and 4 cables. I have rearranged and
soldered, but one pin remains free, and the fan only "trembles" as if to start, but that is it. Have even measured with a voltmeter, found the 12 V pin and and the ground pin, but still no start...
Thx for yr message.
Regards,
Driss
 
Thats just the thing : no CPU fan was included when I bought the Mainboard.
Sorry 4 the error.
Regards,
DH
 
Hi,

That's one very strange CPU fan connector, but just like belial2k said, if you used that motherboard before in another case, the CPU must have had a connected fan. Otherwise it would overheat. Have you accidentally removed the fan plug and now you can't find it back?

Maybe consider buying a 3-pin fan to 4-pin molex adaptor. Then you can use the 3-pin cpu fan you have and feed it through a 4-pin peripheral, coming directly from the power supply. You know, these plugs that are used to feed IDE HDD en CD/DVD Drives.
 
Alright, now I'm starting to understand. It sounds like you have an older MB from back when Dell was making proprietary stuff so that you couldn't upgrade anything. Try checking ebay to see if you can find an old dell fan that has the 5 pin connection you need.
 
@Nils...I thought of that also, but if he runs the fan directly off the PSU he will have no control over the speed...and he will still have to trick the MB into thinking a cpu fan is attached so it will boot.
 
I still don't understand. Why is he getting problems with a CPU fan when moving a mobo from one case to another? Did he mess up the fan while moving the mobo?
Also he states that there was no fan included with the mobo, but how did he keep his CPU cool until now then?
 
That was confusing me too, but I think he bought it used and it didn't come with the fan.

"Thats just the thing : no CPU fan was included when I bought the Mainboard.
Sorry 4 the error.
Regards,
DH "
 
I will somehow solve the problem. The motherboard is an OEM,
and I´ll try finding what I am looking for on some chinese site.
Thx for all your answers and suggestions.
Regards,
DH
 
If I were you I would buy a silent fan and run it directly from the PSU. You should check out Scythe, zalman or antec fans.

I hope this might help a little,

Cheers
 
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/496/1

is an article on how to hard wire and control fan speed.

I have an E521 and yes it is stupid. I do get the error for the "no cpu fan". hit F1 to get by it. I have not found a way to jump the the connectors over or switch them around to get rid of the message.

I am putting in a knob to control the rpm's and will mount on the outside of the case so i can adjust it on the fly.

If you turn off the "cool and quiet" i beleive that your cpu will stay at its max ghz. While on it will go down to 1ghz till it needs more (at least on my E521).

My temps sit @ 23'c and under load will go up to about 65'c while on medium speed w/ stock heatsink.

You can also find a used dell optiplex heatsink and will fit in the stock housing. This is a tower heat pipe unit that is much better the the aluminum block. You can probibly get one free or really cheap because of the copper in them makes it so you can't recycle them. Just ask around at your local comp shops.

 
I have a Dell D4700 about 5 yo. Soon after I bought it, I added a second HDD which caused the heat sensors built into the unit to shut it down. I had a local shop move the guts to a new Ultra ATX mid tower case. He added a fan to the heat sink and an extra fan in the bays to blow air directly onto the primary HDD. This solved the heat problem; but, over time, the noise of the fans was driving me nuts.

I bought some low db fans from cooler guys and replaced all the fans in the case which were moved over from the original Dell case. Since then I've been getting the "No CPU fan detected, press F1 to continue" message. I know where the CPU fan connection is on the mobo, but it is a 5-pin male connector and matches none of the connectors on the 4 fans installed in the case (not counting the fan on the PSU nor the fans on the HDD cooling sled rack).

I'd like to find out what kind of connector I need on a fan in order to plug it into the mobo and get rid of the error message because it prevents me using Setup to start the computer in the very early morning to run updates and scans automatically.

If anyone knows what kind of connector is needed or where I can find out what connector to get and where to get it, I would very much appreciate the information.
 


I salvaged a CPU fan from a Dell that was being scrapped. It had a 5-pin connector, but only 4 wires. So a standard 4-pin CPU fan may work if you can get its connector to mate with 4 of the 5 pins on the motherboard.

Here's what the fan's label says, in case you want to track one down:

Nidec BETA V
4809D A2
TA350DC
Model M35291-35
DEL
12V DC 2.3A
P2780
MADE IN CHINA
A

I had a friend cut off the 5-pin connector and wire it to a standard 4-pin Molex connector. It now resembles a leaf blower in sound and airflow, but I'm sure it wouldn't normally run that fast when connected to the CPU fan header.

I still have the 5-pin connector. If you're in the US, I could mail it to you.