How to remove chipset fan asus deluxe a8n-sli

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
G

Guest

Guest
I have ordered the replacement fan but can't see how to remove the original fan. Are they pins or screws holding the fan and heat sink for the chipset.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
I think you're asking about the CPU fan, not the chipset fan?

Go here to your motherboard's website:
http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=e1h9yUaMZAsTwIEN

Look at the manual where it describes putting the heatsink/fan on - and reverse the steps. I believe there are pins which have to be un-locked, then pulled out of place from the motherboard. You'll find this much easier to do if you remove the motherboard from the case. And it's easier to add your new cooler/fan that way also.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'm guessing he is asking about the chipset fan, as the fans on that board are prone to failure.

I have that board and changed the fan on it too. I think (forgive me if I'm wrong, it has been a while) they are spring pins that open when pushed through so they don't back out. You'll have to remove the motherboard, then it should be more or less obvious how to remove them. Be careful, you don't want to break them as you may need to remove them. Some pliers (to squeeze the back 'open' part closed) and a steady hand to push in then pull out the pins should do the trick.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
It sounds like the fan you are asking about is similar to the chipset fan on the ASUS A8N-E motherboard, which is notorious for becoming noisy. Mine did too, but I was able to quieten it by occasional applications of WD40. Today, however, the computer suddenly started resetting itself without notice, and when I looked inside I noticed that the fan had stopped working. When I tried to turn it, I found it was completely seized up. Fortunately I had obtained a (free) replacement fan from ASUS when the original fan first became noisy, so I searched the Internet for how to perform the replacement. The fan is held on by two black spring-loaded pins that snap into holes in the motherboard and cannot be pulled back out (plus a bit of not-very-sticky tape). Rather than removing the motherboard to get at the pins, I used a pair of needle-nosed pliers to break them off (bending them around gently until they broke, being careful not to damage the motherboard or surrounding components) and then used an awl to push the remaining debris through the holes towards the back of the motherboard, where it fell down. With the holes now clear, I was able to locate the pins of the new fan in them and push them through with the end of a screwdriver handle. The whole job was much easier than I had anticipated and was done in under ten minutes.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Yes, that would work fine as long as you have new pins to put in (which isn't always true for some aftermarket ones). And also as you point out, if you haven't already gotten an aftermarket fan, call Asus as they will give you an improved fan for free.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
As it turned out, the seized-up fan was not the cause of the sudden switch-off problem I was having; even after I had replaced the fan, the computer kept on shutting down right after starting up. I have three SATA hard drives, and I suspected that one of these might be causing the problem, so I did a chkdsk/R on them all. This did not solve anything. Then I disconnected one of the hard drives, and the computer started up and worked normally. If I reconnect that hard drive with Windows XP running, it shows up in Windows Explorer and everything works normally, but if I try to start the computer with it already connected, the problem recurs. I had a similar problem with system instability before when I installed a fourth hard drive, so I went back to three and everything has been fine for the last couple of years, but now it seems I am down to two.

If anyone could give me a clue as to why this should happen, I would be most grateful.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Hmm, that is very weird. These are just three normal drives correct, no raid and one is boot and others are just storage? Does it matter which of the drives you disconnect, or is it just you cannot have more than 2 drives now? Also, what is you chipset (like nVidia nForce 4 or whatever).
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
If you're able to plug in the drive while system is running, then I assume that the AHCI driver is installed and set in the BIOS. The more I read about this driver and its affect on Windows, the more I suspect it in drive problems.

The boot drive would be the one with AHCI drivers installed on it. Were the other SATA drives formatted after this driver was in place or perhaps set up on another computer and then used on this one?

I'd definitely manually remove the partition. Then reboot and see if Windows likes the drive now. Re-partition the drive, on this system, then re-format it. Might solve all your issues.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Yes, three normal drives (no RAID). The system disk is unpartitioned and contains Windows XP and programs, a second disk has two partitions both containing data only, and a third has two partitions, one containing data and one containing a clone of the system disk made with Casper 5.0. The motherboard is ASUS A8N-E Rev.2.00, the chipset is NVidia NForce 4 Ultra NF-CK804, and the BIOS is ASUS A8N-E ACPI BIOS Rev. 10.13.

After plugging the system drive alone and in combination with one or both data drives into various combinations of the four SATA channels, I have found a setup that seems to work with all three drives now.

The only problem is (at least the last couple of times I tried it) that when I go to the SETUP screen by pressing DEL during bootup, the screen is frozen (although the clock is still running). This doesn't matter at the moment, but it might if I need to change something in the future.

I can't remember whether the non-system drives were formatted after the system drive was set up or not, but I take Mongox's point that it would be better to do it in that order. I will try reformatting them if the problem recurs.

At least I have a nice quiet chipset fan running now, even though it wasn't the cause of the problem!

Thanks for your help.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Quick question, you mention two different motherboards in this thread - the Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe and then the A8N-E ... have you switched?

You mention BIOS 10.13 - did you do this as warned on the site?
Please do read the description before updating BIOS
To avoid crashing file system, please do update the chipset driver to below version prior to this Bios.
For WinXP 32bit system, please download and update chipset drivers V6.65 or later

Looking over the latter's manual, I don't think you have the AHCI option for hard drives. This is usually seen as a BIOS choice or boot option referring to using your SATA drives in IDE mode or not. Non-IDE mode is either AHCI or RAID. Appears you only have RAID. You might chk all the drive options starting on page 2-24 of the manual however. Among the features of a AHCI SATA drive are "hot" attachment of drives. However, turning on this feature in BIOS, if an option, will lead to problems booting and addressing drives. Solution is to re-install Windows, loading the AHCI drivers just like RAID controller drivers, before coming to the first Win install screen. This may not be a problem for you.

Tech note: You do have a partition on your system drive - a single one. Unpartitioned drives have no space allocated and are un-formatted. Use Win's Computer Mgt Console to look at the physical allocation of your drives. Might be one with un-allocated space or an old non-Win partition that could foul things up. Remember if you change partitions, you erase all data.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
And on a side note, those nForce 4 chips do some weird things sometimes. I think they are prone to corrupting drives (could that have been what happened? I don't know, probably not) which happened to me once on my nForce 4 SLI, which also decided to stop seeing my second card in SLI (though Asus fixed that). After all that though, it is still going five years later as a secondary gaming comp, so I can't complain.

Also, I think the OP mentioned the Deluxe (not Iamnotacomputerexpert), though that is the board I have as well.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Yes, the original question (about the fan) concerned the Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe. I posted about solving my fan problem with the A8N-E because the arrangement sounded similar and I thought it might be helpful for people to know that you don't have to remove the motherboard to replace the fan.

I did update the chipset drivers before updating the BIOS (I did this a couple of years ago, and everything had been fine until the other day).

Following Mongox's suggestion, I checked the drive partitions, and they look OK; a single partition on the system drive and two on each of the two data drives, with no unallocated space.

I don't remember being given an option to install AHCI drivers when I reinstalled Windows XP a couple of years ago; I think it was just RAID or SCSI and I chose RAID.

The SETUP screen freezing was a bit worrying, but last time I booted up it was working OK, so I hope things have settled down now.

Although computers are very scientific, they also seem to be quite whimsical and often have a mind of their own, don't they? I suppose it is the interactions between so many complex systems that are difficult to predict. I still don't know what caused mine to suddenly start shutting down after working OK for a couple of years; I hadn't even opened the case, installed any new software or done anything different from usual, and I'm pretty sure the chipset fan had seized up some time before.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I have three SATA hard drives, and I suspected that one of these might be causing the problem, so I did a chkdsk/R on them all. This did not solve anything. Then I disconnected one of the hard drives, and the computer started up and worked normally. If I reconnect that hard drive with Windows XP running, it shows up in Windows Explorer and everything works normally, but if I try to start the computer with it already connected, the problem recurs. I had a similar problem with system instability before when I installed a fourth hard drive, so I went back to three and everything has been fine for the last couple of years, but now it seems I am down to two.

If anyone could give me a clue as to why this should happen, I would be most grateful.
Click to expand...

I have had the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe running for many years and use it reguraly. The board has eight total onboard SATA connectors. Four of the eight are 'normal' single SATA drive connectors. Install a single HD to each connector for 4 seperate 'normal' system hard drives. The remaing 4 SATA connectors are 'special' RAID designated SATA connectors to be used specifically for installing drives in a RAID configuration using the onboard chip. These 'special' RAID SATA' connectors are not to be used to connect a single SATA HD as I suspect you have done. Page 2-21, 2-22 of the MB manual.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
badge, like me, I think confused by the change from one MB to a similar one. But yes, need to verify that the SATA ports being used aren't designed just for RAID on the A8N-E ... I didn't note that when reading the manual.

And Iamnot, you mentioned installing the RAID driver for Win? Aren't these drives non-RAID? Be sure again, that if not RAID (and you didn't really install a RAID driver) that nothing in the BIOS is set to RAID.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
But yes, need to verify that the SATA ports being used aren't designed just for RAID on the A8N-E ... I didn't note that when reading the manual.
Click to expand...

Actually I have the A8N-SLI premium version. I haven't changed my configuration in a while and may have overlooked the fact that the four designated RAID SATA ports are by default controlled as a RAID configuration with the Silicon SATA controller. That controller can be disabled in BIOS which may allow a single device like say a SATA optical device or HD to be configured. I have to say I have never tried to run a single device from the Silicon RAID controller defaulted SATA ports.

Page 2-22 Delixe manual.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/247256-30-premium-converting-sata-ports
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
The A8N-E manual says that the four SATA connectors are set to SATA by default (implying that they are not designed just for RAID). It says, "If you want to create a SATA RAID set using these connectors, you have to enable the RAID function of each port from the NVRAID configuration sub-menu item in the BIOS."

I have never enabled the RAID function of any of the SATA ports. Also, despite what I said in an earlier post, I don't think I installed any RAID drivers when installing Windows XP (it's a while ago now, and I don't remember clearly, but I would have had no reason to).

I will follow Mongox's suggestion and check that nothing in the BIOS is set to RAID.

When I tried to connect four independent SATA HDDs and the system went unstable, I wondered if it might have been too much for the power supply (a 550-W HEC-550TD-PTE). However, it looked beyond my capabilities to upgrade it, and I don't really need a fourth HDD anyway, so it's not really a problem.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
The A8N-E manual says that the four SATA connectors are set to SATA by default (implying that they are not designed just for RAID).
Click to expand...

Yes, but that is not entiely all the manual says. There are two RAID controllers. The main four SATA controllers (I believe the black ones) you are speaking of are set as simple SATA controller by default, correct, and are controlled by the NF4 chiset's NV RAID driver. But the 4 (red controllers I believe) are set to to RAID by default and controlled by the Silicon RAID driver by default. If you are plugging in a single SATA HD to one of the red SATA headers, it will not work properly as a single drive. Now, by disabling the Silicon RAID driver in BIOS, it is possible that second set of red SATA headers would support a single hard drive in simple SATA mode. I have never tried using the red silicon RAID designated headers, so I'm not certain by disabling the default driver in BIOS what exactly will happen. But a single SATA HD connected to the any of the four red Mb SATA headers will not work unless disabling the default Silicone RAID driver supports it. Just plug the three single HD's into the black MB headers.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I think Badge is talking about the A8N-SLI premium motherboard, whereas I am talking about the A8N-E, which only has four SATA connectors (all black).

I checked in the BIOS setup, and the RAID functions are disabled for all of these.

So my unanswered questions are:
1) Why does the system go unstable when I try to connect a fourth HDD? Could it be due to an inadequate power supply? (Not a problem. since I don't need a fourth HDD)
2) Why did the computer suddenly start shutting down even though nothing had changed? (Not a problem at the moment, because it seems to be working OK again)
3) (New) Why does the BIOS setup menu sometimes freeze ? (Could be a problem if I want to change something, although so far it has always unfrozen after a couple of restarts).
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
badge, again, as I mentioned. The poster we are discussing the system with is NOT the OP. This is not a A8N-SLI but a A8N-E this user has.

This is his board. It has only 4 SATA connectors total
http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=DzbA8hgqchMBOVRz

The questions:
1) It could be a bad power supply. 550 should be plenty for your system, but it may not be putting that out or doing it cleanly. It still could be a bad drive or an incorrect format/partition.

2) Shut down could be related to either above.

3) The BIOS problem may be related to not enabling USB devices, such as keyboards. Is your KB PS/2 or USB? This is common problem when troubleshooting and good reason to keep an old KB around.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Has OP ever updated the BIOS on the A8N-E? The BIOS updates indicate a lot of 'fixes' for system hangs, but not specifically related to a hard drive. Still 'system hangs' fixes everywhere on the BIOS updates.

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

ASUS technical support keeps explaining to update to the latest NF4 chipset drivers. Here, I use this chipset driver on all my NF4 939 boards.

XP NF4 939 Ultra Chipset drivers latest.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_winxp_15.23.html

 
Upvote 0 Downvote



OK, so the shutdown problem could be 1) Bad power supply, 2) Bad drive 3) Incorrect format/partition.

My keyboard is a Logitech wireless USB. I do have an old PS/2 keyboard, so I will try that if the problem recurs. Thanks for the tip.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I've finally found the cause of the problem (by accident)! The sudden shutdown problem recurred, so I switched to using my laptop to connect to the Internet. When I removed my USB stick from the problematic desktop PC and plugged it into the laptop, the laptop shut down. Now the laptop shuts down whenever I try to start it with the USB stick plugged in, and the desktop runs quite happily without it. Therefore I conclude that there is something wrong with the USB stick and it will have to be scrapped.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
It's really not too uncommon to find that thumb drives left in all the time cause problems with boots. I had one myself that worked fine - was using it to update my BIOS then left it in. I then started having trouble accessing my primary system drive.

I need to remember to ALWAYS mention removing any external device for those having trouble with any problem. My bad for not mentioning it - I re-read this whole confusing thread not believing I hadn't!

Do try re-formatting the stick before giving up on it. It likely has a FAT32 format - if it'll take a NTFS it might fix the issue. And you're in clover now, you know how to make the problem repeat!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom