[SOLVED] Motherboard Swap

[Pez]

Hi all.

I had posted a couple of threads recently:
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/cpu-socket-backwards-compatibility.3728324/
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/atx-power-connectors-convertor.3729482/

And man oh man: Bottom line? It turns out that my graphics card (an EVGA GTX GeForce 1080 Superclocked) had become defective/ burned out, and it was causing damage, too, to the motherboard's PCI-e slot, thus not allowing the system to boot/ POST.

So, finally, I ended up getting a Gigabyte motherboard with.....an AMD Ryzen 7 processor. This is a first for me; I've always had Intel processors before. And, had to get another graphics card, too: a Gigabyte GeForce 1070.

So, in my tower unit case, I removed my motherboard and installed the new Gigabyte board with it's AMD Ryzen processor, then connected all the other internal components.

As some of you most likely already know, swapping out an entire motherboard, but, connecting it back to the same hard drive/ solid state drive that was in your previous system, is possible, but there might be a few bumps in the road, so to speak.

The system booted fine, the Windows 10 OS loaded properly, and it went to desktop. I then set about installing the proper drivers/ software for the AMD board, and then uninstalling the prior Intel drivers from my previous system/ board.

But I noticed a couple of things:

I've already sent a message to Gigabyte Tech Support at their web site, but sometimes they can be a long time in getting back to you, so, while waiting for their response, I thought I'd check here.

And just to let you know up front, since I know that my hardware is good and the system boots, I'm probably going to reinstall the Windows 10 OS from scratch just so things are "clean".

But here's what I noticed.....

When the system is totally powered off cold, and I press the Power button to boot up, the system powers on, lights & fans, and.....there's a fan that seems to stay at a high RPM, pretty loud. I believe this is the CPU heat sink fan. The GPU fans don't come on unless there is a heavy, graphics-intensive load, and the same applies to the PSU fan (only under heavy load does it come on).

What I've noticed through the years on different system builds I've put together is, when you power the computer on, at first while it's still POSTing, the fan is loud, but then after the BIOS POST screen, the fan RPM lowers and it gets quiet as the OS loads.

Do you think the high RPM loud fan is due to the motherboard swap I did? Could this possibly be rectified after I reinstall the Windows 10 OS from scratch?

And, another thing: I have two sticks of Corsair Vengeance RAM, 32 GB of memory total from two 16 GB sticks. But the system is only "seeing" 16 GB. The Gigabyte motherboard has the original BIOS, F1, and I noticed there is a F61 available. Could updating the BIOS fix this?

Thanks for any helpful input;
Pez

 

[Aeacus]

Do you think the high RPM loud fan is due to the motherboard swap I did?

Yes.

Could this possibly be rectified after I reinstall the Windows 10 OS from scratch?

No.

CPU fan is connected to CPU_FAN header on MoBo and that is controlled from BIOS. So, if you don't want your CPU fan to have that aggressive profile, go to BIOS and look what fan profile you have. Might want to set it more relaxed one.

Clean Win install would only work if the fan ramps up after the OS is booted and you have 3rd party software that controls the fan (e.g SpeedFan). But since fan goes crazy during POST and stays so, long before even OS is booted up, clean OS install doesn't fix it.

And, another thing: I have two sticks of Corsair Vengeance RAM, 32 GB of memory total from two 16 GB sticks. But the system is only "seeing" 16 GB. The Gigabyte motherboard has the original BIOS, F1, and I noticed there is a F61 available. Could updating the BIOS fix this?

It could, but i doubt that.

More likely is, that one of the RAM sticks is bad. This is easy to test if you plug them in one-by-one and then boot up.
Another option is, that the MoBo RAM slot is bad. If e.g one of the first channel slots is bad (DIMM1A and DIMM2A), try plugging your RAM to another channel slots (DIMM1B and DIMM2B).

Btw, i didn't see you list what model MoBo you now have. Only make: Gigabyte, is listed.


Oh, Updating BIOS isn't something you can do on a whim. BIOS update, as such, is only viable when you know for a fact that newer BIOS fixes the specific issue you have with your PC. (E.g if i want to use Kaby Lake CPU with my Z170 chipset MoBo, i need to update my MoBo BIOS.) If there are no issues, or you aren't sure BIOS update fixes it, there is no reason, what-so-ever, to update BIOS. Just because you "can" update BIOS doesn't mean that you "have to".

Most MoBos never get their BIOS updated and work fine until they are obsolete. Also, do note that when BIOS update would be interrupted for whatever reason (e.g power loss), your MoBo will be bricked and only fix is MoBo replacement.

Due to that very high risk, i don't suggest updating BIOS, at least not before you've tried every other possible option.

 

[USAFRet]

Swapping a motherboard and using the same drive+OS, results in one of 3 things:

1. It fails completely
2. It works just fine
3. It "works", but you're chasing issues for weeks/months.

You seem to have found #3.

 

[Pez]

Hi Aeacus & USAFRet; thanks for your replies.

So, Aeacus, you do think that the high RPM loud fan is due to the motherboard swap, eh? But that it won't be rectified if I do a clean Windows 10 install? Hmmmm....

Yes, I know that the CPU fan speed is controlled by the CPU fan header on the board, and if that header is getting information that the system is being stressed (from some program, etc. that you're running), then the CPU fan speed will pick up to cool down the processor. So my thinking was, since I swapped out the board but kept the same SSD from my previous system (prior motherboard, processor, & GPU), that it's somehow receiving "erroneous" information and is keeping the fan speed a little high.

As I mentioned above, I installed the drivers fore the new Gigabyte board, then uninstalled the prior board's stuff. But even after doing something like this, nothing's perfect, so I figure something's going to be left behind, some remnant. And I thought that remnant is what's being picked up and is making the CPU fan run a little fast. And that's why I considered doing a clean install of Windows 10.

This board has a feature of Smart Fan 5; I have it at the Default setting of "Normal", which is supposed to let the fan run in reaction to temperature changes.

Overall, the board swap (& processor and GPU) went pretty smooth, considering. But a clean install of the OS couldn't hurt, right?

And as far as the RAM/ memory thing? Yes, I'll check when I open the case again. Hopefully it's not a bad slot with the new board; perhaps the stick isn't firmly seated. Or, with four slots, I could try the other pair.

And....throughout the years and different motherboards that I've had, I've updated BIOS's more than once. Yes, I know there's a risk involved, so hopefully there's no power outages (fingers crossed)🤞

Oh....my new motherboard is a: Gigabyte B450M DS3H V2. And the processor is an AMD Ryzen 7, 3700X

And USAFRet: I think you might be onto something with option #3 And like I said, a clean OS install couldn't hurt.

Thanks,
Pez

 

[Aeacus]

So, Aeacus, you do think that the high RPM loud fan is due to the motherboard swap, eh? But that it won't be rectified if I do a clean Windows 10 install? Hmmmm....

Yes, I know that the CPU fan speed is controlled by the CPU fan header on the board, and if that header is getting information that the system is being stressed (from some program, etc. that you're running), then the CPU fan speed will pick up to cool down the processor. So my thinking was, since I swapped out the board but kept the same SSD from my previous system (prior motherboard, processor, & GPU), that it's somehow receiving "erroneous" information and is keeping the fan speed a little high.

Like i said, CPU fan is controlled by BIOS.

Here's it as simple as possible:

• Your old MoBo (Aorus Z270X Gaming 8) - relaxed CPU fan profile in BIOS = quiet fan
• Your new MoBo (B450M DS3H V2) - normal CPU fan profile in BIOS = loud fan

BIOSes and default fan profiles differ between MoBos, even when make is same. So, reason why you have louder fan, is because you have different BIOS with different fan profile.
Do you get it now?

3rd party program would only matter when fan gets loud once OS (and that program) boots. But since your fan is loud after POST and before OS boots, we can rule out the cause by 3rd party program. Leaving only different BIOS and it's settings as a cause.

and if that header is getting information that the system is being stressed (from some program, etc. that you're running), then the CPU fan speed will pick up to cool down the processor.

No.

MoBo doesn't monitor if program X or Z is stressing the system (e.g CPU utilization 90%), so that it would tell CPU fan to start spinning faster.

Instead, MoBo monitors CPU temperature, and correlates it with the CPU fan profile set in BIOS. Where e.g:
CPU at 35C = 40% fan speed
CPU at 50C = 60% fan speed
CPU at 65C = 80% fan speed
CPU at 80C = 100% fan speed

In most BIOSes, you can set at which temperature fan speed is. E.g relaxed profile would look like so:
CPU at 35C = 20% fan speed
CPU at 50C = 35% fan speed
CPU at 65C = 50% fan speed
CPU at 80C = 100% fan speed

For PC, it doesn't matter what OS you have (Win10, Win11, GNU/Linux etc), since CPU fan is controlled from BIOS.

There are some programs that override BIOS settings and can change fan profile, among other things, but usually, they are more trouble than they are worth it.

 

[Pez]

OK, this is embarrassing.....

First, Aeacus: Throughout this message thread, you have great detailed info that you've related here. I must admit: You've enlightened me on things where I was just a bit off on my assumptions. As the saying goes: You learn something new everyday. Thanks!!

Now.....

As you know, there can be many fans inside of a computer tower case: The CPU cooler fan; the fan inside of the PSU; fans on the GPU; and, sometimes there are case fans.

My tower unit is a Cooler Master 932 HAF case. When I started this thread, you'll notice I included two other links to threads that I had posted recently, too. I had a bit of a snafu with my system, which ended up replacing the motherboard, CPU, and GPU.

When all of this initially happened, I had, of course, taken the whole system apart and removed components when I was troubleshooting and trying to pin down the problem by process of elimination.

My tower unit has quite a few case fans. Many years ago, I bought an add-in item/ piece of hardware that goes into one of the front bays (like where you could put a DVD ROM drive, etc.). It's a combo fan controller and temperature read-out. It's got a little digital display that shows the current temp and a little animation that shows a spinning fan (and touch-screen controls that allows for manual adjustment of fan speed if so desired....or let it run automatically according to temp changes).

After inserted into its front bay, on the inside, you power it by connecting it to a molex power cable connector. And then, there many additional plugs connected to this piece of hardware (I believe there are 6) that allow you to connect multiple fans to it, so, the fans are getting their power through this piece of hardware, and, it then allows this hardware piece to control the speed of the fans.

When I had reassembled everything recently after getting & installing the new motherboard, CPU, & GPU, I <embarrassed>.......connected some of the fans directly to molex connectors going right to my PSU and not utilizing those connectors that are part of the piece hardware that's the temp monitor & fan speed controller. 😊

With all of the fans in-total inside of the computer (CPU cooler fan; the fan inside of the PSU; fans on the GPU), it can be hard to pinpoint which fan seems to be making the louder noise with revved up RPM's. I suppose I made the assumption that it was the CPU cooler fan since I had done the swap recently with motherboard, CPU, & GPU. I was wrong.....

When I realized that I had reconnected the case fans directly to the PSU via their molex connectors instead of using that piece of hardware that I have that's a temp sensor & fan controller....I realized the cause of the loud-sounding fans: The case fans were going full-speed/ power since they were directly connected to the PSU. I then switched the case fans connectors to get their power from the hardware piece I have in the front bay, and now.... <shhhh>, it's so much quieter, the sound has dropped down so low 🤫

Gosh, I feel so foolish.....but at least it's quieter now
Pez

 

[Aeacus]

My tower unit has quite a few case fans. Many years ago, I bought an add-in item/ piece of hardware that goes into one of the front bays (like where you could put a DVD ROM drive, etc.). It's a combo fan controller and temperature read-out. It's got a little digital display that shows the current temp and a little animation that shows a spinning fan (and touch-screen controls that allows for manual adjustment of fan speed if so desired....or let it run automatically according to temp changes).

After inserted into its front bay, on the inside, you power it by connecting it to a molex power cable connector. And then, there many additional plugs connected to this piece of hardware (I believe there are 6) that allow you to connect multiple fans to it, so, the fans are getting their power through this piece of hardware, and, it then allows this hardware piece to control the speed of the fans.

These "things" are called fan controller and i too have them in use, with every PC i have.

What i have, from left to right;
Skylake - Thermaltake Commander F6 RGB (6 fan support)
Haswell - NZXT Sentry 3 (5 fan support)
AMD - Aerocool X-Vision (5 fan support)
(PCs full specs + more pics in my sig)

Fan controller is a neat piece of hardware.

When I had reassembled everything recently after getting & installing the new motherboard, CPU, & GPU, I <embarrassed>.......connected some of the fans directly to molex connectors going right to my PSU and not utilizing those connectors that are part of the piece hardware that's the temp monitor & fan speed controller. 😊

So, it was the case fan, rather than CPU fan. Mistakes happen.

Next time, open up your PC case and put your ear to it, to listen which of the fans is loud.

Also, nice to hear that you got your issue solved.