Troubleshooting short or something, fan on PSU,lights on tower &ASUS 780 GTX card went out & mobo/desktop not powering anymore

oilerspowerhouse

Prominent
Dec 20, 2017
10
0
510
Built all brand new desktop, had it working perfectly, except Intel CPU fan did not spin at all., then decided for some dumb reason to try to see if Intel cpu fan cable would work in CPU_1 Fan slot on motherboard.
I plugged intel cpu fan cable into Asrock H170M pro4 motherboard slot for PWM fan hub control using with phanteks enthoo luxe tower. CPU fan turned less than 1/4 turn then stopped dead, lights on ASUS 780 GTX graphics card went out & mobo/desktop stopped powering on completely.
Have tried everything I can think of...Unplugged PSU, Switched off power bar, pulled out and re-plugged all cables, pulled battery and put back in, pulled graphics card and tried testing plugging monitor into I/O on mobo and still not powering or anything.
Only thing I can deduce is the power supply may be fried but switch light still on, if not that the motherboard, or maybe CPU??
Feel really stupid to mess with it when I had it working, any help is greatly appreciated!
 
Solution
The key requirement for using the Phanteks PWM Hub is that it must get a PWM signal (via its small cable ending in a 4-pin fan female connector) from a mobo fan header. It also must get its power for the fans from a connection (via another cable) to a SATA power output from the PSU. On your mobo, BOTH the CHA_FAN headers use PWM mode, so plugging the Hub into either of them is good. In fact, that is the best way. Just be sure in BIOS Setup that, where you configure that header, it is set to use the temperature sensor on the mobo, and not the one inside the CPU chip. The mobo sensor is the best way to guide the ventilation of the case. Then all your case fans can plug into the Hub, ensuring that one of them is on the white Port #1 of the...
I don't think you even need the CPU fan to start up the computer as the CPU load should be minimal. Or at least, pull the fan out and see if the PC start to bootup.

(the CPU would throttle down if it overheated anyway)

If pulling the fan helps I'd say the fan is dead.

If it does NOT help I'd guess the motherboard is dead. I highly doubt the PSU was damaged due to a fan header issue.
 


Hi Mark, thank you for replying so quickly!
Sorry for sounding noob, so you mean pulling a case fan cable from the PWM on back of case and plugging into the mobo CPU header? I tried that and nothing if that is what you mean...

 


Hi,
Thanks for the reply.
I tried that and nothing...awe man I hope not

 
The two green LEDs on GTX don't power on anymore either and they were on when I turned on PSU switch without powering on Tower, yet blue light on PSU switch still turns on so I would guess it is the motherboard?
 
So to be clear:

1. meant to plug fan into "CPU_FAN1"

2. Instead you used the PWM hub 3-pin controller next to CPU_FAN1

3. Now computer has some lights but otherwise will not boot up

4. CPU fan either plugged into NOTHING or into CPU_FAN1 does not matter. Won't boot up.

5. the 3-pin HUB connector is also not used at all now?

Correct?

If so, I'd say that you effectively SHORTED OUT the hub controller and damaged it by trying to attach the wrong thing (fan). Thus the MOTHERBOARD itself must have gotten damaged enough that it won't allow the computer to start.

Thus you'd need to RMA the motherboard.
 


1. See, that's the thing that confused me when I first researched the PWM hook up on Phanteks enthoo luxe case (3 fans included with tower) with Asrock H170M PRO4 mobo.
The mobo has two ports on top, one called PWM-CFGI on left, and right next to it (right of it) CPU_FAN1 (mobo also has two more fan ports, FAN_2 and FAN_3 on each side of it as well)
I tried plugging CASE PWM cable into the PWM-CFGI port and the Intel CPU cable into CPU_Fan1 port and nothing worked. Then, subsequently tried swapping them and everything powered up great EXCEPT INTEL CPU fan on CPU. All case fans and PSU fan, lights you name it worked as well as BIOS and even Windows 10 popped right up (new M.2 ssd installed also). Concerned that having them in wrong ports but still working might not be a good idea, swapped them back to where the mobo labels state to plug them into correctly and that is when the INTEL CPU fan turned less than 1/4 turn and everything went dead (including the green LEDS on GTX card as previously mentioned) and now only light that is powering on is the blue power switch on PSU and nothing else, not even LEDS strips on Tower

2. yes
3. just PSU switch light
4. yes
5. yes
That was what I thought, perhaps it surged back on PWM HUB and fried maybe. I have another brand new 520 watt /psu without power switch to try swapping today but from what you guys are saying, not convinced that is the issue but worth a shot.
I think that I may have to R/ma like you're saying.

 


Sorry, flustered and furious with myself haha
The INTEL CPU fan cable was plugged into PWM-CFGI as I wrote in last message to you, PWM HUB cable into CPU-FAN1.and it worked, swapped in fear of damaging something and then everything went kaput.
When I first built, I was very nervous about the PWM hub hook ups as never had and knew nothing about them originally, so researched intensively to be certain I hooked all connections up correctly so sure it was not caused by wrong connections at PWM hub.
 
Just spoke to ASRock America technician about this problem and now realize this was not really my fault, and thought I would share a friendly WARNING to anyone with this motherboard or any other ASrock boards that have this stupid 'PWM-CFGI' header on left of 'CPU_FAN 1' header on top of board

Cannot even recall what the tech explained what it is actually used for (because I was pretty choked when he said 'PWM_CFGI header is not used at all for PWM hub connection with towers??????) This header is NOWHERE whatsoever on manual, including the specification drawing provided and no mention I can find anywhere in the manual either!
No wonder this happened, as anyone who isn't a hardware expert would know not to use it with a PWM hub on their tower. Even had my son look at it, (who knows a fair bit but not as much as I ) first thing he said was that the tower PWM hub connection should be plugged into this header!!!
These manufacturers really need to get there crap together to avoid such easily avoidable mistakes, by making sure their specs and manuals are entirely accurate. Absolutely ridiculous.
Hope this prevents others with similar problems with PWM setups from experiencing this nightmare!
 
I've posted the following in another thread that OP here has posted in requesting advice.

In fact, on an ASRock discussion forum here

http://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=3700&title=pwm-cfg1-header-on-asrock-z170m-pro4

It says the port is used in the factory at production time to program the PWM fan controller systems.

Actually, both of the CHA_FANn headers on that mobo are supposed to be using only PWM Mode for control according to the mobo manual, so there is no need to use the CPU_FAN header for connection to the Phanteks PWM Hub that came with the case.

What may have happened is that the mis-connection of the CPU cooling fan to that odd port burned out the fan, and that's why it no longer works.

There may be another factor for why nothing else is working now, either. The situation is that there is NO fan connected to the CPU_FAN header that works and sends back to that header a speed signal. Now, many mobos monitor that CPU_FAN header carefully to be SURE that the CPU gets proper cooling. If it fails to receive a fan speed signal, it shuts everything down and refuses to let you start it up with apparently NO cooling for the CPU. So, I hope that, once the faulty fan is replaced and can do its job and IS plugged into the CPU_FAN header, the system will start up properly.
 


Hi Paperdoc...all hail the Grandmaster! hehe:
Thank you very much for your reply.
Okay, tried so many things now I cannot even recall what connections had everything working...EXCEPT the Intel CPU fan did not spin at all, ever. Only the three case fans were working great, but like I've said, because there is ZERO clarification in manual anywhere and just figured this may not be good for system and swapped the Intel CPU Fan cable and PWM case cable (because of this PWM CFG1 header...I thought for sure this was where I was to plug PWM case cable) (I think I did have the CPU fan plugged into CPU_FAN 1 and the PWM hub cable into this PWM_CFG1 header and that was when everything worked EXCEPT the Intel CPU fan.)
I have tried plugging a case fan into CPU_FAN1, CPU_FAN2 and CPU_ FAN3 and still nothing.

So if I totally understand what you're saying completely, if I replace Intel CPU fan and then connect it to CPU_FAN1 header it might power up again? So where do I plug the PWM Hub cable? Or just try pulling 2 Case fan cables from PWM Hub and plug directly into CPU_FAN2 and CPU_FAN3 headers on mobo? I would like to have all three case fans and the Intel CPU fan going, but is that not possible and/or needed?
Thanks so much!
 
The key requirement for using the Phanteks PWM Hub is that it must get a PWM signal (via its small cable ending in a 4-pin fan female connector) from a mobo fan header. It also must get its power for the fans from a connection (via another cable) to a SATA power output from the PSU. On your mobo, BOTH the CHA_FAN headers use PWM mode, so plugging the Hub into either of them is good. In fact, that is the best way. Just be sure in BIOS Setup that, where you configure that header, it is set to use the temperature sensor on the mobo, and not the one inside the CPU chip. The mobo sensor is the best way to guide the ventilation of the case. Then all your case fans can plug into the Hub, ensuring that one of them is on the white Port #1 of the Hub so that it can report a valid fan speed signal back to the mobo header.

The CPU cooling fan, of course, should be plugged into the CPU_FAN header.
 
Solution