Fan on motherboard not spinning?

Hi guy's hopefully some of you can help me out with a prob.

The pc in question here is actually a pc that I posted on here on AD a few months back with an "abnormal hardware" problem that I never got or couldn't fix.

But within the past few months I've learned a bit, well a lot to me about pc's, so I took out this pc again and thought I'd have a shot at fixing it.

as soon as I'd turn on the pc, I'd get this "abnormal hardware" msg and I couldn't boot windows up.

I tried booting different bootable programs from the rom drive with no luck and also the floppy with no luck and yes I had the bios settings correct.

Anyway, today I stuck in a spare hd that I had lieing around but still no luck, then I put in a spare rom drive and yes it started to boot up to the old hard drive that was a slave to a different pc so at the minute I'm using killdisk to wipe all data off that hd before installing a fresh windows.

But there is another problem, I have the side cover off at the min and I noticed a lot of heat coming from the pc so I checked and the fan thats on the motherboard is not spinning and there is a lot of heat coming from the pc.

So what I want to know is, is this fan a big job to get fixed? Do they cost much to buy?

Thanks
Sandisk

 

prices differ from make to make and socket type to type. you need to find out the socket type so the fan/heat sink is the right fitting.

in the uk they can cost from £5 to £50, its an easy job but you will also need some quality thermal paste.

i am guessing you mean the heat sink fan on the cpu here not just a fan on the mobo, as that is just a couple of screws in the corners, just swapping the fan on the cpu would be the same but some are made to only fit that heat sink.

 

Hi marsey99, yes I'd say it's the heatsink alright.

Would I be best off leaving it in to a pc repair shop to get fixed or is it handy enough to have a pop at myself?

In the past few months I've learned to change and install different hardware as in burners,RAM, hard drives ect.. but I havn't got to the stage of changing fans or the power supply yet.

There seems to be two fans in the pc, one in the actual power supply unit and this one on the motherboard and the one on the mobo is just not working at all.

So is it difficult to change the fan and is it also difficult to apply this "paste" and do I need a certain tool to apply this paste?

Thanks
Sandisk

 

Hi ddp, yes it is attached by four screws as far as I can see. It's quite hard to get in at the fan as the power supply unit is covering that part of the mobo and it's awkward to have a proper look at the fan unless I take out the powers supply unit which I've never done before. When I turn the fan with my hand, it does feel very stiff and there seems to be no power there at all. It's definitly connected to the mobo.

Do you reckon it's worth a try oiling it? What part would I oil, the actual propeller itself?

Thanks
Sandisk

 

Hi guy's. I've got my problem sorted for the time being at least so thanks very much for the help

I had a bit of time on my hands today so I took a very old pc from the attic and thought I'd play around with it. I was able to take the fan out simply enough and realized how to change it.

So I took the power supply out of the pc I'm currently trying to fix and unscrewed the fan and put the fan I got from the old pc in.

It actually works

The fan I'm after putting in is a bit smaller than the one I took out but it's working and the cpu temp is right. And I was able to put a fresh Windows 2k on the pc. So would it matter the fan is smaller?

Even though the fan is now working and a fresh windows is installed I'm still getting that msg when I start up the pc "System hardware abnormal, press any key to continue" and then windows boots up with no problems.

To me the system seems ok as I've put in a new hard drive, rom drive and fan. So don't know why I'm getting that msg now?

I'll pick up some of that oil on Monday ddp. The fan is very stiff compared to the one I've put in. So I take it I'll drop a couple of drops of oil to the center of the fan and keep turning it for awhile and that might do the trick for that fan ?

Once again, thanks for helping me getting my pc fixed>

Sandisk

 

I give it a drop of oil on Monday.

To be honest ddp, that pc as far as I was concerned was trash a couple of days ago. As soon as I's start up the pc I was getting that msg and when I went into the cmos settings, it would only allow me to change the password but wouldn't allow me into any other settings including the boot settings.

I googled around for awhile and took the cmos battery out for an hour but still the same msg so I took the battery out for 24 hrs and the next day it did allow me into the settings so the I had to set the time/date/year myself.

Now that the hardware inside is ok, should I take out the cmos battery again for 24 hrs to see if it makes a difference ?

Thanks
Sandisk

 

To see if it gets rid of the "system hardware abnormal" msg when the cmos is reset again as all the hardware should be working fine now.

Or could the mobo the damaged, and thats why I still get that error msg ?

Sandisk

 

glad you fixxed the fan.

the msg will be because when you reinstalled windows there is now a driver missing.

most likly sound but it could be any number of things to be totaly honest.

i dont know 2k as i never used it myself so the exact steps need to find out what the hardware is im not sure.

if you know the model number for the motherboard you could find all the right drivers from the makers website.

 

Hi thanks for the replys.

I tried some oil on that other fan today but it wouldn't work so I opened it up and it was burned in places so I dumped it.

Yeah I'm glad I got it working marsey99, at least I know how to change a fan in the future.

This "abnormal hardware" msg that comes up, it came up even when there was no operating system on the pc.

Even when there was a clean hd in the pc I was/am still getting this msg.

When I put a fresh windows 2k on and I checked the device manage, there was a few ! marks but a friend gave me a loan of a driver cd the he has and windows found all the drivers necessary so everything seems to be working fine now.

Still that msg bugs me.

Thanks for the replys.

Sandisk

 

Well if it works fine I would ignore it. You might just have a strange mobo

 

Think you could be right about the strange mobo Estuansis, i've accepted the msg now lol and all it means is to press any key to load up windows with no probs. At least the pc is working so thanks for everyone's help on this.

Sandisk

 

Yeah, just keep an eye on your temps.

 

u could buy a new battery as ddp said the battery could be bad causing errors

 

Might sound like a stupid question but, could I just go into my local pc world a pc shop and buy an off the shelf cmos battery, or does the cmos battery have to be related to the manufacturer of the pc?

Thanks
Sandisk

 

yeah u can

 

Great, I'll buy one and give it ago, nothing to loose.

Do the cmos batteries be expensive ?