Asus Q-Fan and Fan Xpert not controlling fan speed

[slngsht]

I'm having issues figuring out how to get my CPU fan speed to be moderated by the motherboard's Q-Fan control. I have the options enabled in bios, but the fan runs at 100% all the time. I've also tried to configure Asus Fan Xpert in windows, and Speedfan all seem to not be able to control the speed of this fan. I had no problems with this on my DFI board, so the fan isn't the problem. Hoping someone could shed some light on this. I'm scratching my head at this point.

(please don't suggest using a manual fan controller, I want the motherboard to be on top of it so I don't have to be)

Here's a screenshot of how I have it configured:





(and a side question that should be easy to answer: cpu-z shows 1.34 vcore and AI Suite shows 1.323V, which should I pay attention to?)

[grumpydaddy]

What happens when you enable Q-fan control in bios?

I've always relied on cpu-z s the reliable one, but I have the maximus 1 board.

I recommend because you have a Maximus2 you should post all your questions in that thread unless they are not specific to your board.

[slngsht]

When I enable q-fan, nothing happens. Fan still goes full blast.

Something I was thinking of though, the cpu fan connector has an option for 4-pin connection, but my fan only has 3-pin. could that be the problem?

As for voltages, I guess I should just go with the highest number to play it safe.

[grumpydaddy]

You guessed with 3 pins you have power and rpm monitoring, the 4th pin is pwm (pulse width modulation) which is the way the motherboard controls the speed.

With cpu-z it is worth keeping an eye on the version number it is constantly being updated

[WareTernal]

On my Asus boards Q-fan worked fine with only the 3 pin, but they were AMD boards. I just switched to Intel so the 4 pin threw me off. The aftermarket heatsinks I've had all came with 3-pin connectors.

A guy in another forum said the fourth pin is related to EIST and only for the stock Intel HSF.
"The blue (4th wire) is for the mobo to adjust the speed of the fan for when EIST kicks in and/or temps go up. Basically it works as a fan speed controller but it's only for the Intel Stock Heat-Sin/Fan ONLY. it does not work with any other fan." - Nasgul

Your pictures show a huge OC! Put your settings to stock, turn on SpeedStep and C1E, then
maybe Q-fan will reduce the fan speed.

Q-fan can be annoying when it can't seem to find the right speed and it keeps constantly adjusting the noise level.

[slngsht]

Yeah, My DFI board would control fan speed with 3 pin. It would just change the voltage to the fan.

Even with my overclock at 4ghz all the time, idle, it runs 39c. If I turn on speedstep, and c1e, it still pumps the same amount of voltage to the cpu underclocked as it is overclocked, so i just leave them disabled.

[grumpydaddy]

Maybe this will help you understand 3 and 4 pins

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

Both can be controlled for speed just in different ways

[WareTernal]

Maybe it's time to get that fan controller you've always wanted?

With that nice OC who wants to mess with speedstep right? What I meant was with voltage set to auto to allow speedstep to lower the voltage. When it lowers the multiplier, the voltage should go much lower. I've heard of e8400 going to less than 1 volt.

I see that in your pic the ASUS AI Suite is showing a different CPU voltage than CPUZ. I've never had much luck with the ASUS software, and I dont trust it.

[slngsht]

yeah I quit using the asus software. It's my first asus board and I was thinking it would be better quality software, but the GUI is really awkward and goofy, and I came to find out that the readings were not all that accurate.

I do have a zalman fan controller, but I don't want to have to keep track of temps manually, so that's why I'm in the market for a good PWM fan.

Also, if I set the voltage to auto, the OC goes bad, so that's not an option. Speedstep and c1e worked well on my DFI board because an auto voltage setting could be offset by the option to manually add +% to the auto setting. This board doesn't have that option, which was kind-of strange to me. It's no big deal, I can do without those options enabled. Thanks for the suggestion though.