Will non-use of motherboard CPU monitoring cause a boot failure?

[forumjoe]

If I ignore the BIOS's monitoring of the CPU temperature and fan revs, and those of the other fans, and instead use a third-party, frontpanel-type fan controller device, will the system fail to boot? It seems to me that this might happen if the BIOS finds at boot-up that the CPU fan revs are apparently zero.

The mobo is a GA-P55-US3L with latest BIOS. In its PC Health Status section, there's monitoring of all four fans and you can either enable or disable a fan fail warning. However, aside from audible warnings, it's not clear whether removing all fan control from the mobo will result in the machine failing to fully boot (through it thinking that the CPU fan has stopped and therefore the CPU will very quickly burn itself up).

[Lsdmeasap]

Nope, that will be fine!  I disable all of mine and run a controller like you mention with water cooling, no warnings, beeps, ect.

[absic]

Nope, that will be fine! 

Ditto.

I also disable these features as a matter of course when putting together a new system, with a fan controller and have done so on both AMD and Intel boards with no problems whatsoever.

[forumjoe]

That's reassuring. Thanks.

What made me a little doubtful about it was that my particular motherboard, and hence BIOS, is fairly basic and might not have the requisite settings for dealing with the situation. The available settings to me are, in fact, only to either enable or disable the Fan Fail Warning on each of the four possible fans. There is fan revs monitoring of course, but there's no mechanism for enabling or disabling it. So, in the end, it seems to me that whether my BIOS will object and flag up an error will depend on whether it will tolerate apparently finding the CPU fan at zero speed whilst at the same time finding that the CPU temperature remains well within normal range.

I've been conversing elsewhere with someone who encountered boot failure (with a completely different brand of motherboard) until he'd disabled fan speed monitoring by the BIOS. So, there are these two quantities being monitored - fan speeds and CPU temperature - and therefore much will depend on whether the particular BIOS puts more emphasis on the one than the other.

[Dark Mantis]

I can assure you that there is no problem with disabling the alarms or fan controls on your motherboard.  The only problem would be that you wouldn't be aware of any sudden rise in temperatures etc. If you have an alternate method of controlling your fans or displaying the temperatures then it will do no harm to use it.

[forumjoe]

Thanks DM,

Yup, I've also been further reassured by the person who encountered a boot error message on his machine. He reckons Fan Fail Warning and the detection of no fan revs are the same in this context, and so I should have no problem. I've now ordered the frontpanel-type fan controller to which I earlier referred.

[Dark Mantis]

Yes generally they are much better and give many more options to the user. I have several and use the Lamptron Touch on this machine as it is very powerful and will run up to 30w per channel so I can happilly run my pumps and everything without any worries. It is also very flexible and is very easy to use. I also have some Phobya controllers that range from a standard four channel basic turn knob style to a more complex 6 channel with more options and power. If you want any info on any of them please just ask.

[forumjoe]

I've now had the new fan speed and temperature-monitoring device in use for about a week and it's all working fine. Disabling those Fan Fail warnings in the BIOS was no problem, it transpired. No sign of any boot-up warning.

The device I'm using is a Scythe Kaze Master II, which slots into a 5.25" frontpanel bay. The Master II is fairly new on the UK market, I think, though Scythe have been producing fan controllers for some years. It has four-channel monitoring and an electro-fluorescent speed-and-temperature display. A nice feature is that each channel's speed control (pot) is retractable, making it flush with the frontpanel when not used. Handy for those with desktop machines that have a door on the front. The only criticism I have of the Kaze Master II is that the display is recessed by 0.5" or so, so you have to stand back, level with it, to see the readings.

I don't push my CPU and generally my thermal requirements aren't tough but using this device has certainly tidied up a lot of my Heath-Robinson alternative controls inside the PC and has now meant that I can finely tailor the speeds of my fans for absolute minimum noise. This can be crucial when tuning for minimum acoustic resonances. Identifying an offending fan is simple - you just turn the frontpanel control to minimum to turn the fan off. The Kaze Master II always gives the fans a kick start when the machine boots up. It has the usual built-in alarm, just in case the CPU temperature runs away, and also a feature for automatically removing the 12v feed to a fan if the fan refuses to turn (preventing burning out of the fan's motor).

Though I've used them, I've mixed feelings about the worth of the temperature sensors, especially since in this context thermocouples are invariably impossible to fit in the ideal places. For the CPU temperature, I'm still going to rely on the figure the BIOS gives me.

Now running inlet and exhaust fans at 630 rpm each and CPU fan at 1000 rpm, the CPU temperature rarely gets above 35 degrees C, as measured by the BIOS. The heatsink temperature, as shown by the Kaze, gets to about 31 degrees C. Inlet and exhaust temperatures are now typically 23 degrees C and 29 degrees C, respectively.

Hope this proves useful to others.

[Lsdmeasap]

Great to hear everything has been going smoothly for you on this!!

Sounds like a nice controller you are using too, how much did it cost?  I agree, rely on the BIOS for CPU temps, or AIDA64 or HWMonitor

[forumjoe]

It cost me £31 (GBP) + VAT@20% + delivery. Not particularly cheap but it seems to work well and looks quite smart. As I say, my only gripe about it is that the display is rather recessed in the frontpanel and so, with the PC standing under the desk at which I sit, you can't read the display by just a casual glance.

BTW, I've left the BIOS to produce an audible alarm if the CPU temperature ever exceeds 60 degrees C. The Kaze has a number of DIP-switch settings and one of them I've set so that the Kaze itself sounds its own alarm if the 'CPU temperature' exceeds 55 degrees C. So, I've covered the CPU from overheating by two separate means. The Kaze sensor (thermocouple), though, isn't really monitoring the actual CPU temperature, it's monitoring the top end of the CPU heatsink I'm using. As it happens, there appears to be, in practise, approximately a 5 degree difference between these two places (steady state conditions). My CPU, or the heatsink, should never approach anything like those temperatures, though.

[Lsdmeasap]

Well it sounds nice, and it get's the job done nicely too, so it's probably well worth the extra $$

If you are an overclocker, you'll want to change that BIOS setting to 70 or 80 actually, 60 is pretty low to have set if you are an overclocker.   Just FYI now so you don't go deaf later playing around

[forumjoe]

No, I'm not an overclocker. Quite the opposite. I do serious work on my PC and have no requirement for the highest processing speeds. I prefer stability and quiet operation to speed.

[Dark Mantis]

I must agree and use the same criterior myself. I do like to have a play around and see what I can get my system but don't normally run at overclocked speeds.

[Lsdmeasap]

Ahh, well than you guys can both enjoy quiet computers!!

I never knew DM!!