8690 CPU Fan

I recently purchased a barebones 8690 from rjtech and am having an issue with the CPU fan not working correctly.

If the fans hotkey is pressed on, the fan will run at reduced/slow speed.

If the hotkey is turned off, the fan turns off and will not turn back on...

I had some issues with some of the Wondows 7 drivers, but the hotkey utility appeared to install without issue.

Could there be a problem with the bios, or maybe something else that is causing the CPU fan to turn off?

BTW, the video card fan works correctly...

 

If the CPU temperature has not yet reached the threshold for when it needs to turn on, then it will stay off until it does. The temperature threshold for the CPU fan to turn on is 50*C. I suspect that when you are engaging the hotkey, the CPU fan stays at minimum speed and that you run it long enough that the temps fall below 50*C, and when you disengage the hotkey, it takes quite a bit of time for the CPU temps to reach 50*C for the CPU fan to turn on. This is how your CPU fan should operate on this notebook. Monitor your temps and experiment to see whether your CPU fan is indeed failing to turn on at 50*C. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5679418&postcount=4

 

I did monitor the temperatures and it reached 93C and still never turned on.

As soon as I hit the hotkey, the CPU cooled fairly quickly but still operates at around 50C when minimally load which is slightly hotter than the GPU.

 

Wow. Time to send it in.

 

Looks like I might have to...

As far as I can tell, my my CPU is running at reduced speeds due to this issue.

 

You probably need to send it in for the fan issue anyway, but at those temperatures (~50 degrees) the speed shouldn't be affected. I do notice that your Bus Speed seems kind of low, but I don't know enough about where the i7 usually operates at to tell why that might be. The slowdown might just be power saving, if your CPU isn't being loaded. Try running something that'll load your CPU somewhat and see if the speeds come up.

 

ken white. 1.06GHz is your CPU's LFM speed. The utility isn't making it ramp up.

 

My speeds don't change when I load it up. The intel test software is supposed to ramp it up when testing and it doesn't appear to be happening.

Do you think an older version of bios or ec might help? I am running, .11 and .10 respectively...

Maybe I should reinstall my Windows 7 x64 Professional?

 

I actually have a similar issue with my QX9300. I think it's a bug from Intel.

 

Reinstalled Windows 7 x64 Pro with drivers and it did not help...

Tried the older bios and it did not help...

Contacted RJTech and they are going to try and duplicate...

I am stuck...



EDIT: RJTech says I have to send it back...

 

Re-flash the BIOS (even if it's already the newest version)!
Urgent!

 

I did, I went back to 1.05 and then back to 1.11 and had no change...

 

Did you turn the system off after the 1.11, or just restart?

 

Restart and then eventually everything was turned off and tested again - no change...

 

Do you have an access to another CPU that you could test.
It might be that the chip itself is faulty as was mentioned before.

 

I really doubt it is the CPU - everything works OK other than the fan in normal mode.

When I switch between silent mode and normal mode the CPU works correctly, the core speed increases until it gets hot and then it drops backdown to LFM.

The fan will does not turn on even if the computer stays in bios for a while...

 

If it's just the fan itself, it will be an easy fix. But you say the fan is working fine in normal mode... I still feel a BIOS flash problem. Dunno.

 

The fans are controlled by the EC firmware, not the BIOS, try reflashing that.

 

Aren't BIOS thermal tables supposed to control the fans' behavior?

 

Reflashed both when I changed bewteen 1.00.11/10 -> 1.00.05/04 -> 1.00.11/10

The fan does not work in normal mode, only low/silent mode, which also puts my CPU in reduced performance...

I am sending it back on Monday and will post up what RJTech finds out once I get it back...

I just looked at the schematic and it appears the CPU_Fan Sen comes from the EC-IT8502E PWM/Counter/DAC sections, so it is probably a problem with this chip, though firmware makes more sense...

 

Still waiting on an actual update from RJTech, all I get via e-mail is that they are working on it... Not what I expected when I purchased a new box from a good rated Clevo reseller...

 

Finally got an answer, its looks like they are replacing the mother board and will be shipping it back soon...