P170HM Fans wont turn on

Hi folks,

I noticed my laptop was oddly quiet when I turned it on... and I couldn't hear the two fans running for the CPU and the GPU. So I opened her up, and watched as I turned on the laptop.

As I suspected, with power, the fans did not start running. And I was nervous to wait long, with potential to cause heat damage, but even after about 30 seconds nothing happened.

I tried spinning them to "get them going". They weren't stuck or anything, but just spun down and stopped after my imparted momentum wore out.

So my question is, has anyone had this issue and found a solution? how can I check these bad boys? Any guides for fan power?

Thanks

 

made sure the fans are connected to the mobo via their respective power cables? check the cables themselves if they show any sign of wear n tear.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

I just removed them, and put them back in, thinking along the same lines as you. Nothing particularly out of order when looking.

Still nothing when I power up.

I guess I could get a multimeter and check if power is coming to the fans. Is there any way to test them outside of the laptop?

Additionally, I was thinking, about a month ago I bought one of the laptop trays that sits in your lap and has little fans that blow up. I didn't think about this at the time, but could the fans inside be blowing down... and maybe they burnt out by pushing on each other? I guess that depends which direction the air flows into/out of the laptop

 

Hmmm yeah definitely the cooler could have damaged the motor coil in the fans and burnt it out. Did this occur after you removed the cooler? I gather it would have been difficult to gauge if cpu/gpu fans were operational with external fan cooler going.
You can buy clevo fans on ebay or contact your local clevo reseller. It is an easy fix and last remove external cooler prop up notebook on the rear two stands with some coins and get back to gaming/etc

 

what tron said

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

I looked a little closer and confirmed that the lap fan blows up, and the internal fans suck in. So it shouldnt have been a problem, unless that can also cause a problem?

I am going to try running the fan off a 5V power source to confirm its burnt out before I buy a new one.

Many laptops have a Diagnostic boot option, any idea if our laptops have something like that?

 

The variation in fan speed is what the problem is. By sapping the air flow the motor coil will inherently have to work harder to rotate which inadvertently puts load on the coils and hence too much current flows & bubkas it shorts and failure results. This has probably been accelerated by the proximity of the cooler fans to the clevo fans which are very close to the external case.
Either way get some new ones as these are vital to the health and longevity of your cpu and gpu's.

 

Well, after getting new fans, the CPU fan is working, but the GPU fan is not...

Any suggestions what it could be? Or a way to diagnose?

 

Possibly a faulty a controller. It might be difficult to test voltage to the fan... perhaps you can check with software (although sometimes it's not reported correctly).

 

Any application you would recommend?

Additionally, I used my old fan to plug in, and the wires connected to a multimeter.

This is strange:

I plugged it into the CPU fan that works, and turned it on, the voltage was basically zero to start, then it started jumping around.

I unplugged my GPU and noticed the same on the GPU fan.

Then I plugged the GPU in and it only had zero voltage.

Is there some control of the fan by the GPU? Why would plugging in the GPU cause a zero voltage?

I am going to test these cases one more time and see if I made a mistake myself, and hopefully you can recommend some fan program by the time I come back

 

Okay I pulled an idiot move, but the results are similar. I realized I was on AC setting, so after switching to DC I re-ran my test.

Wihtout the GPU plugged in, I get 5V on the line. When the GPU is plugged in I get 0V on the line.

This makes no sense to me.

 

And Triple confirmed. I figured if my hypothesis was right, I could plug the fan in and it should operate when the GPU was OUT... and I was right. It turned on with the CPU fan.

Once I plugged the GPU back in it stopped operating even as I felt the temperature rising.

 

What gpu you running? Can you recall anything unusual prior to the gpu fan not working aside from outside cooler?

 

Hey,

Interesting updates. As for software, HWinfo has sensors that relay temps and voltages, but again, I wouldn't totally lean on that, especially over hardware testing as you've done thus far.

Yeah, sounds like fault of the controller or the PCB.

 

Okay I ordered some new fans, to see what would happen... and I have no explanation but it works now.

So case closed.