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Why does my PC's rear case fan start to cycle high and low when I play certain games? Please help!?
I just bought a PNY 9800 GT 1GB video card and works pretty good. But when I downloaded and played a demo of FEAR 2 my rear case fan started to cycle from low to high at 3 second intervals. It's never done that before and this fan is usually very quiet. Then when I close out the game and after a few minutes the fan then slows down to it's normal speed.
I have added one of those fans that mount in one of the available rear slots and another fan that has a flexible neck mounted to a nearby case screw to blow on the graphics card itself and seems to lower the graphics card temperature from 81C to about 75C during game play.
With no game play at idle is @ 70C.
My computer specs are as follows:
1) HP Pavillion m8200n w/Vista 32 Bit Service Pack 1
2) AMD dual core processor 64 X2 6000+ @ 3.0GHZ
3) 4 GB of RAM
4) Upgraded - 550 Corsair PSU
5) Factory - Multi DVD rewriter drive
6) Added an LG - Super Multi Blu-ray DVD rewriter drive
7) Factory - 500 GB hard drive
8) Factory - TV Tuner card (which is right next to the graphics card & maybe blocking some intake airflow my opinion at least)
9) Added a PNY 9800 GT 1GB video card
10) 1 rear slot case fan underneath TV Tuner card
11) 1 Flex head fan mounted to a near by case screw blowing on the graphics card.
I do realize that the rear case fan is plugged into and controlled by the motherboard. But my main question is why is the motherboard cycling the fan high and low? Is there a component that is overheating and if so what can I do to lower its temperature? Was worried that eventually I can cause some permanent damage to something. I am new to PC gaming so please bare with me.
Would appreciate any kind of tips or advice, and would like to return an answer favor if possible. Thanks!
4 Answers
- 1 decade agoFavorite Answer
It sounds like your computer could be over heating when you play. I wouldn't be to worried about it my laptop does that from time to time depending on the game I'm playing. This is what the fan is for, to cool your system down. If it get's to hot your computer will shut off automatically and this is normal..it does this so it won't fry the hard drive. If you want to be 100% sure then call geek squad or something of the sort and get help from the professionals.
- 1 decade ago
Pull the slot fan out. Blower style fans are noisy compared to a 120mm fan. Your fan will speed up when a set temperature is reached and slow down when it goes below that mark. If PNY has a fan controller program that was included you can change that temp setting. Blocking air flow can raise temperatures too; so the more stuff you have crammed in there can effect it. Otherwise you're just going to have to live with the noise if you have a built-in blower style fan on your card.
Source(s): Increased fan noise doesn't mean your card is overheating. It just means a set temperature has been reached which changes the speed on your fan. Most video cards have programs that allow you to change this temperature. - 1 decade ago
with all that additional hardware you may be over working your factory power supply and and under high demand situations causing it to have a voltage drop make sure that the combined laod of all your fans and drives is less than the out put of your power supply or its possible that the case fan is plugged into the CPU fans socket? (which is usually thermostaticly <~~~ (spelled wrong ) controlled by the temp of the cpu) cycling faster when the cpu gets above a preset limit and slower when it drops back below it. just a couple of possibilities for you to think about and you may be able to adjust the fans temperature settings in the bios (boot options) by hitting F2 or delete during start up
- 1 decade ago
Sounds to me like the game is raising the temperature of your processor, and therefor telling your fan to speed up. Its normal for intensive games. not a big deal.
