New
#61
...So should I worry about the case fans just now? Might it be slow now, and speed up later?
...So should I worry about the case fans just now? Might it be slow now, and speed up later?
I would not worry just yet about the case fans, How about the Power Supply fan, is it spinning good.
I run a lot of my computers with the side panel off while checking & working on them.
Yeah, ignore case fans for the moment. Other than those fans, what are the problems, if any??
As Doc said, leave the side of the case for the time being so you can see and hear what it going on in there.
Have you looked in the BIOS and confirmed that your hard drive and memory are recognized as expected?
What's next, load Windows?
You probably have 3 or 4 different tiny 3 pin or 4 pin connections on the motherboard. They are fan headers. Any working fan connected to these headers should at least spin. Connect 4 pin fans to 4 pin headers.
I"m guessing you don't have a motherboard diagram showing the pin assignments (ground, 12v, sensor, etc) for any of the fan headers.
If a fan does not spin when attached to a particular header, rotate the connector 180 degrees and try again. The connector may have a keyway that prevents you from rotating it however.
Fan speeds can't really be judged accurately until Windows is installed, but they should at least spin without Windows.
Normally, two sticks of RAM should be in the same color slots. If you have 2 blue and 2 black, my guess would be that 2 sticks should go in blue and blue or black and black, but you could have an oddball situation depending on your motherboard.
The CPU fan should be connected to a specific header.
The other case fans can generally be connected to any of the remaining headers.
That's a Molex connector. What's at the other end of it?
Yeahh, leave it.
Most PCs have several flapping in the breeze, unused. If you had a bunch of hard drives or other stuff to connect, you might use them.