Ok, I've got a problem w/ my fan wiring...

[TheWeaseL]

Ok, here's the story. I have 4 Panaflo 120mm fans, draw just short of 8 watts a piece. Now I hooked all 4 of them through a DPDT switch so I can run them either at 12v, or 7v. 7v is my choice for running day to day since they are much quieter then at 12v in which they turn out around 45dba a piece...So I wire it all up, tape up my connections. Now the switch is off. I turn on the PC, so far so good. Flip the switch to 12v, system dies. Like it has a short. So then I reset everything on my system, power it up, try for 7v, system dies. Now I tried leaving it on 12v, and powering up, just to make sure. Everything would power up for a second then die, but if I would press the power button several times, it would catch and power up, no problems. Then for a while, I could flip the switch all day without a problem. Then it died again when I flipped it. So it doesn't appear to be a short...

I've had this problem before, but it turned out that I had cranked my voltages too high inside the PSU, and after backing them off a bit, everything worked. Is it possible that my psu can't keep up?

It is a sparkle 400 watt, powering:
NF7-S 2.0, has vdd mod, set to 1.9v
1 gig of ram
Barton 2500 @ 217x11.5, vcore set to 2.03 in bios, gives 1.95v actual.
1 40gb HD
1 120gb HD
1 CDRW
1 DVDROM
2x TT SF II's
4x 120mm Panaflo fans
Soundblaster Audigy 2

Right now, I have the fans running @ 7v, and my 12v is at 11.85v, and my 5v is at 5.25v...:/

Any help would be great here...

[CSOFT]

I'd pull it out of the case and rewire it and make sure everything is in working order. If that don't work. get a vantec fan controller or something :D

[TheWeaseL]

Well I'm wondering if maybe the sudden surge from these 4 fans is killing the psu, because we're talking a couple amps that these things throw on...

[CSOFT]

some power supplies don't like a heavy load on the 7V.

I couldn't see 32watts worth of fans doing it, but im not fimilier with sparkle PSU's

[TheWeaseL]

Even at 12v though, I get this same problem with the system dying...

[X-Ecutioner]

have u tried to just use 1 fan?

if it`s ok with one ... 4 maybe too much for ur psu or ur DPDT switch ?

maybe it can`t handle 32watts (dunno, maybe possible??)

i build me a really nice 0-12v fan(or whatever) control (one of those nice ones, which really go from 0 to 12(12.5 for me) and not only 11-11.5)
ran fine for 2 days then 1 of then wires on the poti shorted with the middle one and bang ...fried poti ...


need to get another and it`ll run again ...

hope u find the answer for ur porblem soon

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