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Maximus VI Hero fan control alternative?

doomtop
Level 7
I have been receiving Stop errors (C5) on a new install running Windows 7 64-bit and using Driver Verifier points to ASUPIO.SYS.

Removing the Ai Suite III software seems to resolve the problem (I think; it's very intermittent).

However, without Fan Xpert 2 running, my fans spin up way faster than necessary. With Ai Suite III, I am able to run my CPU fan down around 200rpm. Without it, all my fans run 2-3x faster. The difference is audibly noticeable and undesirable for me.

I don't need the Ai Suite III software besides the Fan Xpert 2 for this fan control. When using SpeedFan it can read the speeds, but is unable to control the fans. Is there any alternative that could control the fans on this motherboard? I would rather not wait for SpeedFan to update before I can have a both quiet and stable system.
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8 REPLIES 8

Raja
Level 13
Post up a full parts and config list. Include UEFI version and AI Suite version used.

Hi Raja, sure thing. Do you need specific part numbers, or will this suffice?

The BIOS is version 0711 and Ai Suite III is version 1.00.50.

Motherboard: ASUS Maximus VI Hero
CPU: Intel i7-4770K
Memory: 16GB (8GBx2) Crucial Ballistix DDR3-1600
Video: MSI GTX 760 TF
Hard Drive: Samsung 840 Pro 256GB
Power Supply: Seasonic X-650

Abula
Level 9
Out of all the AISUITE i also use the fanXpert2, personally i think its so good it should be a stand alone software to keep it minimal, maybe a keep the monitoring temps, but i would love if it would be separated from AI SUITE.

Personally i would re install win7, i think maybe something didn't go right with the updates, i just formatted fresh a couple of weeks ago, and running the latest AISuite from asus website with no issues atm, but when i installed win7, i installed all drivers and then let windows installed all the updates, and once no updates were found i installed the AI suite and been perfect.

Now to your problem, i don't know anything besides speedfan to control the fans, if it doesn't allow controlling the fans, the only other suggestion i have for you is use BIOS fan control, as a matter of fact its pretty decent, not as neat as FanXpert2 where you can design the behavior of the fans, but it works pretty well.

For using bios control and to be able to drop them as low as you want, you will need 3 things,

1) Only use the CPU_FAN and CPU_OPT (the latter is not controllable, but posting it as its a mirror).
The bios has 20% restriction on the CPU_FAN header, while for chassis fan headers its 60%, so using only the CPU_FAN header will allow you to drop the fans very low (as long as the fan can).

2) Get PWM fan splitter
Running multiple fans on single motherboard header is not recommended, i only run one or two at the most (prefer not). But there are alternatives that are safe that will allow to connect multiple fans to single motherboard CPU header, this are safe as they draw the power from 4pin molex and just use the 4pin motherboard header for PWM and RPM signals. Here is a some suggestions depending on how many fans you will run.
PWM Female to 4 x PWM Male Computer Case Fan Splitter Power Connector Black Sleeved Adapter Cable
Akasa Flexa FP5 PWM 5-Way Splitter - Smart Fan Cable (AK-CBFA03-45)
Swiftech 8-Way PWM Splitter Box

3) PWM fans and strongly recommended all fans the same.
Get PWM fans that are rated to drop really low and that have a good range of operation. The following have 300-1300rpm range and the bios will drop them to 350 give or take.
Noctua NF-F12 PWM
Noctua NF-S12A PWM
Scythe Slipstream PWM SY1225SL12LM-P (this is cheap and good but almost impossible to get in US atm).
Noctua NF-A14 PWM (140mm for example for Fractal design define R4 or acr midi2).

Just enter the BIOS and go to fan control and enter silent profile and should drop your fans very low as long as you don't have high temps.

Hi Abula, thanks for the suggestions. I did try using the BIOS fan control; however, I was not able to bring the fan speeds as low as with Fan Xpert 2. The BIOS seems to have some minimum limit for fan speed. Just installing Ai Suite III does not drop the fan speeds; I actually have to run the Fan Xpert 2 calibration tool. Once the fans are calibrated in Fan Xpert 2 the CPU fan will drop from like 600-700rpm to 200-250rpm.

I am happy with the functionality of Fan Xpert 2, it's just the driver problem. I'd like a software with more customization for fan speed/heat level intervals, such as like SpeedFan, but would be perfectly happy with the three levels provided in Fan Xpert 2.

If there is no alternative fan control software possible at this time, I will try re-installing my operating system and running all updates, etc. prior to installing Ai Suite III (as you have suggested) or I will try using Windows 8 as well. It's just that I've already setup all my programs and everything; I'd rather not have to redo it all, especially since re-installing may or may not help.

Edit: Oh, and the fans I am using are Noctua PWM fans, although it is not possible for them to be identical. The CPU fan is NF-A15 PWM and the case fans are NF-A14 PWM and NF-S12A PWM. Maybe I am not doing something correctly, because the BIOS will not drop them so low as you mentioned.

My temperatures seem reasonably cool. The motherboard sits around 26-27°C sometimes up to 29°C. The CPU is generally around 31-32°C but can hop as much as into low 40's under load.

doomtop wrote:
Hi Abula, thanks for the suggestions. I did try using the BIOS fan control; however, I was not able to bring the fan speeds as low as with Fan Xpert 2. The BIOS seems to have some minimum limit for fan speed. Just installing Ai Suite III does not drop the fan speeds, I actually have to run the Fan Xpert 2 calibration tool. Once the fans are calibrated in Fan Xpert 2 the CPU fan will drop from like 600-700rpm to 200-250rpm.
As fanXpert2 is a marvelous piece of software, its really one of the main reasons i moved to haswell from sandy bridge (i had only fanxpert1 that couldnt control my 3pin frontal fan). Now returning to your comment, yes the bios fan control is not as great as fanxpert2, as it can overide the bios 20% (cpu header) and 60% (on chasis headers), my current CPU fan is noiseblocker 120mm pwm PLPS, and Noiseblocker desing makes it hard to drop down, they have a rainge of 600-1500 according to spec, but what they dont mention is that the 600 is at 0%, and bios still has a restriction of 20%, but mighty FanXpert2 able to overide this and goes deep down to 0% pwm, amazing. Here is a pic to show you what i mean,



For this is why i recommend you to chose careful the fans if you go this route, the fans that i suggested above have their pwm signal operation from 20%, matching asus bios, so in essence Fanxpert will not drop them much lower than the bios will, around 350 is where the bios will maintain them on silent profile below 40C on the cpu.

doomtop wrote:
If there is no alternative fan control software possible at this time, I will try re-installing my operating system and running all updates, etc. prior to installing Ai Suite III (as you have suggested) or I will try using Windows 8 as well. It's just that I've already setup all my programs and everything; I'd rather not have to redo it all, especially since re-installing may or may not help.
Are all your devices recognized on the device manager? in my case there was a driver that its not on the site that it was on the cd, but i had to manually add it, didnt gave me any issues like you, so might not be related, but just wondering if all your devices are recognized?

I would probably wait for raja, praz and other people that are more knowledgeble than me to see their suggestions, they know their stuff pretty good, maybe they can suggest something less dramatic than reformating.

doomtop wrote:
Oh, and the fans I am using are Noctua PWM fans, although it is not possible for them to be identical. The CPU fan is NF-A15 PWM and the case fans are NF-A14 PWM and NF-S12A PWM. Maybe I am not doing something correctly, because the BIOS will not drop them so low as you mentioned.
Well here you chose very nice PWM fans, all those fans are rated to drop by noctua on PWM to 300rpm,

Noctua NF-F12 PWM 120mm Fan ---> Min. Rotational Speed (PWM) 300 RPM
Noctua NF-S12A PWM 120mm Fan ----> Min. Rotational Speed (PWM) 300 RPM
Noctua NF-A14 PWM 140mm Fan ----> Min. Rotational Speed (PWM) 300 RPM
Noctua NF-A15 PWM 150mm FAN ----> Min. Rotational Speed (PWM) 300 RPM

Since you have good PWM fans already, just test it, go into the bios, go into the fan profiles for the CPU header place silent, and boot up without fanxpert, use anyother monitor tool like hwmonitor and post how are the rpm of your NF-A15, if they are dropping below 400rpm, then you could just get the splitter and connect them all, its only $5-10 to test. All your other fan will not be able to drop as low on chassis fans as there is 60% restriction on bios, but the ones connected to the CPU_FAN header should, so this is more a test to see if you could go the splitter way.

doomtop
Level 7
Hi Abula, thanks for the follow-up.

All of the devices are recognized in Device Manager and do not show any issues; however, originally I did have a "Unknown Device". My system does not have a CD drive, so I downloaded all of the drivers from ASUS website. The device was ACPI/PNP0A0A and from all of the drivers available for this motherboard on ASUS website, there was no driver for this device.

I contacted ASUS support and they gave me a link to a file hosted on DropBox: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mffhuzmtdfbqxmn/AMDA00%20Interface%201.0.530.2013.rar

I installed these drivers and it seemed to be fine. I did think it was little strange ASUS would store official drivers on DropBox though? But the link did come from an ASUS support rep. Is it possible these drivers are related to the issue I am having?

If I could fix the driver issue and use Ai Suite III without intermittently crashing my system, that would obviously be the ideal solution. But I would also be okay with just another software that can run my fans slow when temperatures are low.

I'm not sure why the difference between your results and mine with the BIOS Silent fan mode, but my fans still run around 600rpm for the CPU and 1000rpm for the Chassis fans. With Fan Xpert 2, it's more like around 200-250 for the CPU and 550-650 for the Chassis.

Aakash
Level 8
Hi friends Plz plz reply this question i searched on google but diidn't find any answer about it. So the question is how many of them i can connect in single chassis fan header using Y adapter. I want to connect 2 of them to single port my mobo is maximus vi hero with each port of 1A and 12V. In my opinion it is safe but i want to take advice from a pro.
Thanx in advance
http://www.coolermaster.com/cooling/case-fan/xtraflo-120-blue/

clubfoot
Level 7
The fan specs show .34A for the fan in your link. Based on that I would say two max per splitter/ Y adapter. .68A should leave enough head room.
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