Rampage VI Extreme Encore fan speed issue

[jfeiber]

Greetings -
I just did a new build with a Ramage VI Extreme Encore and Be Quiet 802 with Be Quiet Pure Loop.

Problems with getting any control over fan speed. Updated the MOB BIOS to 1004. No matter what I try (PVM/Auto) I cannot get the fan speed slowed down, despite the CPU temp being 32 degrees. When I run fan tuning in Fan Expert 4 pegs the fan speed at the same number from 0-100%. Try tuning from the MOB and same issue. Played with what I thought were obvious settings in BIOS, but nothing will get the fans to vary their speed.

Fans with the cooler are 4 pin PVM, and case fans run through the Quiet Base fan controller with PVM out. Odd thing is fan speed is reported correctly in the BIOS (you can change the case fan speed from a switch, and the BIOS sees the speed change.)

Welcome and ideas or thoughts, little success no matter what I try.

Thanks!

[Super_Gnome]

My thoughts:

1. Are all of your drivers installed if needed?
2. Are you "tuning" from the BIOS?
3. Have you installed AI Suite 2 and/or Armoury Crate? That software is all unnecessary bloatware/garbage. I have three Asus motherboards and no AI Suite 2 / Armoury Crate, and all have AOI coolers--one a Ryujin 360, one a Ryuo240 the other an NZXT Kraken X62. They all run at good speeds with no AI Suite 2 installed and with zero AOI fan speed tinkering from the BIOS. I made no adjustments to AOI fan speeds, but have adjusted and set the case fan speeds per my liking in the BIOS in all three.
4. I had similar issues with a Ryujin 360 initially but after all Windows updates etc. the fan speeds settled down. The same thing happened with the Kraken X62. It was almost as if the systems were auto calibrating the first day or two, but I'm not sure about that.
5. Consider posting a message at Tom's Hardware. That website gets a ton of viewers--way more than this forum, so worth a shot.
6. Consider sending an email to Be Quiet! Maybe they can help. You might try doing that with Asus, but Asus replies and assistance via email typically but not always offer useless advice, so you might try that, but don't expect any reasonable advice or help.
7. You may have connected the fan cables to the wrong headers. I'd review my Asus motherboard manual to make sure I'd connected them correctly. I'm pretty sure your motherboard has a header specifically for AOI coolers and/or CPU coolers. I'd also consult my Be Quiet! manual about where to plug the cables in and very carefully go over it step by step to make sure everything is plugged in correctly in the right healers. I have gotten that wrong the first go.
8. This might not get you anywhere but I have sometimes found watching unboxing videos and related videos on Youtube about my hardware to
clue me in on tips that were helpful, informative, or even corrective--in this case of some problem.

[jfeiber]

Thanks for the quick reply!

It can always be user error, not like I haven't done that before. OTOH I have checked all the cabling to make sure everything is plugged into the right header (plenty of installation videos, and none point out anything special about fan headers.) I can't control the fan speed even from the BIOS, before Windows or all the other S/W gets in the way. Thanks for the pointer to Tom's.

What's odd is I can't even turn down the speed of the Heat Sink fans, and those are on the MOB with no user setup.

[Super_Gnome]

Yeah, it seems to me the first day or so my rigs were pretty much the same. In one case I changed the header from AOI to CPU, I think. But it seems to me that after being really frustrated and then going to bed, I found the speeds to be much better the next day.

Another thing is to make sure you have the latest BIOS. I can easily adjust my fan speeds there but there are a few options. Make sure you have your PVM settings correct. Three pin or four pin and the right settings there make a difference. In my case once I got all my settings good I took pictures so that I had a record.

I'd also use HWMonitor to make sure my temps are all good.

[jfeiber]

More good suggestions.... temps are fine on HWMonitor. Interesting HWMonitor was unable to control any of the fans. Just for fun I plugged a different fan (Corsair) that I know was controllable via PWM into one of the fan headers. Same issues. I am beginning to think there is something about this MOB/BIOS where PWM is either broken or disabled.

[everettfsargent]

I would ditch any use of the Quiet Base fan controller, if it is anything like the Fractal Design Define 7 XL fan controller. The FDD7XL needed to have a 4-pin PWM device (e. g. fan) located in the rightmost fan header, then the eight remaining fan header speeds are controlled by that 1st fan (SATA power connector, 4-pin MB header connector, three 4-pin headers and then six 3-pin headers)). Without that 1st 4-pin PWM, in place, all fans will run at 100%. ... from their tech support (a few days late and many $ short) ...

"The Nexus+ 2 Fan Hub takes the input given to Fan1 (position 3 as you have denoted), and applies that to all fans connected to the fan hub.

Ex. If you have a fan in FAN1 running at 80% all the connected fans will run at 80%."

So, if there is no FAN1 4-pin PWM installed, the eight remaining fans will always run at 100% (e. g. 12V).

I had two issues with the FDD7XL, this was one of those two, both resolved by my own means.

You should only use the Asus 4-pin fan headers and/or the included Asus fan expansion card.

I have eleven 140nm fans all putting out about the same RPM's and nowhere near their maximum RPM setting. I never had to touch the 1004 BIOS settings wrt the fans.

[everettfsargent]

If you have everything going through this ...


... then you will definitely have issues because of this ...

... particularly if you are attaching this initially to a 4-pin PWM MB header. There is no way to send and control the 4th PWM pin through those 3-pin headers. In fact, that controller was never meant for PWM fans as it only has 3-pin headers.

AFAIK to make that fan controller work properly, attach it to a 3-pin MB header using a 3-pin cable (any 4-pin header without the 4th pin attached). That way you would be using analog voltage control instead of the default for 4-pin headers which is Pulse Width Modulation (e. g. PWM or digital voltage control).

If not, then contact someone at their tech support and good luck. Images are cropped here, open them in separate tabs to see all.

[everettfsargent]

But from here and here ...
https://pcper.com/2020/11/silent-base-802-review/
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?297017-be-quiet!-Silent-Base-802

These two review sites suggest setting the four position switch to PWM to let the MB control those 3-pin fan headers via MB PWM (which suggests that there is a digital-to-analog (e. g. D/A) converter on that fan controller to go from 4-pin PWM to 3-pin voltage control).

Anyways, those 802 review sites (there are others) might help with your current R6EE issues ...
https://www.google.com/search?q=be+quiet+802+review&oq=be+quiet+802+review&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i22i30...

[BigJohnny]

aquacomputer and you will never look back. I tried in vain to get the MOBO controller to work, waste of time and IMO the software is sketchy at best.

If you want 4 fan channels
https://shop.aquacomputer.de/product_info.php?products_id=3773


If you want 8 channels
https://shop.aquacomputer.de/product_info.php?products_id=3832&language=en

These are the manufacturer links. They are available through a lot of retailers like Performance PCs and some even on amazon. Runs circles around anything on the market and you can use aquasuite to set up a controller to do all or do them separately. Best fan and pump control solution bar none.

[jfeiber]

When I disconnect all the external fans from the MOBO I can't even get control of the HS FAN, which always runs at max no matter what I did in the BIOS.

BigJohnny - thanks for the suggestion! Ditched the MOBO for fan control, got an Octo, removed all the Asus S/W, a much better solution. Now able to accurately control all the fans. (I replaced the 3 3 pin Be Silent case fans with Corsair 4 pin fans and removed the Be Silent case fan controller.)

One question - the "HS FAN" (heat sink fans) on the MOBO, any suggestions for a target temp? I can't find information anywhere about temp ranges of the heat sink.