Simple Questions Simple Answers - Page 551

On July 13 2015 03:31 Craton wrote:
Er, I'm assuming by IDE connectors you mean two cables for power (IDE = ATA, which is the really old HDD cable). Probably you have some combination of the small 3-pin or 4-pin connector or a 4-pin molex. Mostly it's to provide compatibility with multiple systems.

The small 3-pin can only control fan speed by means of changing the voltage provided (less voltage = lower RPM). Too low of voltage and the fan won't spin at all (the range of voltage a fan works with is dependent on the model of fan)
The small 4-pin has PWM which allows for more granular/efficient fan speed control
The molex cable basically has no RPM control, so it runs at 100% speed.

In some systems, fans don't necessarily need to be running all the time. If the temperatures are low enough a fan can simply go idle.

On July 13 2015 03:32 Myrmidon wrote:
It probably has two connectors so you can daisy chain.

The fan is probably getting old, maybe unbalanced or with extra friction somewhere that's making the force insufficient to get it to spin on its own sometimes. Cleaning it and oiling the bearings (assuming it's a cheap sleeve bearing model, which it almost assuredly is) may help. If that doesn't, you may want to replace it. Case fans are usually pieces of junk anyway.

That said, if your motherboard is using voltage control for fan speed regulation on that header, the voltage output may just be lower than what the fan needs to start up. This can be as high as 9 or 10 volts in some nominal 12 volts computer fans; for some others, it's close to 3 volts or so. If there is some setting, if you want the thing to spin, you could just set a higher fan speed. Some motherboards will spin up the fans to max at the start to get them running and then ramp down, for what it's worth.

And as noted above, even if the intent is to have it running, there are situations in which you may not necessarily need the fan active. If temps are fine, then who cares?

On July 14 2015 04:24 Djzapz wrote:
Hey guys, I need a software that'll make a professional looking "double" timeline like this one but less cheesy:



On the top half I'd have the prime ministers and on the bottom half I'd have the mayors of a big city, this would be used to see how they overlap and stuff. Any way to get this done cleanly?

Edit:
This would be even better, it's a screenshot from a website called "Preceden", it costs $30 though x_x.