Volcano 7+ odd wires question

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LRW

OK, so I have a Thermaltake VOlcano 7+ I got recently.
Now, in addition to the variable speed switch between the fan and the HD
power plug, there are two odd wires I don't quite get, aren't described in
the sheet of paper that came with the fan, and I can't find explained on the
Web.

One comes out from the fan, I believe has a white three-hole clip, and the
other comes from the speed switch and has a brown three-hole clip.

Now, obviously the fit on the three pin plug on the motherboard for "CPU
fan". But...why two of them?

When I have the one from the switch plugged in, all three speeds of the
switch works, although the BIOS can't detect the fan speed.
When I have the one from the fan plugged in, only the highest speed works,
but the BIOS detects the fan speed just fine.

So, what's up here? Unfortunately I have only one place on my mobo for CPU
fan or I'd try them both at the same time.

Thanks for any clues, including simply a URL to someplace that might
describe what they are/do.
Thanks,
Liam
 
LRW said:
Thanks, but unfortunately, unless I'm completely missing it, I don't see an
explanation for these two plugs on that page:
http://www.overclockercafe.com/Reviews/Tt_Volcano7+/1017.html

(Odd, I'll have to open the case to make sure, but I could have sworn on
mine BOTH of those plugs had only one wire each.)
Click to expand...

I was right the 1st time: there's a single yellow wire coming from the fan
with a white three-pin plug, and a single yellow wire coming from the switch
with a brown three-pin plug.

Here's a new development I'm not liking so much...with the brown plug coming
from the switch on the mobo, on the medium speed the fan will stop running
after 30 seconds. If I play with the switch some, it'll start up again.

Bad part perhaps? Come to think of it...that hasn't started happening until
I got the new PSU. Weird....
On the highest speed it stays on just fine (but man is it LOUD!)

Well, thanks for any feedback!
Liam
 
LRW said:
"LRW" <[email protected]> wrote in message
Click to expand...
Here's a new development I'm not liking so much...with the brown plug coming
from the switch on the mobo, on the medium speed the fan will stop running
after 30 seconds. If I play with the switch some, it'll start up again.
Click to expand...

And the winner for most replies to one's self goes to...

Looks like there's nothing sinister about the fan stopping issue. Seems when
it's in medium, which is at one far end of the switch, it works fine if you
press the switch hard all the way, but it eventually moves a micrometer off
the spot and it stops working. It comes back on again if you press hard in
the direction again. I guess the switch is off center in the shell or
something. Dunno what I can do about that...except exchange it.
Sorry to bother.

But the question regarding the two single wires still stands. =)
 
LRW said:
"LRW" <[email protected]> wrote in message
Click to expand...
Here's a new development I'm not liking so much...with the brown plug coming
from the switch on the mobo, on the medium speed the fan will stop running
after 30 seconds. If I play with the switch some, it'll start up again.
Click to expand...

And the winner for most replies to one's self goes to...

Looks like there's nothing sinister about the fan stopping issue. Seems when
it's in medium, which is at one far end of the switch, it works fine if you
press the switch hard all the way, but it eventually moves a micrometer off
the spot and it stops working. It comes back on again if you press hard in
the direction again. I guess the switch is off center in the shell or
something. Dunno what I can do about that...except exchange it.
Sorry to bother.

But the question regarding the two single wires still stands. =)
 
LRW said:
OK, so I have a Thermaltake VOlcano 7+ I got recently.
Now, in addition to the variable speed switch between the fan and the
HD power plug, there are two odd wires I don't quite get, aren't
described in the sheet of paper that came with the fan, and I can't
find explained on the Web.

One comes out from the fan, I believe has a white three-hole clip,
and the other comes from the speed switch and has a brown three-hole
clip.

Now, obviously the fit on the three pin plug on the motherboard for
"CPU fan". But...why two of them?
Click to expand...

The fan-switch that comes with the V7+ is a generic switch that will work
with any 3-pin fan. So since most 3-pin fans don't have the power and pulse
leads split to two plugs, the switch needs to do the splitting. So the
single-wire plug from the switch would usually go to the fan monitoring plug
on the motherboard.

The V7+ fan, however, has two separate plugs, one for power (two wires) and
the other for RPM monitoring (one wire). Usually these are combined into a
single 3-wire cable, but because some PSU->3-pin adapters don't handle the
RPM wire (and given that the V7+ will probably burn out your motherboard if
you plug it directly into there), the designers put in the additional plug.
So now the fan's single-wire plug goes to the motherboard, and the switch's
single-wire plug goes out of the way somewhere, unused.

[...]
 
The fan-switch that comes with the V7+ is a generic switch that will work
with any 3-pin fan. So since most 3-pin fans don't have the power and pulse
leads split to two plugs, the switch needs to do the splitting. So the
single-wire plug from the switch would usually go to the fan monitoring plug
on the motherboard.

The V7+ fan, however, has two separate plugs, one for power (two wires) and
the other for RPM monitoring (one wire). Usually these are combined into a
single 3-wire cable, but because some PSU->3-pin adapters don't handle the
RPM wire (and given that the V7+ will probably burn out your motherboard if
you plug it directly into there), the designers put in the additional plug.
So now the fan's single-wire plug goes to the motherboard, and the switch's
single-wire plug goes out of the way somewhere, unused.
Click to expand...

Well, thank you! That's a great explanation and answers my question
perfectly. =) Thanks!
Liam
 
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