quick response zalman 5500 cu= problems

I bought this cooler for some neighbors who had overheating problems on their machine. Ive been watercooling so long, ive kinda lost track of all the development for normal heatsinks, but the zalman ones looked nice.

So...
I get it all mounted with the provided speed controller only to find that the rpms get lower and lower untill the fan stops completely and I have to yank out the power cord in a panic. This happens no matter what the setting.

I take off the speed controller, and it only runs at 1400rpm. Temps are at 56c- not much better than before.

The cooler was advertized as 2800rpm normal mode and 1500 rpm in silent mode. I thought that the provided speed controller was supposed to control this (but no dice). Is there another control im just not seeing to put it in normal mode?

Otherwise, is it possible that the motherboard is automatically lowering the rpms?

This is the second cooler ive tried for them, they wont be happy if this one dosent work

response? Pretty please?

Also, if anyone knows a good strategy for removing it, that would be nice too!

My guess is that it is broken.....

What did you use to mount it?

I would probably just buy a decent fan and say screw the fan controller. Might not be much help, but if you get two bad ones, what are teh chances for teh third?

Even my stock athlon fan spins at about 2k rpms. I would just put any fan on there for now untill you can figure out why that one isn't spinnign fast enough.

Well, Im thinkin more and more its the mobo, and their are no other fan jumpers

I suppose I could find one that will run of the 12v.

Ive always been 100% amd, so this is actually my first p4 experience. The thing just snapped on when you pushed it into mounting thing around the cpu.

Thats wierd, zalman makes no mention of the 5500 cooler on their site, even in the discontinued models. I found very few reviews of it, but the ones there were showed poor performance anyway. They do list a 5700 which is the same looking heatsink but with a duct. The main site has a review of the 5700 which ranks very low.

Yeah, you just picked the wrong cooler man, read up and get a good one, ya know from overclockers HS ratings page, read it FIRST, then get one, and it will be your last if you get one toward the top.

Yeah, when i'm looking for a heatsink, i go right to the front page and start pricing them out from the top till i hit one in my price range. I could reccomend a good amd hsf, but i'm not to up on my p4's. I know the slk800 is good though

imo the zalman cnps7000cu is probably the best p4 cooler, out performed my alpha 8942 and my slk800u...its bar none amazing, and silent.

The one obliv mentioned is the best and it is extremely quiet.

Is the stock heatsink too loud?

actually i bought them a cnps 7000, but it wouldnt fit on the stupid mobo.

It ended up being the mobo limiting the fans (stupid sony and their garbage motherboards)

The stock hs was dead silent- but had the cpu at 58c idle

58 idle is ok for p4's tho.. it isnt a heat problem unless u are crashing..