How can I *make* a 4-pin mini adapter to plug a Molex or a 3-pin fan into 4850?

[NewbieOneKenobi]

Here's the deal. I've discovered, as we probably all have noticed, that 4850's unstability has something to do with fan control and that 4850 hates foreign fans. Seems to me it goes weird when it thinks it's passive.

With my Accelero S1 rev. 2 and a 12 cm fan, the temps can be as low as 35C in idle and not even close to 50C under load. I don't know why some games crash then, but still. So I thought plugging the fan into 4850's fan slot should help. The driver can then be "satisfied" that it can control rotation speed, so it should help.

Said slot looks like the power slot on an FDD, but the cables go blue-yellow-red-black, so it's different from the red-black-black-yellow of Molex or FDD.

So what do I connect where? Or what else can I do to plug the fan there without blowing up the house?

 

[Alastayr]

Couldn't you just splice the connector and parts of the cable from the original fan with the cable from the new fan? Or maybe with a plug that connects to the new fan, so you don't damage it. Get what I mean?

But honestly, I don't think that's the problem with your crashes. It just seems so implausible. Then again, we're talking ATi here.

 

[kevlar93]

are u sure its the gpu?
have u oc the cpu?

 

[NewbieOneKenobi]

Couldn't you just splice the connector and parts of the cable from the original fan with the cable from the new fan? Or maybe with a plug that connects to the new fan, so you don't damage it. Get what I mean?

But honestly, I don't think that's the problem with your crashes. It just seems so implausible. Then again, we're talking ATi here.

Yeah, I want to cut the plug off the factory fan and put it on one of my spare adapters. That way I won't damage the new fan. If it works, including speed control, I can skip the adapter and connect the cables directly.

The problem is, I don't really know what to do with the cables because their colours differ from what you see on a Molex 4, let alone mini-3. Especially, I don't know what to do with the blue. Plus, two cables on a Molex are of the same colour, here not. Makes me think even if the cables here do correspond with cables there, the colours don't probably mean the same thing in both plugs. Don't want to blow it up. My savings are running low, so I'd rather not have to replace anything.

As for what makes the problem, I don't know, either. Some 4850 work without trouble at all. It may be Gigabyte. I know that overheating is definitely the problem and I know 4850's hate replacement cooling. So I figured maybe it has something to do with being unable to control the fan.

Before I replaced the cooling, I think I never really had a problem as long as there was some speed to increase. Maybe the card thinks it's going in passive and something works wrong? I don't know, but hey, if everything followed the patterns it should, this card would be working fine and all the much more so now than before I replaced the fan. No more ATI for me. I should have known better after owning a 2600XT. With that one I had no choice because it was AGP, but now I did. I simply went for the best fps to dollar on the market in July.

are u sure its the gpu?
have u oc the cpu?

CPU is fine, no OC. Mobo is awful in terms of compatibility and BIOS software. I had flagrant erros until updating the BIOS and the factory BIOS won't even let you install Windows, so BSoD'ed to death you'll be. Looks like I had bad luck with this computer. Next time I'm probably taking an Abit mobo and an nVidia card.

 

[Zuzzz]

If you had errors during a BIOS update why would you think its your video card?? Did I miss something?? Could this be a bad driver issue?? As far as the wires, 2 for power(usually black and red), 1 for the speed sensor, and one for the actual speed control(I think the blue one is the speed control). These are not compatible directly wire for wire to a standard molex plug.

Z

 

[jobrien2001]

To me its obvious your problem is elsewhere, not the video card.

 

[Neuromancer]

I am running the battle axe cooler on mine and have no problems overclocking it

 

[NewbieOneKenobi]

I actually have fewer problems with this card when OC'ed than not (690/1148). This is because there's less stutterring and a brief stutter was sometimes enough to give me trouble.

And yes, I still think it's the graphics card, but not in the sense of hardware. I think the hardware could perhaps be better in terms of some design (power circuits or whatever), but the problem is drivers. What they clash with, I don't know.

By the way, I've finally recalled why I thought putting the fan on the card's own plug for rotation control would do. Basically, before I got an Accelero, the card would indeed create errors when overheating. Before the card hit hundreds, everything was fine. However, these days, with Accelero, I have a nice 38C just after quitting a game. It just doesn't heat up much or hold the heat for long. But I still have some issues. I thought maybe some fan rotation controls could somehow be relevant.

I have one other fan, though, a Thunderblade that comes with rotation control. It has three cables - black, yellow and red, which is like a normal power plug, plus a separate red and black two-pin cord for rotation control (that makes 5 cables total...). I could cut the tips off and wire it into the tips from the original fan instead of making a Molex or three-pin adapter. Any chance with this?

 

[mattgmann]

Check your ram and vrm temps. If they climb too high, the card will be unstable. The problem with most of the aftermarket coolers for the 4800 series is they ignore, or do an inadequate job of cooling the rest of the card, which makes cooling the gpu pointless.

 

[NewbieOneKenobi]

Fortunately, I got nice heatsinks for RAM chips and power circuits. The fan blows upwards (but you probably remember from my previous post) and it has access to air because I've removed the lower PCI lids and the case lid. The latter because it's more silent this way, actually (I hate the metal vibration. I must put some rubber there, like the stuff you put in a car window to hold the glass or something.). Should this be enough? I don't really have the right equipment to measure the temps outside the GPU itself. But I'll see if it doesn't burn my fingers, for sure. Thanks for reminding me.

Hmm... Maybe if I OC the CPU finally, then I'll get a bit more fps and a bit more fluent game, meaning less stuttering and less opportunity for the system to catch a TDR?