GPU fan spinning fast on bootup

[Ciber]

I'm not sure why it's doing it but when I turn on my PC the GPU fan spins at max speed with a blank screen for about 4 seconds before the BIOS boot screen shows and the PC boots up. The card is a GTX960 from my old PC build which I'm using in new ASUS Prime X470 motherboard with a 3600 CPU. If I tinker with the BIOS settings sometimes the card will spin up for a very short time and the PC will boot quickly as it should but it won't stay like that. Sometimes it will get stuck with the GPU fans at max and no display until I press the soft reset or power button, sometimes more than once, then it will boot up.

I don't know any reason why it would do this unless the card has a fault. It didn't do this in the old PC. Is there any way of finding out what it's doing during this fast fan period? Is there a BIOS setting that's possibly wrong? I have most BIOS settings at default or auto.

[kalniel]

It might not be related to the GPU - the fan is spinning at full tilt because the board is getting power but no other instruction/check, ie the POST is taking time before the BIOS loads.

Have you tried updating your BIOS?

Then check all cable seating - it could be a loose SATA even.

Finally if going down the hardware replacement route, I'd have a look at your PSU at least as much as your GPU - modern boards/CPUs have quite finickity low power state requirements.

[Zak33]

Assuming it's out of warranty, you shouldn't be scared of taking off the fan and heatsink and checking that the thermal paste is ok

If you have some spare thermal paste that is...clean it up and re-apply new.

While you're are it.. vacuum that heatsink clean....might be full of dust bunnies

[cptwhite_uk]

It's almoust certainly a POST issue, and nothing wrong with the card. If it bothers you, simply put the PC to sleep instead of shutting down, that would likely resolve the issue.

[Ciber]

It might not be related to the GPU - the fan is spinning at full tilt because the board is getting power but no other instruction/check, ie the POST is taking time before the BIOS loads.

I can't understand why the the BIOS would have a POST problem and then be OK after several seconds. Or why it would boot quickly right after I change some RAM settings and then not boot the next time. It's possible I've adjusted the wrong memory setting and that's the cause but I'm not sure any more which is the main setting to make the RAM the most boot stable.

Have you tried updating your BIOS?

I did get the newest BIOS when I built the PC but that was a couple of months ago so maybe there is a newer one now. Edit: I checked and I'm on the newest BIOS.

Then check all cable seating - it could be a loose SATA even.

Finally if going down the hardware replacement route, I'd have a look at your PSU at least as much as your GPU - modern boards/CPUs have quite finickity low power state requirements.

The PSU is a brand new Seasonic so it should be good. I may need to try taking the motherboard out and re-seat all the cables.

It's almoust certainly a POST issue, and nothing wrong with the card. If it bothers you, simply put the PC to sleep instead of shutting down, that would likely resolve the issue.

I don't like using sleep mode personally. It wasn't bothering me much but it feels like it's getting worse so I want to fix it properly seeing as it's a new PC.

In the past I've counted BIOS beeps to find out if the error was bad RAM or something like that but I haven't worked out how to get a POST code from this motherboard with no PC speaker or display on the board. If there is a hardware fault then why does it boot at all?

[ik9000]

In the past I've counted BIOS beeps to find out if the error was bad RAM or something like that but I haven't worked out how to get a POST code from this motherboard with no PC speaker or display on the board. If there is a hardware fault then why does it boot at all?

I just bought a case speaker as my case didn't come with one either. They're only £2 on amazon (obviously check your mobo has the headers for it):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07P6XMSVF
or this one has a slightly longer cable: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B017LB6CJS

[Ciber]

I just bought a case speaker as my case didn't come with one either. They're only £2 on amazon (obviously check your mobo has the headers for it):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07P6XMSVF
or this one has a slightly longer cable: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B017LB6CJS

Good idea. I'm going to get one.

[kalniel]

I can't understand why the the BIOS would have a POST problem and then be OK after several seconds. Or why it would boot quickly right after I change some RAM settings and then not boot the nest time.

Cold boot problems are legion.

[Ciber]

Cold boot problems are legion.

It's recently started doing it from standby, which is annoying.

[scaryjim]

Added any USB devices recently? I once had to diagnose a 'dead' computer I built for a friend and that turned out to be a new USB wireless adapter she'd bought that was simply refusing to enumerate on POST, and stopped the entire PC booting as a result. I also had a recent windows update fail several times, and after a bit of googling I pulled the receiver for my wireless mouse and it went through no problem. USB device enumeration seems to be able to screw pretty much anything up, randomly...

As others have said, you'd expect the GPU fan to spin quickly when the PC starts booting (you'll probably notice your CPU fan does the same) until the fan profile loads and it settles down on whatever the software/firmware defined curve is. The trick is to work out what's slowing the POST down.

[Ciber]

Added any USB devices recently? I once had to diagnose a 'dead' computer I built for a friend and that turned out to be a new USB wireless adapter she'd bought that was simply refusing to enumerate on POST, and stopped the entire PC booting as a result. I also had a recent windows update fail several times, and after a bit of googling I pulled the receiver for my wireless mouse and it went through no problem. USB device enumeration seems to be able to screw pretty much anything up, randomly...

As others have said, you'd expect the GPU fan to spin quickly when the PC starts booting (you'll probably notice your CPU fan does the same) until the fan profile loads and it settles down on whatever the software/firmware defined curve is. The trick is to work out what's slowing the POST down.

I only have my keyboard and mouse connected to USB. I could try booting without them to see what it boots like.

I bought a little motherboard speaker and fitted it and it only beeps the once after the GPU fan has stopped spinning. I had an idea it was beeping error codes when the fan we spinning but it wasn't!

[Ciber]

So I've the BIOS to 'Load Optimised Defaults' and it booted really fast the first few times but now it's spinning the GPU fan for maybe 1 or 2 second most boots which is not bad, but not ideal. I'm wondering if it's to do with the BIOS fast boot settings. In fact this might have all started when I activated DOCP in the BIOS to set the RAM to it's SPD settings. Otherwise I'm thinking it might have been the memory setting that were making it POST so slowly as that's the main changes I've been making.

I'm still half thinking it could be the graphics card! I'm ready to start buying components if I can work out what might be at fault. Maybe if I get different RAM? While it's not a bad problem I'm happy to pay a couple of hundred to make it go away! What if I just need to buy new SATA cables? The ODD is running on an old cable from my OLD PC and the SATA SSDs are on the cables that came with the mobo. At least reseating all the cables etc might fix a cable problem.

Not sure which way to jump at the moment.

[Mr. Q]

Hi, I'm pretty sure its normal behaviour for a graphics card during post. Mine's does it too for the first few seconds.

There shouldn't be anything wrong with the card, and I'm pretty sure if you swapped it out any other card would do the same thing.

[Jonj1611]

So I've the BIOS to 'Load Optimised Defaults' and it booted really fast the first few times but now it's spinning the GPU fan for maybe 1 or 2 second most boots which is not bad, but not ideal. I'm wondering if it's to do with the BIOS fast boot settings. In fact this might have all started when I activated DOCP in the BIOS to set the RAM to it's SPD settings. Otherwise I'm thinking it might have been the memory setting that were making it POST so slowly as that's the main changes I've been making.

I'm still half thinking it could be the graphics card! I'm ready to start buying components if I can work out what might be at fault. Maybe if I get different RAM? While it's not a bad problem I'm happy to pay a couple of hundred to make it go away! What if I just need to buy new SATA cables? The ODD is running on an old cable from my OLD PC and the SATA SSDs are on the cables that came with the mobo. At least reseating all the cables etc might fix a cable problem.

Not sure which way to jump at the moment.

I'm sure your worrying about nothing, several pc's I have had have done the same thing. You say fault but is there actually a fault? After the PC has started does it run correctly, benchmark correctly? If so don't worry about it.

[Ciber]

I'm sure your worrying about nothing, several pc's I have had have done the same thing. You say fault but is there actually a fault? After the PC has started does it run correctly, benchmark correctly? If so don't worry about it.

Sometimes it doesn't boot at all. That's when I started worrying about it!

[Jonj1611]

Did you completely reset the bios?