I just received my X86 within the last week or two, and I have noticed the exact same thing. I’ve never heard this fan turn on once, and I’ve seen temps up ~185 deg F (85 deg C) using OpenHardwareMonitor. Again I understand that the sensor may not be directly in the CPU that controls the fan, but come on, at some point someone has to acknowledge that there seems to be an issue here…
I ordered my X86 off of Amazon recently, and it was the board only with the 64GB eMMC and windows activated. I also ordered the re_case separately and have the board mounted in it.
I finally just got around to checking the Bios and after finding this forum, I’ve gone ahead and changed the fan control setting to “positive” to see if that makes any difference, although when I was poking around in there, I did find under H/W Monitor that it was reading the temp and said N/A for the fan, so not sure if that is N/A because it wasn’t running or if it is N/A as in it doesn’t recognize that there’s a fan…
I’ve also tried unplugging and plugging the fan pin connector, etc.
I’ll be pretty disappointed if I have to return this board just because the fan isn’t working as I haven’t been able to find anything close to a replacement part, which would be preferable at this point…
Edit: After booting up and BIOS change to “positive” and getting a few programs running and raising the temp, I just heard the fan for the first time around 50 deg C. So happy this was figured out!
This really was the only complaint I’ve had about the computer, so now I’m totally happy.
Thanks for your support for this product, we are recently working on a new BIOS that added the option for always on for the fan, but figured out there were bugs so took it down for more testing, as soon as we finished testing we will release this BIOS again
Good to know this is an issue also for other users.
This makes me believe the FAN is not defective. So this is either a software (EC Controller) issue when applying the correct Voltages or PWM settings, or an actual hardware problem (power/voltage delivery issue?)
An always on option with fixed PWM (max?) is not usefull. We need to get a good implementation on the PWM based on temp.
Guys,
Does your fan shows up in the BIOS when not spinning?
I just got a unit from Euro Amazon and it never spins the CPU, even when ubuntu reports temp of 56 deg.
Setting positive does not change a thing
in BIOS FAN is marked as N/A but it is connected and I can rotate is freely by hand.
I have just received one myself from Amazon UK, I too also have the FAN issue, however it seems its an EC/BIOS tuning issue as the clicking is related to the fan trying to spin up (AKA not having enough power to spin it up).
However it will then come on at full wack for 5 seconds before going back to click click click.
I have noticed on the site that there is an update for the EC and BIOS question is which way do we flash it, BIOS first then EC or EC first then BIOS. the instructions on the site isn’t clear at all.
If that’s the case what are you using to get the CPU temp then?
Reason i ask is because i have turned the fan off and running it with Proxmox. Using lm-sensors it does show the CPU at 48c with just docker running and 67c with Windows VM (Being abused with Prime95) after 30 minutes with the docker VM also running.
Yes，CPU know itself temp, but this info just the CPU used, J4105 do not contain a pin to tell the EC how it is. We place a temp sensor near to the CPU socket, EC adjust the fan speed adjust according this sensor feedback.
