i have a dell 4600 i just bought a fan for it a few weeks ago because the old one was on its way out. i made sure it was like the old fan. but when i turn my computer on at times i get this black screen that says fan failure, but everytime i put my hand behind the computer the fan is going and its not makeing any noises. it tells me to hit f2 to go the utlitlys of my computer, but i see no way of shutting this warning off in the bios of my computer. i look in the log and it says cpu fan failure, which i guess my cpu fan is the case fan because there is a big hinksink on my processor.

thanx

I wouldn't just assume that it "must" be talking about the case fan and not the cpu fan when you get the error message "cpu fan failure". Kind of risky.

It is a tricky problem you have, as it could be anything from faulty sensors, to corrupt software reading the sensors, fans connected to the wrong ports in the mobo, or actual faulty fans.

The thing is, if you DO have a faulty CPU fan, then this is quite dangerous to your system, and you'll want to fix it right away.

Boot up into your bios and take a look at the rpms of your fans. Or better yet, open up your case and take a look at the CPU fan itself. Is it spinning? Is it caked in dust?

Do you have your manual for your motherboard? If not, go to the maker's website and download it. Find out where the CPU fan is supposed to be connected to your motherboard. The connector is usually RIGHT beside the CPU/heatsink.

What about the fan you recently installed. Is it plugged into the motherboard or directly to the PSU? How many rpms is your new fan rated at, and in your bios what is it set to for the alarm? You may have purchased a really low rpm fan (quiet fan) and your motherboard thinks it is malfunctioning.

A lot of questions I know. Hard to diagnose when we can't get our eyes and hands on your system, but hopefully this is a good starting point to help troubleshoot.

Good luck!

Well thats Dell for ya. Thankfully i have run over this on several occasions.

I have had to replace the fans on these bad boys. If you use a fan that does not connect to the MB (if you uses a 4-pin molex connector) in the same fashion, you will get that message. There is no fan failure, its just the mobo assuming there is.

How to get around it? Not sure. If you plug the old fan in the mobo, it will get rid of the message.

But thats not of much use because you dont want to have to keep the old fan in the case.

We have to order the fans through dell, (warranty most the time) for this exact stupid reason.

On a side note. The 4600 series does not have both a system and CPU fan. They use a passive heatsink with some sort of green duct thing to move air to the system fan.

EDIT here is a pic
http://images.pcworld.com/reviews/gr...4-23047_op.jpg

i took the seriel numbers off the fan and got a site that sells them, it has the 3pin connected to the mb with the right wiring (good old dell) but this system only has to last me another few months moving up to a xps 600

Thats odd.

If you plug in the old fan, you dont get the message right?

And doesnt the message say press f1 to contiune?

right i dont get the message and yes i have to hit f1 just about every time i restart, i think sometimes it matters how long the computer is on or what i do like play a game or something

the sensor on the original dell fan is different from your new fan. You'll have to purchase a new one through dell to prevent the error message.

non-dell replacements also voids any warranty and dell makes an effort to prevent this by avoiding non-dell synthesis.