Computer fan not detected?

I turned off my comp, went over myk's, filmed some shit and ate chinese, came home, turned on my comp, and to my suprise an error message popped up. "No cpu fan detected"

I'm sure gman knows how severe or not this is and what I can do to fix it, even temporarily.

Please help guys, I know some of you are computer geniuses (gman)

I opened my comp, took out the fan, cleaned it off, and put it back. still wont work. I guess I'll have to try to buy a new one tomarrow.

Thanks for the update.

You sure its connected? When I clean my fan I make sure that the tiny white plug is in the right place and that its the right way around... I made some mistakes doing that

Fans are cheap though... I got mine for about £2 and its a nice one.... not taht anyone can see it

Positive, but it's about 4 years old, so it probably just ran too much.

Probably got dust inside it which is preventing it from spinning. You could clean it up but that doesn't extend its shelf life by much when you open a sealed unit. Best bet is to pickup a new one.

I swear you're a genius gman. It spins if I start it off by spinning it with something, but then it makes weird noises. My only problem now is to find one that's the right size.

Haha, I just had the same thing a couple of years ago.

If you need to use the PC pronto, then your best bet is to turn the PC off and unplug it, then unscrew the fan from the heatsink and unplug it. Remove the sticker at the back of the fan and you should see a little plastic washer that clips off, remove this then pull out the fanblades from the actual unit. Clean it out using a dry cloth that doesn't leave any residue, clean the unit also then take some cooking oil, rub some on your finger and rub it around the bearings and copper, then put it back together. It should run fine for a month or so afterwards, but make sure you plug the fan back in before booting the PC and don't use the PC when the fan isn't working.

Thanks dude, that really helps a lot. I'll clean it all out tonight so I can use it until I find a new fan. Dell likes to make it so it's almost impossible to replace parts. Image file not present in the recovered backup

btw, we filmed the intro to your tribute yesterday.

Yeah, Dell hardware can be difficult to find replacements for. But I personally love the modern day Dell server machines, they are fantastic.

And thanks, when will my tribute be ready?

As soon as possible man. Probably a couple of weeks after my computer is working fine. I would be working on it right now, but I left my firewire at home

hard to find dell replacements for A FAN?? they go by size 60, 80 and usually 120mm.....just find somethin close and slap it in, make sure it has a Tach wire..3 wire connector, so that the bios can read the fan speed.

It's hard to find a replacement because I have no idea what size my fan is!

I've got a dell dimension 2300, if you can find a site that says whatever they come with, please do.

take the fan to frys or some place and match it up with a new one.

take the fan in to a computer shop and ask for a fan that size its how I got mine fan

lol :cough: dell :cough: manufactured shit: cough

Dells systems don't come with support for default fans, I know this because I've used a Dell dimension and the components were completely different. Plus, as far as I am aware, Chris' computer is pretty old therefore it could be hard. And the 3 wire connector stuff is standard on all fans, not sure why he'd have to "make sure".




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Yo gman, I'm back, comps fixed, and I finally got a new fan to work.

I have a question though.

My old fan was 3 pin and my new one only has 2 wires, so it runs nonstop and cannot detect temperature. Whenever I turn my computer on, it says, "no cpu fan detected".

My question is, because of this, can anything bad happen to my computer? Could it overheat, or should this fan do the trick. It seems to be a lot faster than my old one, so I doubt it's any danger, but you're the guru, so I'm asking you.

I stand corrected in my statement regarding "almost all fans have 3 pin connectors". As far as "harm" goes, no because your CPU *should* detect when it's getting warmer and put more power into the fan, hence making it spin faster. The cable it's missing does help the CPU though in detecting actual fan speed and outputting the right amount of RPM to the fan motor.

Shouldn't be a problem, it should detect temperature without the middle yellow cable but I doubt any harm will be done as long as the CPU fan is spinning reasonably fast.

Thanks G. It spins a hell of a lot faster than my old one, so it shouldn't have any problem at all.

Probably not reading the CPU temperature so spinning at maximum RPM. Not a problem then dude