persegal
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Dell Inspiron 9400 CPU fan replacement
I am helping a friend who is haing problems with a Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop computer. When I got it, Windows would not boot and the numlock and caps light would blink for about 20 seconds followed by the computer turning itself off. I did find ino that pointed to a memory problem. I replaced the memory and Windows will boot now. My concern now is this. When I powered the computer on, I turned it over and noticed there is a grid on that covers a fan that does not turn. I believe that it is the CPU fan. If I blow canned air into the opening, the fan does rotate. Should this fan run any time the computer is on or should it run only as needed? Was this the cause of the memory failure? If the fan should run continuously, what could be wrong with it since I can rotate it manually?
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rindi
Normally fans in notebooks only run when they reach a certain temperature. They also run at different speeds, depending on the heat. It also depends on the processor used. Many cheap notebooks that don't have a CPU built for notebooks will have the fan running at full speed all the time. But Dell uses notebook CPU's.
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ASKER
Thanks for your responses.
I checked the Power Management settings in the BIOS and did not see anything about the CPU temperature. I also brought up the utility partition and ran the diagnostics. They ran error free anthough I did not notice any reference to fans.
Is there a Dell utility for controlling / monitoring the CPU fan and/or temperature monitoring?
The only utility I have found so far is I8KfanGUI from www.diefer.de/I8kfan
It has a the following disclaimer however
Disclaimer:
By using this software you are changing the thermal management of your DELL notebook. This program is not supported by DELL, so any damage caused by this program is not covered by your system's warranty nor by me. YOU'RE USING THIS PROGRAM AT YOUR OWN RISK !
Have you ever used this utility?
I want to make sure everything is working as it should before I give this laptop back to my friend.
Any advice?
I checked the Power Management settings in the BIOS and did not see anything about the CPU temperature. I also brought up the utility partition and ran the diagnostics. They ran error free anthough I did not notice any reference to fans.
Is there a Dell utility for controlling / monitoring the CPU fan and/or temperature monitoring?
The only utility I have found so far is I8KfanGUI from www.diefer.de/I8kfan
It has a the following disclaimer however
Disclaimer:
By using this software you are changing the thermal management of your DELL notebook. This program is not supported by DELL, so any damage caused by this program is not covered by your system's warranty nor by me. YOU'RE USING THIS PROGRAM AT YOUR OWN RISK !
Have you ever used this utility?
I want to make sure everything is working as it should before I give this laptop back to my friend.
Any advice?
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The CPU fan should run at full speed for a few moments during startup. If this does not occur then I would be suspicious of the fan being faulty.
On notebooks that's usually not the case. On Desktop PC's it is.
I have used I8kfangui many times. The warning is for people who want to turn the fan down because they think it's too loud, then they overheat and fry their hardware, if this happens Dell won't be responsible for replacing the hardware even if it was under warranty. If you want to run a test on just fans you have to choose custom test.
ASKER
Thanks for your help. I installed and ran I8kfangui and was able to manually turn on the CPU fan to verify that it is operational. That sure beats taking the laptop apart to replace a part that is working. I hesitated boosting up the CPU temperature with load as I was worried that I might fry something (like the memory). Thanks again