Dimension 8400 fan goes nuts

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Dimension 8400 fan goes nuts

Hello Everyone,

I purchased a Dimension 8400 in the beginning of August.

Yesterday, pressed the on button, the Dell started with
the usual power up. Both CD bays flashed as if they were being detected
by the bios, then the lights went off. Usually, the harddrive light
appears to flash, yesterday it didn't. Instead of going through
the rest of the boot sequence the fan in the back of the computer kick on.

The fan was getting louder and louder blowing so hard I could feel the
air blowing off the back wall in my seat across from the desk.

I've never seen this before. This appears to me to
be a system board problem. Can't access the bios, so
I really feel lost.

I tried turing the Dell off, then waiting 10 minutes. Then
turned the it back on again. Uplugged the power (with of power off)
and tried several hours later and got the same results.

Thought I'd check with the group for answers before I surf the menu
system trying to get tech support.

Thanks,
Max

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

On Mon, 13 Sep 2004 15:06:14 -0400, max_ludz<nospam> wrote:

[snip!]

> Thought I'd check with the group for answers before I surf the menu
> system trying to get tech support.

That is strange. You said you can't get into the BIOS, does this also mean
you can't get to a working desktop? If your machine won't even boot up,
call technical support now and get a new one on the way.

I've had my system opened up and checked out the heatsink over the CPU and
the only fan I saw was the one which was right on the back of the machine.
When running the Dell diagnostics it runs the fan up to 100% for a bit and
wow, did that think make some noise. Now the fan is supposed to rev up as
the heat grows from your CPU so maybe the CPU heatsink was installed wrong
or whatever Dell uses to mate the heatsink and the top of the CPU finally
stopped doing its thing so the CPU is running hotter and hotter.

Honestly, no idea I'm just throwing out some stuff that comes to mind
should that have happened to my 8400.

Good luck getting it fixed and let us know what it turned out to be if Dell
doesn't just send you a new system right away.

Dave
--
You can talk about us, but you can't talk without us!
US Army Signal Corps!!

http://www.geocities.com/davidcasey98

Remove IH8SPAM to reply by email.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"max_ludz<nospam> @lycos.com>" <"max_ludz<nospam> wrote in message
news:10kbrt8f54e3q95@corp.supernews.com...
> Dimension 8400 fan goes nuts
>
> Hello Everyone,
>
> I purchased a Dimension 8400 in the beginning of August.
>
> Yesterday, pressed the on button, the Dell started with
> the usual power up. Both CD bays flashed as if they were being detected
> by the bios, then the lights went off. Usually, the harddrive light
> appears to flash, yesterday it didn't. Instead of going through
> the rest of the boot sequence the fan in the back of the computer kick on.
>
> The fan was getting louder and louder blowing so hard I could feel the
> air blowing off the back wall in my seat across from the desk.
>
> I've never seen this before. This appears to me to
> be a system board problem. Can't access the bios, so
> I really feel lost.
>
> I tried turing the Dell off, then waiting 10 minutes. Then
> turned the it back on again. Uplugged the power (with of power off)
> and tried several hours later and got the same results.
>
> Thought I'd check with the group for answers before I surf the menu system
> trying to get tech support.
>
> Thanks,
> Max
>


Call tech support immediately. I'd suspect the system board as well. As a
preliminary troubleshooting tool, I'd also try powering the system up with
the CPU fan unplugged from the motherboard.

I have seen this model fan cause a no POST situation such as yours on the
8400.

Post back and good luck,

Stew

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Thanks for the input...

Yes, it is the system board!

I called Dell Tech Support Today.

I explained to the support person.
The sequence:

- CDROM lights flash on then off.
- Usually at this point the harddrive light flashes
- Nothing happens with the harddrive then the CPU fan
begins to accelerate to it's maximum speed. Even the
support person was suprised how loud the CPU fan was (he could
hear the fan over phone)...

So his support questions went as followed:

- He ask if the A - B - C - D lights flashed on the back
panel, no lights.

- We the started dissembling the case the unplug the
power to the CPU fan. Power on - Pressed
the ON - nothing happened.

- Plugged the CPU power back on, then removed
the memory, power on - no bios beeps, so the memory
wasn't bad.

- Removed the rest of the cards (video - sound), then
powered up and the same as I first mentioned (CDROM light flash then
CPU fan goes nuts. No post errors.

- The final solution a local PC-OnCall will be contacting
me to install a new system board - CPU and CPU fan.

I hope this resolves the solution...

Thanks for the quick response from David and Stew,
Max_Ludz



max_ludz<nospam> wrote:
> Dimension 8400 fan goes nuts
>
> Hello Everyone,
>
> I purchased a Dimension 8400 in the beginning of August.
>
> Yesterday, pressed the on button, the Dell started with
> the usual power up. Both CD bays flashed as if they were being detected
> by the bios, then the lights went off. Usually, the harddrive light
> appears to flash, yesterday it didn't. Instead of going through
> the rest of the boot sequence the fan in the back of the computer kick on.
>
> The fan was getting louder and louder blowing so hard I could feel the
> air blowing off the back wall in my seat across from the desk.
>
> I've never seen this before. This appears to me to
> be a system board problem. Can't access the bios, so
> I really feel lost.
>
> I tried turing the Dell off, then waiting 10 minutes. Then
> turned the it back on again. Uplugged the power (with of power off)
> and tried several hours later and got the same results.
>
> Thought I'd check with the group for answers before I surf the menu
> system trying to get tech support.
>
> Thanks,
> Max
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Hi Max,
I just got the 8400 the other day. Same situation as you. Tech I
spoke to before I read your post in the newsgroup is only sending CPU
fan and video card. System board was not brought up.
Is your problem solved with replacing the system board? What was
the outcome?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Same thing here, on boot fan goes nuts and no display. Upgraded Bios to
A01, A02 version and problem got worse. It used to do this 50% of the
time now is 100% of the time. If I cut power and boot up second time,
works fine. Called tech support couple weeks ago, and they said it was
corrupt operating system (yeah ok, thats why I don't even see a Bios
screen). So they obviously don't know what's going on. Waiting for
others users to call Dell with same problem and Dell figuring out
what's wrong before I press the issue with Dell tech support. Randy,
Max....Could you please post the results of the CPU and/or motherboard
replacement by Dell, did it solve the problem, thanks.


--
dhsa

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

On Tue, 16 Nov 2004 15:05:02 +0000, dhsa
<dhsa.1ftkka@news.computerbanter.com> wrote:

>
>Same thing here, on boot fan goes nuts and no display. Upgraded Bios to
>A01, A02 version and problem got worse. It used to do this 50% of the
>time now is 100% of the time. If I cut power and boot up second time,
>works fine. Called tech support couple weeks ago, and they said it was
>corrupt operating system (yeah ok, thats why I don't even see a Bios
>screen). So they obviously don't know what's going on. Waiting for
>others users to call Dell with same problem and Dell figuring out
>what's wrong before I press the issue with Dell tech support. Randy,
>Max....Could you please post the results of the CPU and/or motherboard
>replacement by Dell, did it solve the problem, thanks.

You'll have to replace the heatsink, not the mainboard or cpu.
Wellknown problem The pipes are leaking the cooling-liquid and
doesnt work anymore.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

>The fan was getting louder and louder blowing so hard I could feel the
>air blowing off the back wall in my seat across from the desk.

Defective CPU due to broken heatsink.

 

[john]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"S.Lewis" <stew1960@cover.bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:S%Jmd.32691$z3.20035@bignews5.bellsouth.net...
> An 8400 owner has said that a new flashBIOS version (A03) on the Dell
> website addressed his fan problems.


A03 made no difference to me. Still a leaf blower.

I'm waiting for Dell to get back to me.



Has anyone any experience of shipping PCs to Dell? What I'm really
interested in is if it's OK to remove the HDD beforehand.

I don't have onsite (and don't want it really) service.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Installed Bios update A03, seems to have solved it. I also messed with
Bios settings regarding power conservation, to conserve less power in
all settings. Don't know which change affected fan problems. If you
look at Bios revisions A03 had, number 9 is "Improved fan diagnostics
interface", seems to be what the problem is. My guess is Bios checks
fan to see if it's working. There is an error in diagnostic code and
fan goes nuts. Bios sees this as a fan failure and stops boot. One
thing is clear, Dell has no clue what the problem is, they're just
shooting blind. I had the same problem with my Dell laptop monitor not
shutting off when lid was closed. They tried everything, including
motherboard change, did not solve it. So I gave up calling and sending
my PC to them. In the end, a bios upgrade and a new version of windows
fixed it.

John, I sent my laptop to them for the above problem a year ago. You
can, and they insist, that you remove the hard disk drive. They will
not assume responsibilty for information on your hard drive.


--
dhsa

 

[john]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"dhsa" <dhsa.1g1r0t@news.computerbanter.com> wrote in message
news:dhsa.1g1r0t@news.computerbanter.com...
> John, I sent my laptop to them for the above problem a year ago. You
> can, and they insist, that you remove the hard disk drive. They will
> not assume responsibilty for information on your hard drive.

Thanks

Yeah, Dell emailed and have confirmed I may remove it.

 

[Tellme]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

It is a heat sink problem. There are many articles on the net
regarding this.
Dell techs are for the most part great but then... I just got one
regarding my Cd-rwdvd writer and he didn't have a clue there were any
problems with them. I told him go read the Dell forum then get back to
me after he got some education.



>
>Installed Bios update A03, seems to have solved it. I also messed with
>Bios settings regarding power conservation, to conserve less power in
>all settings. Don't know which change affected fan problems. If you
>look at Bios revisions A03 had, number 9 is "Improved fan diagnostics
>interface", seems to be what the problem is. My guess is Bios checks
>fan to see if it's working. There is an error in diagnostic code and
>fan goes nuts. Bios sees this as a fan failure and stops boot. One
>thing is clear, Dell has no clue what the problem is, they're just
>shooting blind. I had the same problem with my Dell laptop monitor not
>shutting off when lid was closed. They tried everything, including
>motherboard change, did not solve it. So I gave up calling and sending
>my PC to them. In the end, a bios upgrade and a new version of windows
>fixed it.
>
>John, I sent my laptop to them for the above problem a year ago. You
>can, and they insist, that you remove the hard disk drive. They will
>not assume responsibilty for information on your hard drive.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Heat sink problem? Could you post the links to the articles your
referring to. If it's indeed a heat sink problem, then why doesn't the
computer act up during normal use?


--
dhsa

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Just got hit again with the leafblower, back to square one. Thanks
Tellme, just figured out Dell has a forum, pretty useless though. Their
search is awfull, and Dell forums don't show up on google. Besides there
is no thread on 8400 fan going nuts, will start one myself. I agree that
Dell tech support should be given a basic education on computers, rather
than put in front of a telephone with a checklist. And they probably
don't keep track of people who called with the same problem. I'm sure I
wasn't the only person to have called them about the 8400 fan, but they
still claim of never hearing the problem.


--
dhsa

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

It seems to be the power conservation settings in the BIOS. I keep
getting fanblower with conserver power settings, fine with don't
conserve power settings. Set all the power conservation setting in BIOS
to not conserve power. There are two settings that you have to change.
I'm using A03 version of BIOS. Please reply if this has fixed your
problem. Thanks


--
dhsa

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"dhsa" <dhsa.1glcka@news.computerbanter.com> wrote in message
news:dhsa.1glcka@news.computerbanter.com...
>
> It seems to be the power conservation settings in the BIOS. I keep
> getting fanblower with conserver power settings, fine with don't
> conserve power settings. Set all the power conservation setting in BIOS
> to not conserve power. There are two settings that you have to change.
> I'm using A03 version of BIOS. Please reply if this has fixed your
> problem. Thanks
>
>
> --
> dhsa



Interesting information. Let's hope others can confirm. Thanks for
posting.


Stew

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

The settings are located in Power Management section of BIOS.
Use following settings

-Low Power Mode=OFF
-Suspend Mode=S1

Go through 2 startup and shutdown procedures, problem should be fixed.
Haven't had a leafblower since I have made these settings (knock on
wood). Hope everyone has the same success. If your having leafblower
problems, what were the above settings you had in your BIOS.


--
dhsa

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

2 weeks straight since BIOS settings !!!, not one leafblower, hope
everyone else is having the same results


--
dhsa

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

max_ludz Wrote:
> Thanks for the input...
>
> Yes, it is the system board!
>
> I called Dell Tech Support Today.
>
> I explained to the support person.
> The sequence:
>
> - CDROM lights flash on then off.
> - Usually at this point the harddrive light flashes
> - Nothing happens with the harddrive then the CPU fan
> begins to accelerate to it's maximum speed. Even the
> support person was suprised how loud the CPU fan was (he could
> hear the fan over phone)...
>
> So his support questions went as followed:
>
> - He ask if the A - B - C - D lights flashed on the back
> panel, no lights.
>
> - We the started dissembling the case the unplug the
> power to the CPU fan. Power on - Pressed
> the ON - nothing happened.
>
> - Plugged the CPU power back on, then removed
> the memory, power on - no bios beeps, so the memory
> wasn't bad.
>
> - Removed the rest of the cards (video - sound), then
> powered up and the same as I first mentioned (CDROM light flash then
> CPU fan goes nuts. No post errors.
>
> - The final solution a local PC-OnCall will be contacting
> me to install a new system board - CPU and CPU fan.
>
> I hope this resolves the solution...
>
> Thanks for the quick response from David and Stew,
> Max_Ludz
>
>
>
> max_ludznospam wrote:-
> Dimension 8400 fan goes nuts
>
> Hello Everyone,
>
> I purchased a Dimension 8400 in the beginning of August.
>
> Yesterday, pressed the on button, the Dell started with
> the usual power up. Both CD bays flashed as if they were being
> detected
> by the bios, then the lights went off. Usually, the harddrive light
> appears to flash, yesterday it didn't. Instead of going through
> the rest of the boot sequence the fan in the back of the computer kick
> on.
>
> The fan was getting louder and louder blowing so hard I could feel
> the
> air blowing off the back wall in my seat across from the desk.
>
> I've never seen this before. This appears to me to
> be a system board problem. Can't access the bios, so
> I really feel lost.
>
> I tried turing the Dell off, then waiting 10 minutes. Then
> turned the it back on again. Uplugged the power (with of power off)
> and tried several hours later and got the same results.
>
> Thought I'd check with the group for answers before I surf the menu
> system trying to get tech support.
>
> Thanks,
> Max
> -Hello, it will be a two part fix cpu and heatsink! I have 8400 3.0ghz
cpu fan would run at top speed. like a leaf blower. tech surport threw
a motherboard,fan, powersupply at it with no change. after 4/5 times
with onsite tech we tried a new cpu with new heatsink. problem went
away. Good Luck Hope This Helps!!!


--
the fudds

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

My leafblower problem is intermittent at startup only, altough I have
only got 1 leafblower since my BIOS changes. Only on boot do I have a
leafblower problem, if I do, I shutdown and reboot and problem goes
away. Have you changed you BIOS power conservation modes prior to your
fan problems?


--
dhsa

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"dhsa" <dhsa.1hop8d@news.computerbanter.com> wrote in message
news:dhsa.1hop8d@news.computerbanter.com...
>
> My leafblower problem is intermittent at startup only, altough I have
> only got 1 leafblower since my BIOS changes. Only on boot do I have a
> leafblower problem, if I do, I shutdown and reboot and problem goes
> away. Have you changed you BIOS power conservation modes prior to your
> fan problems?
>
>
> --
> dhsa


Looks like these problems have been addressed through various methods.

1) BIOS flash

2) BIOS power management settings

3) Fan replacement

4) DDR2/DIMM replacements

As I read here and bounce over to the Dell Forums, I continue to watch for
what others find as solutions....


Stew

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

dhsa,
Just a thought, you don't have a cd in the computer when you boot up do
you? My 8400 makes a racket when I boot up with one in there. Rather quiet
otherwise.
Paul

"dhsa" <dhsa.1hop8d@news.computerbanter.com> wrote in message
news:dhsa.1hop8d@news.computerbanter.com...
>
> My leafblower problem is intermittent at startup only, altough I have
> only got 1 leafblower since my BIOS changes. Only on boot do I have a
> leafblower problem, if I do, I shutdown and reboot and problem goes
> away. Have you changed you BIOS power conservation modes prior to your
> fan problems?
>
>
> --
> dhsa

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

I've also been having very loud fan problems with my Dell Dimension 8400 I
bought a few months ago.

PC Specs: P4 3.4 800 fsb (model 550, LGA 775 Prescott), 3 GBs of RAM, ATI
x800 XT 256 mb, 2x74GBs HD 10,000 RPM RAID 0, etc...

Except for the extremely loud fan (Delta AFC0912DE), the system's
performance is amazing and I'm very happy with that. I've looked
everywhere on the net and I realized there is a lot of other people facing
the same problem. So I think I tried all the suggestions to fix the loud
fan problem.

One of the first things I thought was changing the Delta fan for a quieter
one because after all, Deltas are very famous for 2 things: their
extremely high air flow and off course their noise! Trust me there are
loads of both… However the Dell mother-board has this unique 4 pin
connector which is not compatible with any decent silent fan.

Some people managed to solve the problem by updating the bios with the new
A03 version (available from dell online support website) and also by
changing a few power management settings on it. You can check out some
posts on this solution of this forum:
http://www.talkaboutcomputing.com/group/alt.sys.pc-clone.dell/messages/279431.html

Unfortunately, none of those solutions worked for me. So then tried the
limiting resistor solution proposed by someone in a forum. I tried several
different values (from 1 Ohm to 100 Ohm) connected to the red wire of the
4 pin Delta fan. For instance, with a 56 Ohm the fan would not spin at all
and anything lower than 11 ohms would make a lot of noise, so I after a
few test I went for a 22 Ohm.

The system became nice and quiet however I started noticing it was running
really hot (touching the heat-sink could fry my hand!). I could tell the
cooling system wasn’t doing its job properly. Concerned with stability
issues and the overall lifespan of the system, I've realized that the
limiting resistor was not the answer so I decided to go the whole nine
yards and replace the whole cooling system.

So I started looking for quiet cooling solutions for the LG 775. I didn’t
want to go for water cooling since a proper kit that would actually be
silent would cost at least £150. After a few days researching, several
reviews, forums, etc, I’ve decided to go for the huge Zalman CNPS7700-Cu
heat-sink. This heat-sink had excellent reviews and besides it's huge
size, heavy weight (almost 1 Kg of copper), and motherboard compatibility
issues, it's the best heat-sink to cool the hot Pentium 4 socket T
processors (LGA 775 Prescott) silently!

However I haven’t heard of anyone attempting to fit this monster into a
Dimension 8400... It sounded like a crazy thing to do and I knew there
would be no easy plug and play here but it had to be done. I measured my
mother board and the interior of the case and everything seemed to be
compatible. The dimension 8400 could take the huge Zalman 7700 Cu. So I
ordered one which came up to £39.01 including next day shipping from
www.tekheads.co.uk.

Once again there were some nasty surprises whilst installing the beast.
Since Dell always try to do things a bit different, as soon as I removed
my original Dell heat-sink, I realized that none of the fixing sockets
that came with Zalman would fit the mother-board. Basically, Dell has
drilled wholes in different places than the rest of the world!

It all seemed to be the end but I wouldn’t just give it up so easy... I
have watched enough Macgyver to know that there's always a way

Below is link to a little guide with photos, etc of how I got the Zalman
CNPS7700-CU to work with Dimension 8400 and also the achieved results,
etc.

http://www.lecodesign.co.uk/zalman/index.html

I hope this is is useful.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Cool post.
Placing a resistor into the fan electrical wires is probably very bad.
What you're doing is lowering the electricity supplied to the fan,
therefore the fan will always run below the recommeded speed. I think
the Dell 8400 fan is heat controlled, so as your cpu heats up the fan
gets faster, but since there is a resistor in the line, the fan speed
will never be fast enough to cool the cpu. A good way to fry your CPU.


The more I think about the fan problem, the more I'm convinced that
it's a fan/heat-sink problem. I'll bet that if you removed the fan on
boot-hanged system, it would boot normally. I don't know how the power
conservation settings that I have recommended works into the equation.
But since no one has verified that my power conservation settings has
worked for them, the problem is probably something else rather than
just the BIOS settings.


--
dhsa

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Do we have an official Dell response to this problem. What is the
official cause? We've had all kinds of posts saying heat sink, cpu,
etc. Do we all agree on one common cause? or is it still up in the air?


--
dhsa