The fan went out on my 3 year old Dimension 8100 Pent 4. After two weeks of calling Dell and begging a replacment, I was finally told this morning the part is no longer made or supported!!

I went to my local Frys to look at fans, but they did not have one with a plug that would fit my motherboard. So, I bought one that directly ties in with my power source. The fan works great, but since the motherboard was bypassed I still get the message "Alert! System fan no detected. Strike F1 to continue, F2 for Setup".

Is there a way I can alter my Bios to stop looking for a fan, so that I can get rid of this alert message everytime I boot my PC?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Is this the fan on the processor, or a fan for the system case? If it is one for the processor, you can get hundreds of suitable aftermarket alternatives from PC component suppliers.

Have you still got the old fan? You should be easily able to cut and join the wires on both to use the old plug on your new fan!

If it IS a processor fan, the last thing you want to do is disable the alarm warning! If it is a case fan, there should be an option in BIOS setup to disable the warning. Look under a 'Power management' heading, a 'PC Health heading or similar in BIOS setup. (I'm unfamiliar with your Dell, but most systems have such a setting)

But basically, I think you've simply shopped in the wrong place! If you've no specialist PC stores nearby, look for online PC components vendors.

If I'm to have the similar problem, i'd rather cut the old wires from the busted fan ang put them on the new one... but yes, as catweazle have said, there are tons of replacements around. I'm sure you can even find used ones, it's just a matter of how and where to find it...

Thank you both for your responses and advice.

This fan is for the processor. The plug receptacle on the processor is smaller than standard, and the female plugs I have found at local Compu USA and Fry's stores do not fit into it. I've been told by employees at both stores that Dell is different from everyone else. I've been keeping an eye out on Ebay for a used one, but so far no luck.

I do still have the old fan, and the idea to splice the old plug to the new fan occured to me...however the wire colors are different. Old Dell fan is black, red, and white...while the new fan is black, red, and yellow. I am ignorant on these matters...can I splice that white wire to the yellow or does the color difference mean different voltage?

Thank again for your help!

Hello,

I think you may have different voltages there, as the BIOS might have two fan speeds, and supply this amount of energy or that amount of energy. I would guess that the black wire is negative (-), and the other two are positive. Without a volt meter, or specific technical documentation, you are stuck.

You might have the idea of checking the power with the computer on, but if you short something, that could sizzle something else. Only proceed if you really know what you are doing with the VOM, and have a steady hand.

Christian

Contact Dell support to be certain if you like, but you can be sure that the 3 wires are:

12v Power
Ground
fanspeed signal

That's not a technical description . I'm np electronics technician, I'm afraid, but that's simply what the wires do. I'd be almost certain that the white wire is for fanspeed. The red and black would be carrying the current, I'd believe.

But like I said, if you want to be certain, contact Dell's support section and ask them. You'd be surprised how helpful the response to a polite request can be at times. I was recently seeking information about adapting a particular processor fan to a front monitor/controller unit of a different brand, and ended up being sent the design reference documents for the product!

I'll follow your advice and contact Dell about the wiring.

Again, much thanks for the input and advice I've received from all of you.

just guessing that your dell is detecting the lack of a fan by an open circuit.. use one or two jumpers and a diode or a led and viola! a closed circuit and no strike f1 crap anymore haha. make sure it doesnt push too much current though or else youll have a structure fire on your hands..

I had the same fan problem with the Dell Dimension 8100 (P4 1.3 GHz) PC (System fan not detected). I bought a DYNEX (Blue LED CASE FAN) from Best Buy for $11.99 and spliced the wires (white,red & black) directly to the original MOBO fan connector. I also added an ADAPTEC PCI-mounted case fan. Now I have the CPU cooling fan and an additional fan to expel hot air from inside the case to out. It's working great. My PC has never performed better and the error message no longer appears!!

Hope this helps!!

Regds,

Siva.

I had the same issue with a Dell Dimension 8400 - the fan drove me nuts! I bought a Zalman quiet fan and realised that there was more to it than this as Dell are a bit individual. After searching for ways to turn off the bios fan error i came up with zilch. It cannot be done.

I eventually realised that I needed to work with the Dell fan. The Zalman quiet fan was shipped with a cable that had a resistor on board to reduce the voltage. I simply added this to the Dell fan red wire to reduce the dell RPM! Silence! My fan is cooling, no errors and I can work in peace!!!

Took me 3 weeks to sort this out and the solution was a 10 minute job!

j :eek: