Dell Dimension 4600 (removed chassis fan) how to remove BIOS messages?

[ame540]

Hello!

I have a dimension 4600 that was making a ton of noise because of the rear chassis exhaust fan. Something was wrong with it and it was going as fast as it could go all the time, making my tower way too loud for my office.

I removed this fan and replaced it with two others to provide adequate cooling for the CPU and tower. Now when i boot i get a message from the BIOS as it POSTS saying something to the effect of:

"previous fan failure, press F1 to contiune"

i check BIOS for a option to disable this check but i didnt see any. Is there a way to get my computer to not check for this fan so i can boot to the login prompt of windows XP without having to hit F1 to clear this message?

Thanks!

-Aaron

 

[garebo]

Seems to me there should be somewhere in bios.

If not then perhaps you could simply re-set the bios, Check manual on how to do it but most require you to remove power to the motherboard and power supply, remove battery, move jumper over, leave for a few minutes, put jumper back, put battery back, power back and boot up.
Alternately, you might be able to use the "reset configuration" option in the bios. That may not be the exact wording.


If that fails, you could go to system properties\advanced\startup and recovery and see if there is anything there you could use to get rid of that notification, or possibly check around in computer management. I dont know for sure, mostly throwing ideas around, except that doing the bios re-set may very well do the job for you.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[Wishdiak]

ame540,

I don't know about Dell systems specifically, but on some HP systems I worked on recently, there is an option in BIOS to suppress those messages.

Wishdiak
A+, Network+, Security+, MCSA: Security 2003

http://www.wishdiak.com

 

[G0AOZ]

You say you replaced the noisy fan with two others. Are you linking these two new fans to the same connection point as the original one? The fact that you're getting an error message suggests you're not. Can you link just one of the new fans to the original connection point (probably on the motherboard)? This might prevent the error message from appearing. I'd avoid linking both fans to this connection, as the combined power requirements might now exceed what is available. Also, it might confuse the sensory system.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[garebo]

Good point!


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[ame540]

to clarify, they are just the "splice in" type of fans (that piggyback on the existing molex power connections. so they are not connecting to the motherboard connection that the original 3 pin fan was connected to. (hence i think the messages from the BIOS since nothing is there now).

Ill reset the bios and see if that takes care of the problem.

 

[garebo]

I believe thats along the same lines as what G0AOZ was referring to.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[ame540]

ill see about getting a 3 to 4 pin adaptor for one of the fans and connecting it to where the old one was orignally attached.

thanks for the good idea G0A0Z! ill let ya know how it goes.

 

[G0AOZ]

I'm not entirely sure the 3 to 4 pin adaptor idea will solve the problem...

The point of the 3-pin header on the motherboard is that it allows monitoring of the fan's rpm. In other words, if the fan impellor slows right down or even stops because of dirt, dust, mechanical or electrical failure, the sensor detects this lack of correct rpm and fires off the BIOS alarm. At least one of the replacement fans you're using would need to have a three wire connection, wire colours (from the fan only) are usually Black, Red, Yellow. The first two are 0v and 12v and Yellow is the sensor.

Wire colours on some of these fans can be a little confusing, if they are wrongly compared with the general colour coding of wires from the PSU.

ROGER - G0AOZ.