Laptop Fan Not Turning On?

[iiNrG]

Hi,

I recently wiped the Hard Drive on my Dell XPS 15 L502x Laptop in order to sell it.
All has been going well but i've noticed that sometimes the laptop (Now that i've re-installed windows) shuts down from time to time, due to what I believe is overheating. I've noticed that the exhaust fan on the left is not turning on. It never used to do this. Please help.

 

[siddharthmukul007]

fan must have gone kaput, you will need to change the cpu cooler.

 

[Flying-Q]

When you said ...

I recently wiped the Hard Drive on my Dell XPS 15 L502x Laptop in order to sell it.

...did you completely wipe the ENTIRE drive including the factory restore partition?

Also,

(Now that i've re-installed windows)

is this from the restore partition or from a standard windows install disc?

If you installed windows from a standard disc you may not have the correct Dell motherboard drivers which control the fans. The best way to reinstall a Dell is from the restore partition. Failing that you have to ensure you have all the correct Dell drivers, available from Dell's support website.

Another alternative which my wife's Dell laptop suffered is a gunged up fan and heatsink. This caused the laptop to shutdown and when turned back on reported an overheat reason on the bootscreen requiring a press of F2 to continue. The cure in that instance was to partially dismantle the laptop and clean the HSF as well as purchase deeper rubber feet for the laptop to sit on, giving greater airflow under the machine.

 

[siddharthmukul007]

When you said ...

I recently wiped the Hard Drive on my Dell XPS 15 L502x Laptop in order to sell it.

...did you completely wipe the ENTIRE drive including the factory restore partition?

Also,

(Now that i've re-installed windows)

is this from the restore partition or from a standard windows install disc?

If you installed windows from a standard disc you may not have the correct Dell motherboard drivers which control the fans. The best way to reinstall a Dell is from the restore partition. Failing that you have to ensure you have all the correct Dell drivers, available from Dell's support website.

Another alternative which my wife's Dell laptop suffered is a gunged up fan and heatsink. This caused the laptop to shutdown and when turned back on reported an overheat reason on the bootscreen requiring a press of F2 to continue. The cure in that instance was to partially dismantle the laptop and clean the HSF as well as purchase deeper rubber feet for the laptop to sit on, giving greater airflow under the machine.

mobo drivers has nothing to do with fans, fans are controlled via bios. fan functions even if you don't install any drivers. just the way fan functions at POST.

 

[iiNrG]

When you said ...

I recently wiped the Hard Drive on my Dell XPS 15 L502x Laptop in order to sell it.

...did you completely wipe the ENTIRE drive including the factory restore partition?

Also,

(Now that i've re-installed windows)

is this from the restore partition or from a standard windows install disc?

If you installed windows from a standard disc you may not have the correct Dell motherboard drivers which control the fans. The best way to reinstall a Dell is from the restore partition. Failing that you have to ensure you have all the correct Dell drivers, available from Dell's support website.

Another alternative which my wife's Dell laptop suffered is a gunged up fan and heatsink. This caused the laptop to shutdown and when turned back on reported an overheat reason on the bootscreen requiring a press of F2 to continue. The cure in that instance was to partially dismantle the laptop and clean the HSF as well as purchase deeper rubber feet for the laptop to sit on, giving greater airflow under the machine.

I wiped the WHOLE drive, using 'Darick's Boot And Nuke'. I assume there's no way to get the restore partition back? I had a feeling it may be something to do with that, given that it worked fine right up until I wiped it. I re-installed windows using the disc included with my laptop. I also installed a few drivers i.e video card/ wifi controller using the utilities disk also included. I can't see any utilities on the disk that could affect the fan.

 

[siddharthmukul007]

@iiNrG....there is no utility that can switch cpu fan on/off, so you wont be able to find any.

go to the power options of windows power settings, see if the cpu cooling has been changed to passive.

http/imgur.com/3oD8Bed

if not, than its surely your fan that has gone kaput.

 

[Flying-Q]

When you said ...

I recently wiped the Hard Drive on my Dell XPS 15 L502x Laptop in order to sell it.

...did you completely wipe the ENTIRE drive including the factory restore partition?

Also,

(Now that i've re-installed windows)

is this from the restore partition or from a standard windows install disc?

If you installed windows from a standard disc you may not have the correct Dell motherboard drivers which control the fans. The best way to reinstall a Dell is from the restore partition. Failing that you have to ensure you have all the correct Dell drivers, available from Dell's support website.

Another alternative which my wife's Dell laptop suffered is a gunged up fan and heatsink. This caused the laptop to shutdown and when turned back on reported an overheat reason on the bootscreen requiring a press of F2 to continue. The cure in that instance was to partially dismantle the laptop and clean the HSF as well as purchase deeper rubber feet for the laptop to sit on, giving greater airflow under the machine.

mobo drivers has nothing to do with fans, fans are controlled via bios. fan functions even if you don't install any drivers. just the way fan functions at POST.

@siddharthmukul007
If you are going to be so derogatory towards an answer you had better be sure you know what you are talking about. Dell does use drivers specific to its motherboards that control fan speed (yes those drivers interact with BIOS but they run under windows). The intent is to keep the laptop quiet and use as little battery for fans, a balancing act if you will. You have correctly noted in your later post that it may be accessible through power options.

Q

 

[siddharthmukul007]

@Flying-Q.

the cpu fan operates even if you do not have windows installed. using linux all keeps cpu fan operational. as for a driver that can turn off cpu fan completely, i would love to see one.

 

[Flying-Q]

@Flying-Q.

the cpu fan operates even if you do not have windows installed. using linux all keeps cpu fan operational. as for a driver that can turn off cpu fan completely, i would love to see one.

Examine the Dell mobo drivers and you will see one. If the settings are corrupted or otherwise incorrect the driver will happily shut down the fans to the detriment of system functionality. I have seen this in action and fixed it on several occasions. Sadly, each one was slightly different in manifestation so I cannot give a specific fix without having the machine in front of me to examine.

As for using a Linux distro, that would easily determine if this is a software issue or hardware as a possibility I noted in my first post.

As it appears,

1. windows running, fan working
2. hard drive wiped
3. windows re-installed , fan not working

the only significant difference here is software. If it is a pure hardware issue then something else must necessarily have occurred between 1. and 3. The OP gives no indication of this.

Q

 

[siddharthmukul007]

Flying-Q....well you are the expert. if you could just provide the link

 

[iiNrG]

@Flying-Q.

the cpu fan operates even if you do not have windows installed. using linux all keeps cpu fan operational. as for a driver that can turn off cpu fan completely, i would love to see one.

Examine the Dell mobo drivers and you will see one. If the settings are corrupted or otherwise incorrect the driver will happily shut down the fans to the detriment of system functionality. I have seen this in action and fixed it on several occasions. Sadly, each one was slightly different in manifestation so I cannot give a specific fix without having the machine in front of me to examine.

As for using a Linux distro, that would easily determine if this is a software issue or hardware as a possibility I noted in my first post.

As it appears,

1. windows running, fan working
2. hard drive wiped
3. windows re-installed , fan not working

the only significant difference here is software. If it is a pure hardware issue then something else must necessarily have occurred between 1. and 3. The OP gives no indication of this.

Q

I've tried a Linux Distro, it works fine (This was prior to Re-installing windows, but post wiping the disk) The fan issue seemed to occur onwards from after wiping the disk. I've used the Dell included Utilities CD to run a diagnostic on the Fan. Test 1, which consists of testing the fan speed, failed, reading 0RPM throughout the 30 second test. Test 2 is a test, to test the RPM measurements (If that makes sense) and that passed, so the fan was definately off. I got the error code 3700:011B which when googled is recognised as a CPU fan error.

 

[siddharthmukul007]

fan error means you will have to purchase a new cpu cooler.

contact dell customer care.

 

[iiNrG]

fan error means you will have to purchase a new cpu cooler.

contact dell customer care.

I'm pretty sure my warranty is finished, I could get a spare fan off of eBay, would that fix it? I'm worried I buy a new fan and it doesn't solve the problem, incase the real issue is software or drivers

 

[jarotech]

Hi, if you want to be sure that the fan is defective look at the pins 1 and 2 for 5 volts. If you have the voltage, then the fan is your problem, if you have nothing, a driver is the problem.

 

[DumbPeopleAmuzeMe]

.

 

[torq2112]

I also have a Dell Laptop (Vostro 1500) and have had the same problem. Try checking the power options to see if the fan control was changed to passive (mine was after a wipe and re-install). Also try installing SpeedFan, with that program, you can manually control fan speed and force the fan to turn on. If the fan works under SpeedFan (and Linux as yo have mentioned), it is probably a software issue and yo may have to use SpeedFan to manually control the fan.

Speedfan link: http/www.almico.com/speedfan.php
Windows 7 power settings: Go into the Power Settings via the Control Panel and changed the "System Cooling Policy" under "Advanced Power Options." from Passive to Active

Hope that helps!!