[SOLVED] Rear fan failure message at boot

[Haole Boy]

Aloha. I'm working on a Dell Optiplex 9010 small form factor machine. Customer reported that during boot he gets a "Rear fan failure" message, with choices to continue, go into BIOS setup, or run diagnostics.

I've ordered and replaced the existing fan, and the error message persists. Found something on the Dell website saying to update the BIOS and if that doesn't work then you need to contact Dell Technical Support. The BOIS update did not fix this problem and the machine is out of warranty (4 years old).

I can feel airflow coming out of the back of the machine (this is the CPU cooling fan). The only other fans that I can see are on the graphics card and on the front of the case and I can see & hear both of them operating. So, it appears that this is a situation where the hardware is working, but whatever senses the fan's operation appears to have failed.

Is there any way to turn off this message? I've looked at every BIOS setting, and also cleared the BIOS log of the error messages. But nothing has worked.

Mahalo,

Harry Z.

 

[red12049]

There is a fan mounted to the underside of hard drive cage. If bad, or unplugged, it will give that message.

Rick

 

[Haole Boy]

There is a fan mounted to the underside of hard drive cage. If bad, or unplugged, it will give that message.

Aloha Rick. Mahalo for the tip, but unfortunately this one doesn't have a fan under the hard drive cage. I think it's due to it being a small form factor case.

 

[Markverhyden]

Don't have one to look at but I seem to remember that you can disable warnings like that in BIOS. At least some models.

 

[Haole Boy]

Thanks Mark, but unfortunately this isn't one of the ones where you can disable the message in BIOS (or at least I can't see the setting that would to this...)

 

[Porthos]

I've ordered and replaced the existing fan

Did you use an "official" Dell fan?

 

[Haole Boy]

Did you use an "official" Dell fan?

Per the eBay listing: "This is a new, Genuine Dell product.". I don't think there is fact-checking on eBay, but the model numbers on the fan are identical to what was in the machine. The fit was perfect, but there was a slight difference in the section that made contact with the CPU chip.

You might not be able to turn off the message but you should still be able to set the BIOS so that it doesn't stop and wait for user input before continuing to boot. That's good enough for government work.

I looked at every setting there is in the BIOS, and could not identify a setting that would bypass this message.

Mahalo to both of you for responding.

 

[Haole Boy]

Latest update... customer is reporting that he no longer is seeing the message! Perhaps I did change something in the BIOS that stopped the message from being issued, or perhaps it's a flaky motherboard. Either way, the customer is happy.

Mahalo to all who responded.

 

[Altster]

Latest update... customer is reporting that he no longer is seeing the message! Perhaps I did change something in the BIOS that stopped the message from being issued, or perhaps it's a flaky motherboard. Either way, the customer is happy.

Mahalo to all who responded.

Consider marking this thread as closed, please?

 

[Haole Boy]

Consider marking this thread as closed, please?

I have marked this thread as "Solved". Is this considered the same thing as "closed"? If not, please give me a link to instructions on how to do this as I could not find instructions on how to to this.

Mahalo,

Harry Z

 

[Altster]

I have marked this thread as "Solved". Is this considered the same thing as "closed"? If not, please give me a link to instructions on how to do this as I could not find instructions on how to to this.

Solved works. And it's probably what I meant.

Thanks