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I've been struggling this past week to figure out what's going on with my computer. It's a HP a6430f HP desktop. I'm having problems starting it up and I get a "system fan failed" message. I took it apart and cleaned it. There are three fans......two that I could easily take out and clean....but all three fans are turning so I'm not sure which is the "system" fan. Any input would be appreciated.
Most systems will detect if the cpu fan is not running. They do that to prevent overheating. I haven't seen a system that would not start because one of the case fans wasn't running. But maybe yours does. I think it is most likely your system is complaining about the cpu fan.
In any case they detect fan operation through the 3rd wire that connects a fan. It is the speed sensing wire. It could be that a fan is spinning fine, but the speed signal has failed. First thing to do is pull the small connector off the motherboard and re-seat it. Boot the system after you do that and hope it starts normally. You could of course do this with all of the fan connectors.
On some motherboards you can disable the cpu fan check in the BIOS, but I doubt a system like yours allows that.
the "system" fan is the one that cools the CPU, there are some cases where the rear case fan is the system fan and air is routed over the CPU with a duct.
To the OP, if all fans are spinning you either have a bad fan (not sending a signal as mentioned) or a bad motherboard if a replacement fan doesn't cure the problem.
Most systems will detect if the cpu fan is not running. They do that to prevent overheating. I haven't seen a system that would not start because one of the case fans wasn't running. But maybe yours does. I think it is most likely your system is complaining about the cpu fan.
In any case they detect fan operation through the 3rd wire that connects a fan. It is the speed sensing wire. It could be that a fan is spinning fine, but the speed signal has failed. First thing to do is pull the small connector off the motherboard and re-seat it. Boot the system after you do that and hope it starts normally. You could of course do this with all of the fan connectors.
On some motherboards you can disable the cpu fan check in the BIOS, but I doubt a system like yours allows that.
Lenovo X200s will not start if they detect a fan error. In most cases, simply blowing it out with compressed air or even with a gust of your own breath will fix the issue. I think it seizes up.
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