Getting Rid of Fan Failures at Startup

[avsforsberg21]

Wow that's dedication to solve a problem. Splicing and dicing ain't my thing so I will stick to hitting the f1 key. Nice work.

[calzini]

I don't have a XPS but I can help you guys out. I have a DELL 8300 which I modified: Heatsink, case fan, power supply,etc. I wired up an adapter to the motherboard using a Dell fan connector which I obtained from a Dell fan on ebay. Wired this to a connector block then to a standard fan connector(female) and then connected the 3rd party fan to this.
Anyway the important bit is sometimes I get the fan failure message and sometimes I do'nt but it does'nt matter to me anymore because the computer still starts up without pressing F1 even when the message comes up.
HOW ?
GO TO BIOS AND SET "REPORT KEYBOARD ERRORS" TO NO.
Problemo solved(almost)

[devnull]

The fan connectors on the Gen3 are 4-pin. I dont know if thats a positive, negative, ground, tach or what.

[Zefram0911]

where do I buy these 4 pin connectors from the molex on the fan to the 4 pin on the motherboard? can someone give me a link?

[devnull]

Well, if you don't mind chopping up the fans that dell gave you, you can just use those. Otherwise, yes, you will need to adapt the fans to the mobo fan 'socket'. I have been looking around a lot of online retailers for the same plugs that Dell uses. I think I may have found them but can only buy them in quantities of like, 1000. I don't feel like spending 40 bucks on 1000 fan connecters, thats just me though. If someone else has done some research I would greatly appreciate knowing what kind of connecters dell uses and how to get them....

[Zefram0911]

yeah.. that would be awesome!

devnull, maybe we can ask the retailer, if they would sell it to us for a lesser quantity. Have you tried emailing them? If not, I'll even do it. Send me the link to their stuff.

[devnull]

mouser.com is the site of the retailer (Mouser electronics). They would be more than happy to send you their MASSIVE catalogue. I bought some crystals from them once (like a 10 dollar purchase) and they have sent me catalogues for like 4 years.... However, I cant find a link to the product on their site. Ill give the catalogue another lookthrough and give you the number if I can find it


EDIT: KILL ME. I found something so freaking close, but its not quite it. Searching on Mouser.com arduously, I have come up with the conclusion that it is made by Molex (wouldn't ya know?) and its called a 'C-grid shrouded header' connector. Here's a link to the closest thing I could find (which is exactly it, minus one pin). www.molex.com/pdm_docs/sd/015474067_sd.pdf

If any of you guys can find the REAL thing we need, I would really appreciate it.





EDIT2: WHOA. SO I think I finally figured it out. If you go to the molex web page, you can actually search specifically for a connector that you need. We are looking for a 5-pin Positive Latch housing that attaches at a right angle and has a 2.24mm (.100") center. There are a couple of them, but I am going to order 2 of each and tell you how they work.

Get this, the pictures only have 4 pins for a reason. This is because they offer each of these connectors in pin counts of 4 to 24! Still, it confuses me why Dell used a 5pin design when only 4 wires connect to the mobo. Probably to make this as difficult as possible.

HERE is a link to mouser.com's catalog. The part I am looking at is at the top left, a picture is provided. I am buying 10 of the 5 circuit types. All of the dimensions seem to be the same as my fans here. We should see in a few days if they work.... *excited*

[Zefram0911]

man oh man... this would be awesome if it worked. How much did it cost?

[Zefram0911]

speaking of all this fan business... what fans (size and specs) come with my Gen 4?

And what would be a good replacement for them... giving me silence without sacrificing much performance. Would this be a good one (assuming the ones in my Dell are 92mm)? Or are there better ones?

www.pctoys.com/840556054061.html

I'm just not sure it moves enough air for my cpu.

Thanks XPS gurus!

[devnull]

Those fans wont move air like the Nidecs, but then again they wont be even REMOTELY as loud. If you have a fan ON the heatsink (80mm) and then replace the nidecs with these guys, you will likely have a lot of air moving through your system. Also, in my gen3 there is a front fan connector (used for the fan in the black tray on the opening side of the clamshell. Well, I found out that that black box doesnt have an intake or anything, its just a fan in a box. Useless. So I took it out and freed a fan slot. Once I get my connectors in from mouser, I am going to power my front 120mm fan with it.

Zefram -- I think you should make sure you have as much intake as outtake. Just keep that in mind when re-designing your system cooling. I will tell you how the connectors work out. I should get them on thursday at the latest.

[Zefram0911]

So those case fans in my Gen 4 are 80mm?

I know there's two in the back (one exhaust and one intake) and then there's a side one on the clamshell... I just want to be able to replace those three and maybe put in another front one... and keep things quiet without burning up my computer.

So I was just wondering on what kind of fan I should replace them with... and which fan I might want to buy for a front intake. Also.... should I take the cpu shroud off? Will it make lots of noise? Especially, if I put a fan ON the heatsink?

[devnull]

Well, I am assuming that your gen4 is very similar to my gen3. My rear fans are 92mm and the one on the side of the clamshell is 80mm. I have not taken off my cpu shroud because I think that is does something important, and that is to funnel a great deal of the airflow through the fins of the CPU sink. However, I also am confident that I am getting rid of the hot air in my case through other means (AC Silencer). If I didnt have the Silencer I might take the shroud off, that way I know that the heat inside of the case has a way to escape.


I have Vantec Stealth fans (92mm, 120mm) and they are pretty quiet. I hear Nexus makes REALLY quiet fans as well. Both will probably be quite an improvement, even at full blast.

To make sure your CPU-attached fan doesnt make lots of noise, put foam tape around the edges of the fan where it touches the heatsink before using string or zipties to attach it. This will absorb most of the vibration of the fan (and the source of most noise).

[unknowngod430]

look at my modding section on my gen 4 I"ve put in all thermaltake 92MM fans and you can control the speed of them and i have a 120MM in the front .. they're whisper quiet and i have the stock fan mounted to my HS .. it never speeds up and they're temp sensitve... hmm or dont' look at my pics cuz they've disappeared... oh well IM me on aim if you need any help and i'll tell you what i've done and how to do it

[devnull]

SUCCESS!!!


Well, I got the correct connectors. The only thing I wasn't able to get was the metal pins that go inside of the connectors, which is easily remedied with just seating the wires deeper into the casing.

To get these puppies, all you have to do is go to mouser.com and look for the catalog number 538-50-57-9405 to get the 5-pin fan connectors that Dell uses. Totally sweet. They are called HSG 5P Single Row Molex SL Connectors, RoHS Compliant.

here are a few pics to prove it:

[unknowngod430]

so now you can power aftermarket fans from the mobo? given the correct pin config or what exacktly does this do
?

[devnull]

That is it, it allows you to power fans straight off the mobo. Now, given that the mobo just puts out a constant voltage, it should probably be a silent fan (as any other fan running full blast would be as bad as the nidecs). However, it ALSO gives us the option to replace the fans with whatever we want and more gracefully bypass the "no fan error" at startup (why I am using these connectors).

[Zefram0911]

how do you connect the connectors to the fans you buy?

[unknowngod430]

is there any way to use them just as a jumper so i don't get the errors

[devnull]

yep, run a line from your tac and ground off of your fan to one of these connectors, plug it in and you should be good to go.

[unknowngod430]

forgive me but my brain isn't functioning 2day... a diagram would be lovely