Dell Precision 360 Fan Control

Question

Hi, I bought two Dell Precision 360 workstations and installed XP Prof. SP 2 on them. Everything is workig fine, only the fan is runing high all the time. I have no recovery CD from Dell, only installed WinXP with drivers from Dell support: NIC, Audio, Chipset and Video. Everything looks like it should be possible to control the fan speed: Three wires at CPU fan, speed and temperatur sensors on motherboard, but the fan is running high all the time. At office I'm working with a Precision 340, one year older, and it's much more silent, with a controled fan, only running high when CPU is at 100%. Are there any drivers missing from Dell to do this? Thanks Tom

ManyDimensions · Answer

Tom Scherer   No, the fan speed is controlled by the thermal device. My first suspicion would be a loose heat sink or missing thermal paste. The operating system has nothing to do with controlling the CPU cooling fan speed.   Units that ship with no operating system also ship with no recovery Cd's as the manufacturer has no concept what your business plan may include. This is done to minimize the initial purchase price and provide the customer with a flexible option to load the system from a remote server or pick and choose the best operating system for a specific task.   MD

Tom Scherer · Answer

MD,

yes, you are right. I read a lot in the Internet and asked our system management in my office. The fan should be controlled by the hardware and the bios. I downloaded and flashed the newest version A08 from Dell. Unfortunately this changes nothing.

With your suspicion, what is irretating me is the fact, that I have two exactly the same machines and both of them have exactly the same problem. Is this really a hardware problem?

Any ideas?

Tom

Steve Elliott · Answer

Hello Tom,

Has this issue ever been resolved? I have exactly the same problem with a Precision Workstation 360 that I purchased used. It seems like the fan control is stuck on full, because the fan overspeeds immediately on bootup when the power button is first pressed, without any elapsed time for a read of the CPU temperature to occur, much less for it to heat up. I cannot find any hardware problems or any bios controls that effect it.

Please let me know if you've learned anything.

Thanks,

Steve Elliott

Tom Scherer · Answer

Hello Steve,

yes, I solved this issue, the solution is very simple: Just use another fan.

As far as I understood this issue, neither the BIOS nor the MoBo controls the fan speed. The fan controls itself measuring the heat of the air flow with an thermistor and regulates its speed.

Dell assembled a fan DATECH, DS9238-12HBTL-A in my Precision 360. I'm convinced now, this fan is simply loud. I even tried a new one of this model, it created the same noise as the old one!

Now I use a much more quieter one, the model is NMB, 3612KL-04W-B66, 12V, 0.68A. Dell Germany told me, this should be compatible for this workstation. I ordered it at www.impactcomputers.com

Do you too have the fan DATECH, DS9238-12HBTL-A assembeled in your Precision 360?

Tom

Steve Elliott · Answer

Hello Tom,

Thanks for the information. My fan is an NMB 3615KL-04W-B86, so it looks as if someone may have already addressed this issue on my machine. I'll see if I can test some of the electrical resistances and try to tell if the fan's thermistor is still working, or if it has shorted itself somehow. But maybe I should just be glad I never heard the original fan running!

Thanks again for your helpful response.

Steve Elliott

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Dell Precision 360 Fan Control

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