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The (Processor Fan) fan failed to respond correctly
Hey Dell Community,
I am facing an issue related to "Processor fan is not responding" since yesterday. So, last afternoon I just opened (Means, I didn't shut it off instead I put it on Suspend on the night day before yesterday) my system and downloaded the discord new version and it suddenly started heating a lot. Later I switched it off for couple of seconds and opened again, the laptop directly booted up to the Diagnostic mode and there it detected one or more errors but it only displayed the "Processor fan failed to respond correctly" Error.
I have also read the previous post on this community and blogs which are dedicated specifically to this issue, and sadly nothing worked for me, but there were some suggestions to keep the system off for an entire night or at most for 6-7hours. I tried this technique also but still, nothing solved the issue. Although many people have suggested replacing the old fan with a new one, so just want to know if there are any alternates to this solution on the software level
What I've tried:
1. BIOS and Firmware upgrade.
1.1 Via BIOS flash update (This worked for me)
1.2 Via `fwudp` Linux CLI tool (This tool didn't even show any updates related to firmware)
2. Installing the `tlp` command-line tool for battery performance and helps in reducing the overheating problem.
3. Kept the laptop off for the entire night.
4. Cleaning the laptop areas (vents) to remove dust or any particle that might become an obstacle.
What I haven't tried:
1. Update/Upgrade the system (I am not sure about this as because the heating problem always present and upgrading an entire distro takes a bit of time, but might be if there's any package that could solve this issue, then it's worth noticing "upgrade" as a good option, on Linux some problems have been solved by doing a simple upgrade)
The fourth point has turned the pages for me only for few times. For instance, whenever I open my laptop after cleaning the vents, then it works normally without excessive heating problems that results in decreasing the performance of the laptop, eventually automatic shutdown.
So, as I said above, if I open my laptop after cleaning vents, then it works nicely and the main point of consideration here is - the system load doesn't exceed the default load percentage set on my system i.e., 3.0%
The problem is, right now the system load exceeds the default number and I have only one tab opened in the brave brower, and one konsole (KDE Terminal Application).
I've also seen situations since yesterday where there were more than 2 heavy-ram-consuming applications were opened and the system load didn't even exceed 1.50%
I can't consider these small things as a permanent solution until I get the right assistance and accurate report about what is exactly happening with my system. I don't know what led the system to result in this error.
OS: Manjaro Linux
WM: i3-gaps (forked version of i3wm)
Model: Dell Vostro 14-3468
Thank you.
DELL-Nat M
Community Manager
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2.6K Posts
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May 13th, 2024 17:26
To troubleshoot fan issues, please follow the instructions provided in this article: How to Troubleshoot Fan Issues.
If you still need assistance, please contact support by clicking the ‘Get Help Now’ button located at the bottom right corner of the page. The button is marked with a help icon for easy recognition as per the picture below:
Toni SN
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May 27th, 2021 02:00
Thanks a lot. We have this model about 20 days, and have the same problem . high temp.
At the service we were told that that is normal for this model.
Ronin Park
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May 27th, 2021 05:00
High temperature, Did you also face any laptop fan related problem as well?
Because this is what I am having right now, and yeah sometimes the temperature of it increases very rapidly but also it comes down if you take care of it and it will run fine.
The problem I have with my model also results in 0 RPM (fan speed), so I guess I have to take it to the repair center in order to make any further changes.
Jon61
300 Posts
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May 31st, 2021 10:00
Hello
Who every told you this does not know what she/he are talking about this is not normal.
Ronin Park
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June 3rd, 2021 00:00
Conclusion:
So, the basic advice to clean the air vents might make the fan run again, works for me too but hold up, there's little more to tell.
The first issue that I was facing is about - The processor fan failed to respond in the diagnostic mode, and it showed 0 RPM even If any application consumes heavy CPU usage.
This problem also results in an escalated increase of system load, after few minutes of using the system it was around 3.00 or above 3.00, Eventually ended up either with performance issues or heating up.
This all happened because the system fan wasn't running and couldn't be detected by the system.
There are few commands that I use to check fan speed and CPU temperature:-
1. lm_sensors or sensors.
2. tlp-stat
3. inxi -s ('s' flag is used to show details related to temperature, CPU and fan speed.
4. fancontrol (I wouldn't recommend this if you're having fan issues, or read the documentation before using this CLI tool)
Now, after cleaning the air vents and assembling all the pieces together, I pressed the power button on and opened the Diagnostic mode. Surprisingly it passed the "processor fan" test but after this test was done, there was another test in which the fan started running very fastly and my laptop also started heating a lot.
But right after this test was passed, I checked the current RPM of the fan and it was all okay until now.
When I logged in to my i3 window manager, it again started heating a lot, and this time when I opened few heavy applications (Here, I am talking about those applications which use more than 700 MB on my system) like discord, brave, Krita, VMware, etc. Nothing really happened that could've cooled down the system, the fan wasn't running and the speed was at 0 RPM.
This means, the fan was running at the time of BIOS but not after it.
Finally, I went to the hardware repairing shop and explained all the problems I was facing at that time, to them. Found out that my fan wasn't properly running due to problems with the fan blades and heat spreader. I didn't change the fan of my laptop, instead, I told them to fix it, and it isn't really costly. It costs me only 350rs (INR) or says 4.59$.
Now, my fan is running perfectly fine and it also shows the fan speed value (that was around 2894RPM a couple of minutes ago when I opened discord while already having Wireshark, Konsole, and 18 tabs in firefox).
if you have the same problem, then get it fixed before it rips off your system.
Cheers.
PS: Always keep track of the system load (1min., 5min., and 15 minutes), the very basic rule that you can follow is, system load should never exceed the number of cores your system has.
Peter10012
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April 12th, 2024 01:21
@Ronin Park so what did they fix exactly if the fan wasn’t replaced? What did they do so others like myself can attempt it as well.