Alienware 17 fan issue

Hi DoctorGreen,

I would suggest you to update the latest BIOS on the system to check. Please enter your service tag # on the link below, select the operating system, and then download the BIOS from the BIOS section for issue resolution.

http://dell.to/ZaQuel

In addition, I’d suggest you to run the diagnostics on the computer by following the steps mentioned below and check if there is any issue with the fans on your system.

1. Turn on or restart the computer.
2. Immediately at the Dell logo screen, starting tapping the key once a second until the One Time Boot menu appears (if the computer boots to Windows turn the computer off and try again).
3. At the One Time Boot menu, press the arrow key to highlight Diagnostics, PSA+ or Enter ePSA, then press to begin the PSA.
4. Write down any error codes listed. Reply to us with the error codes.

Hey Ravi, I did the steps you asked me to do. I did both the PSA and I upgraded the bios(before I did the PSA) and nothing has changed yet. I did a thorough test and everything came out fine. As I said earlier, it's the right fan (the GPU fan) that seems to be dormant not the left fan which is for the CPU. Hence I don't think the PSA would've shown the problem anyways because the only fan ePSA checked was the Processor's fan. I don't want to jump into hours of gaming if my GPU fan isn't working. Please help x_x 

Hi DoctorGreen,

Yes you are correct the left fan is CPU fan and the right fan is a GPU fan. I would like you to run the Video stress test on the system to check if the GPU fan works. Also, please follow the steps below to run the Video Card Stress diagnostics on the system.

1.       Open the link http://dell.to/11MXNII 

2.       Select ‘Hardware’ under ‘Choose a Diagnostic Type’.

3.       Select ‘Video Card Stress’ under ‘Diagnostic Selector’.

4.       Click on ‘Run Diagnostics’ button.
5.       Let me know if the fan runs.

Hi , I have the exact same issue , doing the test now , also I can say this : I did bios update , WHILE BIOS WAS UPDATING , GPU FANS WERE WORKING!!! , In windows tho , they never work , I even get bluescreens once gpu temp reaches 105 degrees...will get back with test results...

Also , I have an alienware 17 , gtx 780m

Hi , I own an alienware 17 and have the same issues , I did a BIOS update and while it wasn't in windows and bios was updating the fans were working!! But in windows fans just dont start! I did the diagnostic  scan and they did not start , GPU was at 90-94 degrees celsius thru out the whole test! Help

You said you ran the BIOS while out of Windows? If you weren't running on Windows then which OS were you running on? If the Bios update WAS run on Windows then friend, let me tell you... I thought my right fan went bust because there was no airflow. I was wrong. The reason why I felt no airflow from the right fan was because the GPU was never burdened with enough tasks (even though I tried so many games). Try this and if it doesn't work then there really is a problem. Open your NVIDIA Control Panel and choose the settings best suited for you (go through everything on that control panel :p). Then download and play a graphic-intense game like Planetside 2 for an hour straight and if you still notice no airflow then you have a defective model. In any case, let me give you some advice as an "experienced" Alienware owner (it's been like 5 months now I think? Since I opened up this thread! :D). You want to:

A) Change the battery mode of the laptop to Maximum Performance when you play games otherwise performance in all aspects will suck <ADMIN NOTE: Substitute character removed per TOU>

B) Fiddle with and master the NVIDIA control panel! This is a Must! You have to play around with the 3D settings on the control panel to ensure your getting your money's worth. If you don't care about it then at-least go to the control panel, go to the manage 3D settings tab and under global settings choose Prefer Maximum performance for your power management mode and for your multi-display/mixed-gpu acceleration choose single display performance mode. Last but not least, if your finding the color spectrum on the alienware's monitor <ADMIN NOTE: Substitute character removed per TOU> like I did (Because it's a type of monitor called TN Panel which kinda sucks),  try playing around with the adjust video image/color in the control panel also. Trust me, you won't regret it.

In Conclusion: Your laptop should be fine, don't worry. Just don't run any other OS on it besides Windows unless your a next level hacker that can utilize this thing upto its full potential. The alienware is custom-built for Windows just like it's hardware is custom-built for its Bios. Don't bother with it. 

I hope this helped! If you need any help then just feel free to continue on this thread. Im more than willing to help you out since I went through some really cruddy times with this thing (due to not knowing how to properly use it), and I still am( the only problem I have with it is that I have no idea how to properly use its wifi receiver. Sometimes I notice my connection is really strong and other times on average, regardless of my location. This is annoying lol). 

Cya!!

Mh...I appreciate you trying to help but I can also see you're not that tech sawy =)

94 celsius and fans not starting means something is wrong , for any dell tech seeing this , temps go to 105 celsius where blue screen occurs and fans still dont start. while doing bios ugprade tho , they were working.

I also am using m17xr4, gaming 55-70oC temperature, fan speed me up to how much rpm? thanks.

Does anyone happen to know what could be the cause of the GPU fan refusing to spin on Hwinfo's command? When I try to force my fans via Hwinfo, only the CPU fan responds. (Using an Alienware 17 from 2013, with a GeForce GTX 765M.)