xps a2010 cpu fan failure

Has anyone been able to get any support from Dell on this issue yet beyond replacing the motherboard? I have the same problem after upgrading to the suggested 2.06 bios and my system is out of warranty. I have gotten nowhere with Dell just like everyone else as well.

Does anyone know where to get a motherboard at a good price?

I just updated from 2.0.4 to 2.0.6 and this happened to me as well. Fans are at 100%! This was a recommended update. Anyone from Dell monitoring these forums? I find it hard to belive this is not just a bios tweak to bring the fans back under control.

I have an XPS One that had been having similar symptoms:

First symptom was that it would not shut off. The USB ports were still active and fan still ran after the monitor went blank - had to hold power button in to force it to shut down.

Second symptom was that the fan was louder.

Third symptom was that when I tried to boot up, the progress bar would go about half-way across and stop. Then I would get an error message that the cpu fan and system fan had failed. If I pressed F1 and continued to boot up, it seemed to run fine. I only tried that once - I usually forced it off then tried again until it would boot.

I solved this by taking the back off (2 screws on bottom of back cover), taking the heat pipe off of the cpu (involved taking a shield off at top of chassis - 4 screws), and removing the heat exchanger for the heat pipe, and fan. I used canned air to clean out the fan blades, heat exchanger, and chassis grills. I found that the thermal paste between the heat pipe spreader and the cpu had dried out. I cleaned it off with an alcohol dampened piece of tshirt, reapplied new thermal paste and reassembled.

The computer now boots up cleanly, I have not had any more error messages, the fan runs cooler, and it shuts off completely when I power down. Based on the amount of dust I found, it's probably a good idea to do this every 2 or 3 years just to keep everything clean.

My XPS had all the same problems, except that the fans were working just fine.  I believe the BIOS triggered a problem with "allowable" the CPU temperature, therefore a CPU Fan Failure Code was displayed.  I followed the steps above, Thank you Fred98, and it works.  You can find a wealth of information through Google and Youtube.  Funny thing though, the lady at our local RadioShack was well aware fo the problem and knew exactly which thermal paste to use.  My Dell "chat partner" tried to convince me that this was a rare problem.  Shame on you, Dell.

Thanks. I will try it out. Was your problem trigeered by a BIOS update?

Before replacing the motherboard, I tried  all that. I pretty much rebuilt the the whole computer by taking it all apart and putting it back together.  It did not work for me. Only after I replaced the MOBO did the problem go away. I also took it in to a repair shop to get a diagnosis of the problem and for an estimate to fix. My credit card company automatically  adds a second year of the warranty and I can get my money back that way because I purchased it with that credit card. They too said it was the MOBO.

I also started having problems with the eject  touch button next to the screen, where every time I press to eject,  the display would go black and the only way to get it back on was to restart the computer. This too started after the BIOS upgrade.

After receiving my refund from the credit card company, I replaced the MOBO and the Optical drive and all the fans just in case. Since then it has been fine. But the hard drive did fail on me 2 months later.

Also, where did you get the board from? I'm afraid that will be my only option.

I don't exactly remember the BIOS version. My daughter has it right now in her dorm at school so I can't look it up. I will try to find out for you. I bought the MOBO from Vivo technology.        www.vivotechnology.net

hello,

Open the case and remove the cmos battery - wait 20 minutes - put battery back in and boot into Setup and set the data and time - save and reboot.
this worked for me!

Eddie Mojica

Hello,

I had a Dell XPS 2010 come in the shop - after spending 30 minutes trying to do a BIOS update I decided to try taking out the CMOS Battery. Waited 20 minutes and put the battery back in. booted in to setup - set the date & time - saved and rebooted - error msg is now history!

Eddie Mojica

No. Go!  Thanks, any way.  I still say Dell blew the pooch on this one.

I bought a new heat tube assembly, and re set it........the fix lasted a couple of days.  : (

I FIXED IT!

How?  I BOUGHT A MAC!

Thanks, DELL!:emotion-30: