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Dell xps one a2101 loud fan issue.
Hi. I have a dell xps one a2101 and am having an issue with the cooling fan. The one that is connected to the heatsink. This is my second unit. I had my first one for a little over a year and the screen broke so I had it replace under warranty. My first xps one system worked fine for about a year and then suddenly the fan started working in over drive. Very loud and annoying. Now after having my replacement xps one for almost 3 years, the cooling fan on this one has suddenly started acting like the original unit. After about 10 minutes or less the fan starts kicking into over drive.I've been reading various forums trying to pinpoint what is actually causing this problem. The fans are cleaned out of all dust but still the problem persists. I have read various reports from it possibly being the heatsink, the version of BIOS that I am running, or possibly the motherboard being the cause of the problem. From what i've been reading, the most likely cause is the motherboard needs to be replaced. I'm trying to see if I can get the problem figured out before I take it in and spend unnessesary money on what could be the problem. If anybody out there is familiar with this issue and could provide some insight, it would be greatly appreciated. Also, I have never updated my BIOS as far as I know and I do not get any error messages. Besides the fan issue, my xps one runs fine. Thanks ffor any help or info you can provide.
RoHe
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May 4th, 2012 13:00
If the problem only started 3 years after you got this system, it's probably unlikely to be a BIOS problem, even if there's a more recent version of BIOS.
It's possible the heat sink separated from the CPU and/or the thermal paste dried out so the CPU fan has to run at full speed to keep the system from cooking itself.
First thing might be to have somebody remove the heat sink, clean the surfaces, apply a small amount of new thermal paste, and reinstall the heat sink.
If that doesn't help, you can always look further for potentially more costly repairs...
RoHe
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May 4th, 2012 17:00
Can't give you specific temps, but heat sinks can get hot enough to burn you, so use caution. :emotion-5:
If you plan to do this yourself, be sure to read the manual carefully and follow the instructions to remove and reinstall the heat sink so you don't break anything.
You only need a small amount of thermal paste (eg, Arctic Silver) so don't buy too much. If you Google around, you can find info on how to clean the surfaces to remove old thermal paste and how to apply a thin coat of new paste.
Hope that solves your problem. Post back and let us know...
LockJaw
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May 4th, 2012 14:00
Thanks for the reply. I will try that and then take it from there. Do you know how hot the copper tubing gets during normal operation? When I took the back panel off to check the fans while it was running, I touched the copper and it was very hot to the touch. Like getting burned by a match.
LockJaw
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May 8th, 2012 01:00
I got the thermal paste tonight. Took the fan and the heatsink apart. There was still alot of dust debris blocking the airway where the fan blows through the heat sink.. Previously I blew it out with compresses air but I guess it wasn't able to get it all out. The thermal paste was fried. I watched some videos on how to remove and apply new thermal paste. It was fairly simple to do. I put the heatsink and fan back together and have been running the pc noise free for nearly 2 hours now. Before I did this, it would get very loud within 15 minutes.Thank you for your advice. It is very much appreciated. This was alot cheaper than I thought it would be to correct after reading on other forums. I got the Arctic Silver at radio shack for $11.00. Thanks again for your time and advice.
RoHe
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May 8th, 2012 10:00
:emotion-21: :emotion-21:
Shantr0n
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June 29th, 2012 21:00
Cool! My XPS 2410 has been doing the same thing for a few weeks now. It sounds like this worked for you, so I'm going to go ahead and give it a try.