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March 18th, 2017 09:00
Vostro 3700 fan / power issue
Hi. Hope somebody can shed some light on an interesting problem on my laptop.
Spec
I7, 17.3", 8Gb ram, 120 SSD, out of warranty of course.
History
I dis-assemble this workstation once a year to clean the air ducts on the fan. They tend to get clogged up and there is no effective way apart from dis-assembly to clean them. I take a lot of car and with 30 years in the IT industry I think I am expert enough not to cause any damage and to know what I am doing.
The issue
On the last clean the workstation worked perfectly before being taken appart, apart from getting very hot of course. I took the necessary precautions, cleaned it up and put it back together again. But now something interesting happened. When I switch the power on it starts and boots into os etc, but the fan does not come on. Eventually it switches off because of high temperature. Before anyone asks, I did check the fan power cable. I repeated the assembly process about 10 times in the last two days to see if I missed something.
I tested the fan on a different power supply and it works fine. I checked the voltages on the board with the fan plugged in and it seems the fan positive voltage does not exceed 3.1v. I tested all the input voltages from the power supply to the motherboard and they all test fine. There is no visible damage anywhere and all plugs are connected.
Now comes the really weird part. There is a strip connected under the keyboard to the left top. approx. 12 mm wide. It connects the indicator lights, volume buttons and power switch to the motherboard. If I disconnect that cable and the it switches on automatically the fan comes on and the workstation runs fine. If I use that strip to power on the laptop and then disconnect it as soon as the operating system starts, the system runs fine. The moment I re-connect that strip the fan stops working.
I have never seen something likes this before and there is not bios settings to mess around with the fan. Any tips would be appreciated. See below photo of the strip.
SmallvilleLA
7 Posts
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August 7th, 2017 23:00
Hello all. Here's a link to an unlocked A12 BIOS that has allowed Windows 10 installs to work. Mostly with Win 7 drivers.
I opted to still with Windows 7 64 bit, but I did update the bios to see is it would allow me to finally use the eSATA port. After much trial and error and taking some chances with some newer Intel drivers, I can now watch video, surf the net and transfer from USB to eSATA (BlacX Thermaltake Duet) all at the same time with NO GLITCHES, hangs or noticeable performance issues. Last things to get working are the USB 3.0 Expresscard and testing the use of both ports on the BlacX at the same time.
forum.notebookreview.com/.../
I'll see what I can do to get a system config and driver version list, as well as my BIOS settings. There are choices on the BIOS that I have no clue about still. Highly recommended. Feels like I got a new system.
There's a BIOS recovery method in the thread and methods to get the 330M going. AND recognition of sketchy BLUE TOOTH versions and recommended solutions. Rule of thumb.... Do NOT do BIOS updates from within Windows. GOOD LUCK.
BTW - I had that fan thing before too. It drove me nuts. Bad enough MS spying unknowing.... lol.