XPS 8940, Better 3rd party cooler

I am hoping you guys can all help me (or anyone in this thread)

@Tarak Abu Adam 

@KuroAkuma80 

I swapped out the rear exhaust fan for a Noctua 92mm fan AND connected to it's spot on the motherboard. 

I then swapped out the CPU cooler for a Noctua 9DL and connected it to the motherboard spot 

I followed the steps and everything worked for the first day. I understood the concept that the motherboard's fan's (SYS FAN and CPU FAN) header must be connected to avoid BIOS error.

Now, everything was working and then the PC shut off last night and I started having this problem. When you try to turn the PC on, the Dell logo shows up and the screen goes black.

I tried a few things and was unable to get anything to work. I was on Dell tech support for two hours. The rep tried his best to help. We started the "Pre-Boot System Performance Check. We ran a diagnostic and it said Error Code (2000-0511)  (as per the picture below).

Then We tried to use Dell RemoteAssist (as we got it to work for one time out of a few attempts) and we tried some things and we got the BIOS updated. He did that and it seems like we got everything to work, temporarily.

Then I turned the pc off and turned it back on an hour later and ran into the exact same issue. I am very stressed right now and cannot figure it out. 

Please anybody help me.

@EhsanHaque24 

Let’s try to perform some troubleshooting.  I think that it might be one of the new fans and I want to determine which one may be causing your problem.  From what you just explained the fans are the only items that are different.  The fans also are the only items that provide a feedback during the BIOS bootup, the cooler itself is logically passive.

If you are willing to try this, you will perform these steps with the PC on its side and the case open.

I want to state that I and IT Field Engineer. I understand that not everyone has the skillset I have and may find these things daunting.  Although, the steps I am providing are sound and logical I do not take responsibility for suggesting these steps.  You perform them at your own risk.  I also highly suggest for you to wear a static strap to reduce risk of damage to the components when removing and installing them.

I suggest you start to troubleshoot the rear fan since it is the easier of the two to swap.

Shutdown your PC and disconnect power.

Replace new rear fan with the original rear fan.

Connect power to PC and turn on. If PC starts up fine, then it would seem the new rear fan was the cause of your problems.  If it is possible, try to get a replacement under warranty for the new fan.

However, if you are still experiencing the problem after placing the original fan back into the PC then you will now need to move on to the CPU FAN as a potential cause of problem.  Assuming that you are still experiencing the problem leave the original fan in the PC to reduce variables.

Shutdown your PC and disconnect power.

You can do this next step in one of two ways.  The first and more involved would be to remove the new CPU cooler and install the original CPU cooler, reconnect power and turn back on.  The other way to check would be without removing the new CPU cooler.  Instead, only disconnect the fan cable that is currently attached to the new CPU cooler from the CPU FAN Header.  Next connect the fan from the original CPU cooler to the CPU FAN Header.  This cable isn’t too long and you will have to how and where to place it safely without causing potential damage to other components. 

Reconnect power and turn on the PC.  If the PC starts up fine, then it would seem the fan that came with the new CPU Cooler has some issue, although this is very odd because there is not much to these fans, nonetheless there could be a short in the wiring of the new fan. If it is possible, try to get a replacement under warranty for the CPU cooler.  You most likely will have to send the entire CPU cooler with fan back since it was sold as a complete unit.

If the new CPU cooler fan was the cause of the problem, then place the original CPU cooler back into the PC and start the PC to ensure that it is working.  If it Is working you can proceed to shut down the PC again and swap the rear fan once more with the new fan, and once more check if the PC is working.

I have a question.  When you installed the new rear fan and new CPU cooler, did you install both at the same time?  I also perform one change at a time and turn the PC on after each one to ensure that PC accepted the change and works properly.

I sincerely hope that you can resolve your issue.

@Moosehead07 

Yes, 10700K or 10900K will come with the better cooler.

Regards,

KuroAkuma80

@Tarak Abu Adam 

I followed your troubleshooting steps thoroughly. The fans were the only thing (besides the HDD) that were changed. The fans always spun up properly when i gamed on it the first night (after my changes). Everything was good. 

For troubleshooting:

I started by changing the rear Noctua fan back to the stock rear 80mm black fan. This did not solve the problem. I left the original stock 80mm black fan in the rear.

Next, I changed the fan of the Noctua NH-9DL. I swapped that out for the Noctua 92mm fan I had in the rear to see if it was that certain fan. That did not work either. 

I then proceeded to change the entire Noctua NH-9DL CPU heatsink/cooler back to the stock, cheap CPU cooler that was provided by dell. That also DID NOT solve the problem.

After putting the stock HDD back and powering it on, the PC did something different in that it went to the "scanning hardware" and now it found no errors and just started a repair of something. I was just surprised as this was the only different screen I had got. I powered on the pc at least 10-15 times and it was the same over the past day and a half (Dell Logo comes up and then goes to black screen). 

After the repair, it went back to the same screen and pretty much computer is not working. Tech support with 2 reps and a supervisor in tech department (after all troubleshooting) seem to think that the motherboard is faulty. 

They said they can send a technician to come and repair or "fix" the motherboard. I don't think I want to do that as this is my second Dell XPS in 3 weeks. The first one came with a DOA graphics card (i did zero mods to the computer). 

I am very disheartened. I was so happy getting my pc. I wanted to love this pc. But I guess not. 

@EhsanHaque24 

I was not aware that you had also swapped the original HDD.  I was under the impression that the only hardware change you made were to the fans and CPU cooler.

I have a few questions.  Do you have an SSD as well in your PC for the OS?  Or is all your data; OS, programs, and personal docs on the HDD?

Having the SSD with the OS on it would allow you to perform more troubleshooting steps of the HDD while connected to the same PC via command prompt (CHKDSK) and Disk Management.  I suggest completely wiping your HDD (I know loss of data, hopefully you have yours backed-up) and perform a complete format of the HDD and also a sector-by-sector repair of the HDD.  You should also change the drive letter when you attempt to set-up and initialize the HDD via Disk Management. You want the PC to see the HDD as a completely new piece of “good” hardware so that it can start utilizing it.  Again, this would all be a lot easier of you have an SSD with the OS on it.

If you do end up having to change your PC and you currently do not have an SSD, then I recommend ordering the replacement PC with a HDD (at least 1TB) and an SSD (500GB should suffice, maybe 1TB if you really have a lot of large programs).  If you do this the OS will come installed on the SSD, and then you can use the HDD for all your data.  To save space on SSD (OS) I personally always map the following folders directories to my HDD; Downloads, Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos.

@Tarak Abu Adam 

The PC did come with a 1TB HDD and a 512GB SSD (with the OS on the SSD). All I did was swap out the the 1TB HDD for a 10TB HDD. 

The HDD is relatively new and had no issues in the first pc nor the second pc when properly connected to the SATA power inside the PC. I don't believe the HDD is the issue. When the stock CPU fans and the stock HDD are put back in, the pc still has the same issues (Dell logo comes up and then screen goes black, cannot do anything). 

When 

Also did a thorough search on google and with Dell technical support.

CPU fan was connected to motherboard in the correct spot. It was spinning with my modified fans, and was also spinning when I got the stock CPU cooler back in. 

I swapped around a lot of things and the error persisted.

After a quick Google, the error code you posted appears to be related to a problem with the CPU cooler / fan.  Check that the fan is plugged in correctly and spins when you attempt to start the computer.

where can I get one of these? I would like to do this to mine

Same 4 pin setup as the Dell so It should work.  Doesn't hurt to try.

Thanks for your sharing.

I just got the NH-U9S on my pc.

I just plug in the port of the CPU fan on the motherboard, and there is no problem when I boot on the machine.

It works well. The temperature of the CPU is under 70 degrees when it is fully loaded.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this thread, it's been very helpful. Like everyone else, I was disappointed to see the tat pancake cooler on my i7-10700 (non-k).

I can confirm that Arctic freezer i13x fits easily with no extra screws required. The standoffs supplied with the cooler screw directly into the mounts used by the dell 'cooler'.

Then fit the rest of the mounting kit

Hardest part was getting the fan cable on the header - need smaller fingers.

Not had any bios errors when booting, using the latest bios 2.0.11 i think.

Like others, temps have gone from 100degC and cores thermally limiting to max 80-ish under stress test with the CPU clearly maintaining a higher boost multiplier throughout. Oh and barely audible.

Thanks all!

@dhufto That's good news.  My Arctic Freezer i13 X CO arrived today and I'll be fitting it soon.

I've already replaced the original exhaust fan with an Arctic F9 PWM and I've now fitted an Arctic F12 PWM in the front HDD location using a 3D printed mount made to the design by @purpledrillmonkey (costing £5.94).  I thought the F9 was quite loud, but since adding the F12, the overall noise level has dropped.

For those interested, the GeForce RTX 2060 temperatures have not changed since fitting the F12 at the front. 

Its done, thanks Community  

My Black Beauty NH9S Chromax Black edition is installed and tested. 

Case fan is currently the standard Dell one (update not needed at the moment).

Room temp 20°C

Temperatures during gaming 64°C (BF5)

Temperatures during normal operation 34°C