brsk

8 Posts

1947

July 27th, 2021 01:00

XPS-15 9530 Fan not working at all. Not even detected in diagnostic

Hi,
In order to understand why my laptop was heating so fast, I decided to open it and watch the fans.

I have realized that one of the 2 fans is never spinning. Not in Windows, not in Linux, not during boot, not during Dell diagnostic, even when the temperature goes over 90°C, the fan does not move at all.

It is not a problem with the fan: I've switched the 2 fans and it's the other one that doesn't work, so I thought it was a BIOS problem.

I've tried to reset the BIOS to default settings, to update drivers, it doesn't solve anything. (I'm now in version A12, published in Nov. 2019)

The DELL diagnostic says there is no problem.

However, if I look at the results (see screenshots below), it looks like there is only a video fan in my laptop, not a CPU fan. But the CPU fan exists physically in my laptop!

I'm kind of stuck here, my BIOS thinks I only have 1 fan when I actually have 2 of them.

How can I solve this?

Screenshots: [1] [2] [3] [ALL]

Thank you very much

Responses(5)

B

brsk

8 Posts

0

July 28th, 2021 07:00

After testing the fan connector with a multimeter, I figured out every electrical signal was exactly as expected, meaning that this was not a software problem but something related to the connector.

Here is what I found after a few minutes: the ground pin was bent inside the tiny female connector, so it was exactly like if the fan was unplugged the whole time.

I don't understand why the Diagnostic tool didn't detect this problem...

Sorry for the trouble, thanks anyways!

U2CAMEB4ME

4 Operator

•

6.2K Posts

0

July 27th, 2021 01:00

Welcome to the Dell Community @brsk

Sounds like it's time to replace the fan.

Dell XPS 15 (9530) Fans:

https://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=category&id=143&subid=470&refine=fan

You can use the part number and search for a cheaper price.

Best regards,

U2

B

brsk

8 Posts

0

July 27th, 2021 02:00

Thank you for your answer, but as explained in my post, the fan is not the problem: When I switch the 2 fans, it's the other one that doesn't work.

I also bought a replacement part (just in case), and it doesn't solve the problem.

U2CAMEB4ME

4 Operator

•

6.2K Posts

0

July 27th, 2021 02:00

@brsk

Is there anything else you may have tried that you have not posted???

Regards,

U2

B

brsk

8 Posts

0

July 27th, 2021 04:00

There is one more thing I have tried:

When I run the sensors command on Linux (Ubuntu), here is the result:

pch_haswell-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:        +58.5°C  

BAT1-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
in0:          12.91 V  

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Package id 0:  +69.0°C  (high = +84.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 0:        +69.0°C  (high = +84.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 1:        +64.0°C  (high = +84.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 2:        +69.0°C  (high = +84.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 3:        +66.0°C  (high = +84.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)

dell_smm-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
fan1:           0 RPM
Video Fan:   4800 RPM
CPU:          +73.0°C  

acpitz-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
temp1:        +27.8°C  (crit = +105.0°C)
temp2:       -265.9°C  (crit = +105.0°C)

You can see that a "fan1" is detected, but it's always at 0 RPM.

That's all I have

View All

No Events found!