Alienware Area 51 Fan

So is this the assumption that the MI/O board is functional? I'm gonna try that test you recommended tomorrow when I get back from church. Hopefully I can do it correctly. Gnite for now.

So is this the assumption that the MI/O board is functional?

Appears so (lights work, reads Pump rpm, etc.) which is a good thing to know. I'm sure you can now see why I was trying to get you to run this helpful diags tool.

Are you sure radiator fan is in right port? Is radiator fan an original part?

Plenty of posts like this if you search forum. I have an Aurora which has a slightly different MIO-Board and smaller "Liquid-Cooler Connector Daughter Board".

http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19565329?pi21932=1

This is how it's plugged in.. I inverted the picture so it can be read.. Is something supposed to be plugged into the CPU sensor or it's fine that there is none there.

Also I guess this is the MI/O board. There's an orange light and a blinking light... is that normal?

The Fan and Pump should be the same.. it came with my system when I got it.

Is there a cable going from the MIO-Board (the fan signal harness) to the motherboard's main cpu_fan header?

Like if you were going to install a simple fan cooler on a normal motherboard, you would connect the PWM fan connector to the motherboard, right? That's the connector I am talking about.

I traced these three wires.

Here are the other Fan plugs on the motherboard.. some are not being used.

All that looks good (motherboard fan headers). Yes, that is the main MIO-Board you found ... be glad your MIO-Board is working.

Looks like maybe radiator-fan is bad (not providing PWM tachometer signal).

Have you tried re-seating connectors in the fan circuit?

While checking old pics and resources reveals you have pump and fan in proper sockets/connectors on small daughter board,

maybe it needs to be switched to one of the other available sockets it will fit into. As your found, the pump was connected to wrong socket, so maybe the fan is also?

Sorry it's upside down.. I rotated it but it still persists to be upside down.. This is the test of the Custom Test MI/O card you mentioned to conduct.

No I haven't.. how do I do that? Is that just reseating the plug for the fan?

Here is the current location of the plugs on the mini controller.. and the ones not being used. I didn't notice any changes in behaviors when I tried them out.

H

Good  morning Tesla,

Okay hopefully I interpreted your suggestion correctly of reseting the connectors on the "daughter board", the mini card on the rear top that the CPU pump and CPU fan connections are on. I cycled it down once again with the power supply unplugged and pressed the button for 2 min for good measure and left it unplugged for 2 days. Oh, also upon undoing the serial connector from the Mi/o board to the mini daughter board while unplugged, the interior LED lights turned off. My hope is that if it did hold some kind of memory to the fan speed it would reset itself. Hope that makes sense.  I'll fire her up later on in the morning and let you know what happens.

Oh one more thing.. I notice from the picture of your computer, it's pretty similar to mine and what's cool is you have added two extra fans on top. I want to do that. And for the existing fan if it's faulty, can I purchase a similar quieter fan to do that same job? Even if I have to solder it on to replace the existing fan. In theory would that work?