Help Please!!

The following message comes up in gray on a black screen when I turn my computer on:

"Alert! Previous fan failure. Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility"

Thanks for any thoughts,
Brigham

Comments

Gramps said…
It sounds like you had/have a fan problem. you need to reset the error and see if the problem still exists. Fans are a dime a dozen on ebay. Just get the size/voltage/type from the one in your case or power supply and order one. Here's some info: HERE and HERE and HERE and...well I could list dozens of sites with information, but you can do what I did and put "previous fan failure" into Google and see all the links.
Gramps said…
Is your PC a Dell? Look Here.
Gramps said…
I'm assuming it's a Dell. To find which fan is the culprit, you need to look at the event log. Of course, I can't find anywhere that tells me what the name of the event log file is and where it's located, but there are some tools available apparently for Dells to read this. Here's a tidbit from one site I found that may help: "In the Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Advanced Server and Windows Server 2003 operating systems, messages are logged to the system event log and optionally to a unicode text file, dcsys32.log (viewable using Notepad), that is located in the install_path\omsa\log directory. The default install_path is C:\Program Files\Dell\OpenManage."
Christa said…
Thanks for all the info!! I'm working on using all the good tips.
Any idea if this is a problem that needs fixing immediately or is it ok to wait a few days?
Gramps said…
check your fans. There should be at least one in the case and/or on the processor, and one in the power supply. If they look like they are working then it can wait. If not, you could overheat and damage your computer.
Chad said…
Be a bit particular with the fan you purchase. Make sure it is a replacement used for the computer, preferrably one recommended by Dell. You can get cheaper ones not recommended by Dell, but there's a downside. My computer had that problem because the fan died. I found which one it was and bought the cheap replacement, but it didn't have a sensor on it. So now my computer reports the fan error every time I boot up, even though the fan is working -- it just doesn't have the sensor.
Gramps said…
Can't you turn that off in the bios?

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