Faulty Fan Failure Error - HELP!

Ok, so here's the deal.

Every time I restart or turn on my desktop, I get the error.

CPU Fan Failure -
Your computer will shut down immediately to protect from damage. (Or something extremely similar)

Anyway, I have no cpu fan, and tried updating the BIOS to see if that would fix it, but it still does it.

I can bypass it by pressing f2 at the startup screen to reboot and pressing f2 again to continue startup normally. And going into setup and hardware monitor does not give me the option to turn fan checks off.

The only thing I see that could offer any help is the last thing it says before asking to press f1 for setup or f2 to continue as normal is.

A: Drive Error.

Any help is appreciated.

Is this a newly built machine, or did this just start happening on a machine that was working before?

No CPU fan? Are you watercooling?

It's a 2003 machine. CPU is not watercooled, it's aircooled, but there's no fan directly connected or directly facing or directly anywhere near the cpu.

All the fans in the machine do run properly when turned on, despite the error message.

It's a compaq P8656V from the S6000T model series, if that helps any. (Since then I've replaced all the ram, the power source, the video card, and added an extra fan)

EDIT - This started happening last night, according to my mother who discovered the issue. (Before I went to work last night it was running just fine.)

Can you see the CPU tempurature in the BIOS menu? Probably won't help much, since the CPU isn't stressed while in the BIOS setup, but if this happens during bootup you might be able to see something. There are some CPU temp monitor programs out that that overclockers use, it might be worthwhile to download one of those to check your temps while under load. Maybe the error you see is misleading, the PC sees a high CPU temp and assumes that the (nonexistant) fan is dead. If the CPU is running hot, maybe the heat sink needs to be re-seated with new thermal grease.

Cold as ice, from as far as I can tell. I run SpeedFan to keep track of my temperature, I don't overclock, I just like to have it there for referance.

Under no stress (er..my idea of no stress being serfing the net with windows media player blasting some music in the background, 24 total processes running right now) it's cold at 33 Ambient, 36 Remote 1, 31 Remote 2, and 36 HD0. All celsius, naturally, and all of them below the suggested normal temps for my system.

When I check the temp in the BIOS at start up the highest I've ever seen it was 41c when it gets warm in my room during summer. It stays stable at 33 otherwise.

Not a temp problem then.

Judging from:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...37&rule=34591#
you should have the option to turn off the fan check from the hardware monitor in the BIOS. If it's not an option, not sure I can help. :shrug: Seems weird that it would just start doing this.

Found that link myself before I asked here, and no, my hardware monitor options don't include being able to turn the fan off. They actually don't give me any extra options at all. Old menu I guess.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lucjan

Found that link myself before I asked here, and no, my hardware monitor options don't include being able to turn the fan off. They actually don't give me any extra options at all. Old menu I guess.

---

I figured you had already seen that, based on the text in your original post, but figured I'd put it there anyway.

If you don't have the option now, and the PC dates back to 2003, can you get an updated BIOS version for your MB? Might be worth it to check, maybe you can get a newer version with those hardware options in it.

Edit-> and remember, write down your current settings before flashing the new version....

Already tried a Bios update, the mobo only updated to 2004, and it still does it, still no fan switch options in the hardware monitor.

I can bypass the error and effectively use the computer by rebooting it and choosing to start in normal mode, but the message is still a nuisance I'd like to be rid of.

Just for grins, can you plug a spare fan into the CPU fan power socket on the MB to see if that shuts it up?

I don't really have a spare fan, but I'll take a look at re-routing the extra one I installed and see if it does quiet it up.

Why don't you buy a new fan? Just bugging in.

Because there's no fan there to replace. It's a bug in my system somewhere that's telling me the fan isn't running without actually realising that it's because there is none.

I've tried everything I can think of, it's time to bite the bullet and do a system recovery. Hopefully it won't still be there afterwards. If it is, I think it's time to just buy a new mobo and cpu.