How to know fan speeds on a Dell

How to know fan speeds on Dell 4400? Maybe Dimension.

Can you recommend any programs that will do that?


My friend has a Dell, I think it's a 4400, maybe it's a Dimension.
The case is a tower, and in the back on the top and bottom there are
buttons, and it hinges at the front, so the left side opens up.

She's had problems with overheating aiui, and when I first opened the
case (Light was very dim and I didn't see the model of the computer),
when I opened the case, the CPU fan didn't seem to run after I turned it
on. Later though, it did, and maybe the fan is intermittent, like her
problem. (It's a pretty big fan at the back of the case at the end of
the shroud, Not one that sits on the CPU)

I wanted to install something which would display the fan speed.
Searching for dell fan speed utility all I found was
http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/ Dell Inspiron/Latitude/Precision fan
control utility

I installed that on my own Dell, a 4700 iirc, and it said it didn't get
a speed report from the fans. Is that typical? Or could the problem
be that maybe I have a Dimension. (I don't care if it works on my
computer, only my friend's)

On Sun, 09 Feb 2014 01:46:14 -0500, micky
wrote:

How to know fan speeds on Dell 4400? Maybe Dimension.

Can you recommend any programs that will do that?


My friend has a Dell, I think it's a 4400, maybe it's a Dimension.
The case is a tower, and in the back on the top and bottom there are
buttons, and it hinges at the front, so the left side opens up.

She's had problems with overheating aiui, and when I first opened the
case (Light was very dim and I didn't see the model of the computer),
when I opened the case, the CPU fan didn't seem to run after I turned it
on. Later though, it did, and maybe the fan is intermittent, like her
problem. (It's a pretty big fan at the back of the case at the end of
the shroud, Not one that sits on the CPU)

I wanted to install something which would display the fan speed.
Searching for dell fan speed utility all I found was
http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/ Dell Inspiron/Latitude/Precision fan
control utility

I installed that on my own Dell, a 4700 iirc, and it said it didn't get
a speed report from the fans. Is that typical? Or could the problem
be that maybe I have a Dimension. (I don't care if it works on my
computer, only my friend's)

Since the fan may be intermittent, or it might be just fine, It would be
especially nice if the fan sensor would beep when the fan speed went too
low.


Thanks

"micky" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 09 Feb 2014 01:46:14 -0500, micky
wrote:

How to know fan speeds on Dell 4400? Maybe Dimension.

Can you recommend any programs that will do that?


My friend has a Dell, I think it's a 4400, maybe it's a Dimension.
The case is a tower, and in the back on the top and bottom there are
buttons, and it hinges at the front, so the left side opens up.

She's had problems with overheating aiui, and when I first opened the
case (Light was very dim and I didn't see the model of the computer),
when I opened the case, the CPU fan didn't seem to run after I turned
it on. Later though, it did, and maybe the fan is intermittent, like
her problem. (It's a pretty big fan at the back of the case at the end
of the shroud, Not one that sits on the CPU)

I wanted to install something which would display the fan speed.
Searching for dell fan speed utility all I found was
http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/ Dell Inspiron/Latitude/Precision fan
control utility

I installed that on my own Dell, a 4700 iirc, and it said it didn't
get a speed report from the fans. Is that typical? Or could the
problem be that maybe I have a Dimension. (I don't care if it works
on my computer, only my friend's)

Since the fan may be intermittent, or it might be just fine, It would
be especially nice if the fan sensor would beep when the fan speed
went too low.


Thanks

Monitoring the fan is one thing, but what I monitor instead is CPU
temperatures. As who cares what the fan is doing as long as the CPU is
running at normal temperatures? And CPU temperatures utilities are very
common and most of them work with virtual any machine.

--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Windows Live Mail 2009 v14
Centrino Core2 Duo T7400 2.16 GHz - 4GB - Windows 8 Pro w/Media Center

Since you got the case open, I presume you checked the heat sink to make
sure it's clear of dust buildup. The green hood hinges up, allowing you
to inspect/clean the heat sink. The whole fan assembly itself can be
removed from the chassis for more thorough cleaning if desired. There is
a release lever on the bottom side of the hood assembly (the side toward
the bottom of the tower when it's standing upright).

Also blow air through the power supply vents to clear some of the dust
out of the power supply. There's a fan in the power supply, too.
There's no way to speed test that, but at least make sure it still spins
when the power is turned on.

To test the case fan, use Dell Diagnostics. The Dimension 4400 would
have originally shipped with a Diagnostics partition. Assuming it's
still there (i.e., nobody reformatted the drive and deleted it) you
should be able to access it by pressing F12 during POST (Power-On Self
Test, when the giant Dell logo is on the screen). Pressing F12 should
get you to a one-time boot menu, from which you can select to boot Dell
Diagnostics.

If the Diagnostics partition is no longer there you can download the same
utility from support.dell.com. Look for the Downloads and Drivers
section for your particular model, and find "Dell 32-bit Diagnostics".
Choose either the "CD..." or "CZ..." versions, download, and extract all
the files (there are dozens) from it into a separate directory. Dell
Diagnostics runs from DOS, so to use it you'll need to create a bootable
CD or bootable flash drive for yourself (plenty of tutorials on the web)
that will boot DOS. Copy the dozens of extracted files onto your
bootable CD or flash drive. Then you can boot from the CD/flash drive
and launch delldiag.exe.

Once you get the Diagnostics utility launched, find the function to test
the fan. The fan is a variable speed fan, and the utility will test it
to see if it turns on/off, checks the speed and checks that it changes
speeds as commanded.

On Sun, 9 Feb 2014 09:10:19 +0000 (UTC), dg1261
wrote:

Since you got the case open, I presume you checked the heat sink to make
sure it's clear of dust buildup. The green hood hinges up, allowing you

Yes, it was very clean. The whole insides were.

to inspect/clean the heat sink. The whole fan assembly itself can be
removed from the chassis for more thorough cleaning if desired. There is
a release lever on the bottom side of the hood assembly (the side toward
the bottom of the tower when it's standing upright).

Also blow air through the power supply vents to clear some of the dust

Although I didn't look in the powersupply. (There's no place to work
there!!)

out of the power supply. There's a fan in the power supply, too.
There's no way to speed test that, but at least make sure it still spins
when the power is turned on.

To test the case fan, use Dell Diagnostics. The Dimension 4400 would
have originally shipped with a Diagnostics partition. Assuming it's
still there (i.e., nobody reformatted the drive and deleted it) you

Ah, wonderful. I guess my Dell had that too, but the harddrive failed
on this computer, and that's why another friend gave it to me. If mine
had them, I would have found them .

should be able to access it by pressing F12 during POST (Power-On Self
Test, when the giant Dell logo is on the screen). Pressing F12 should
get you to a one-time boot menu, from which you can select to boot Dell
Diagnostics.

If the Diagnostics partition is no longer there you can download the same
utility from support.dell.com. Look for the Downloads and Drivers
section for your particular model, and find "Dell 32-bit Diagnostics".

Does it always have to be the same model? I have 1 Dell and two that
could be set up, and she has a different Dell. Are they likely to use
the same files? I guess I can check this myself eventually, but I
thought you might know.

Choose either the "CD..." or "CZ..." versions, download, and extract all
the files (there are dozens) from it into a separate directory. Dell
Diagnostics runs from DOS, so to use it you'll need to create a bootable
CD or bootable flash drive for yourself (plenty of tutorials on the web)
that will boot DOS. Copy the dozens of extracted files onto your
bootable CD or flash drive. Then you can boot from the CD/flash drive
and launch delldiag.exe.

Once you get the Diagnostics utility launched, find the function to test
the fan. The fan is a variable speed fan, and the utility will test it
to see if it turns on/off, checks the speed and checks that it changes
speeds as commanded.

Wonderful. Thanks.


BillW, you're right, thanks. I guess I got sidetracked when the fan
seemed to be off when I first opened the case and turned the computer
on**. Later I wasn't sure if the computer had really been on. It's so
crowded there, we were working with the computer on the floor and no
room even to look at the lights in front. So the fan seemed like the
immediate issue. And a new fan is easy to buy.

**Can you run these Dells for more than a few minutes, with the case
open, with the green shroud no longer surrounding the heat sink?

micky wrote in
:

Does it always have to be the same model? I have 1 Dell and two
that could be set up, and she has a different Dell. Are they
likely to use the same files? I guess I can check this myself
eventually, but I thought you might know.


The Dell Diagnostics utility has to be designed to work with the
particular hardware of a particular model family. A particular version
of the utility will work across more than one model if the hardware
devices in those models are enough alike, but there's no universal
version that works on all Dells.

The version of Dell Diagnostics applicable to the Dimension 4400 is
A1109. Visit the download page for that version:

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/...Product/dimens
ion-4400?driverId=R47819&osCode=WW1&fileId=2731122665
&languageCode=en&categoryId=DI

and at the bottom of the page click "Compatibility" to expand the list of
models that version works on.

Now, that's the software utility we're talking about above. The fan
itself should be pretty much universal. So another alternative might be
to swap the 4400's fan into another machine temporarily and use that
machine's diagnostic utility to test it. I haven't actually tried that,
but as long as the wire connector is the same it should work.

If the CPU isn't under heavy load, it should be able to run for a long
time with the case open and the green hood flipped up, as that should
provide enough ventilation for the CPU heat sink.

On Sunday, February 9, 2014 1:46:14 AM UTC-5, micky wrote:
How to know fan speeds on Dell 4400? Maybe Dimension.



Can you recommend any programs that will do that?





My friend has a Dell, I think it's a 4400, maybe it's a Dimension.

The case is a tower, and in the back on the top and bottom there are

buttons, and it hinges at the front, so the left side opens up.



She's had problems with overheating aiui, and when I first opened the

case (Light was very dim and I didn't see the model of the computer),

when I opened the case, the CPU fan didn't seem to run after I turned it

on. Later though, it did, and maybe the fan is intermittent, like her

problem. (It's a pretty big fan at the back of the case at the end of

the shroud, Not one that sits on the CPU)



I wanted to install something which would display the fan speed.

Searching for dell fan speed utility all I found was

http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/ Dell Inspiron/Latitude/Precision fan

control utility



I installed that on my own Dell, a 4700 iirc, and it said it didn't get

a speed report from the fans. Is that typical? Or could the problem

be that maybe I have a Dimension. (I don't care if it works on my

computer, only my friend's)

Sadly, these older Dells do not have sensors that allow software to monitor and report CPU temperature or fan RPMs. Actually, I do not think any desktop motherboards from this era of Socket 478 CPUs and 845-or-865 chipset do.. That all became possible with Socket 775, and I am unsure which chipset (915,925,945,965,later?) first supported sensors. I have not kept organized notes on these newer Dell boxes like I did with the older black clamshells and black Mitac systems.

Interestingly, one enterprising person did write a utility for Dell laptops called I8KFANGUI. I8K was short for the Inspiron 8000, which had heat and ventilation issues. And I8KFANGUI ran on a wide range of older Dell laptops. I stopped using it when I stumbled across CORETEMP one day, because CORETEMP minitors temperatures perfectly well on a wide range of modern desktops and laptops. But not on one of the new Dell ones, the subject of another post for me this evening... Ben Myers

On Mon, 10 Feb 2014 20:53:39 -0800 (PST), Ben Myers
wrote:

On Sunday, February 9, 2014 1:46:14 AM UTC-5, micky wrote:
How to know fan speeds on Dell 4400? Maybe Dimension.



Can you recommend any programs that will do that?





My friend has a Dell, I think it's a 4400, maybe it's a Dimension.

The case is a tower, and in the back on the top and bottom there are

buttons, and it hinges at the front, so the left side opens up.



She's had problems with overheating aiui, and when I first opened the

case (Light was very dim and I didn't see the model of the computer),

when I opened the case, the CPU fan didn't seem to run after I turned it

on. Later though, it did, and maybe the fan is intermittent, like her

problem. (It's a pretty big fan at the back of the case at the end of

the shroud, Not one that sits on the CPU)



I wanted to install something which would display the fan speed.

Searching for dell fan speed utility all I found was

http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/ Dell Inspiron/Latitude/Precision fan

control utility



I installed that on my own Dell, a 4700 iirc, and it said it didn't get

a speed report from the fans. Is that typical? Or could the problem

be that maybe I have a Dimension. (I don't care if it works on my

computer, only my friend's)

Sadly, these older Dells do not have sensors that allow software to monitor and report CPU temperature or fan RPMs. Actually, I do not think any desktop motherboards from this era of Socket 478 CPUs and 845-or-865 chipset do. That all became possible with Socket 775, and I am unsure which chipset (915,925,945,965,later?) first supported sensors. I have not kept organized notes on these newer Dell boxes like I did with the older black clamshells and black Mitac systems.

Interestingly, one enterprising person did write a utility for Dell laptops called I8KFANGUI. I8K was short for the Inspiron 8000, which had heat and ventilation issues. And I8KFANGUI ran on a wide range of older Dell laptops. I stopped using it when I stumbled across CORETEMP one day, because CORETEMP minitors temperatures perfectly well on a wide range of modern desktops and laptops. But not on one of the new Dell ones, the subject of another post for me this evening... Ben Myers

Thanks Ben, BillW, and dg, I learned a lot.

On Sun, 09 Feb 2014 01:46:14 -0500, micky
wrote:

How to know fan speeds on Dell 4400? Maybe Dimension.

Can you recommend any programs that will do that?

My friend has a Dell, I think it's a 4400, maybe it's a Dimension.
The case is a tower, and in the back on the top and bottom there are
buttons, and it hinges at the front, so the left side opens up.

Yes, Dimension 4400.

Ben has explained that the older Dells didn't have sensors for fan
speeds** or temperature, and also it turns out my friend's problem runs
deeper than that. I came in in the middle.

**I assumed it did because the case fan has 3 wires running to it. I
thought that meant there was a speed sensor. Did they maybe just use
that fan because 2-wire fans were no cheaper or were even harder to get
in 2003 or so when the 4400 was made?


Anyhow, the deeper problem is this. The monitor is turned on and
warmed up before the computer, and yet it doesn't show the start-up
screens, with the Dell logo or whatever else follows. Yet on one
occasion, after a black screen, it displayed only what I'm calling the
start-up option screen, that gives a choice between normal, safe-mode,
etc. But not Dell Diagnositcs, that would be another screeen. It
was counting down from 30 seconds, and at about 10 seconds, the screen
went blank and that's all there was.

Except for some noises, maybe from the harddrive. Not what I would
describe as the clicking that came from a hard drive I had that had
failed. This involved an occasional click or thud, and the harddrive
light was lit, but nothing appeared on the screen.

1 Could it have overheated so quickly? We let it cool for 10 minutes
and tried again, and nothing at all showed.

2 I thought that until windows started to boot, all the other screen
display and info came from the BIOS and it was very unlikely that would
be erased, or that it could get to the start-up option screen if it were
erased. So how come it doesn't display anything at that earlier stage,
where it displays the logo and iss supposed to mention F12?

3. She has two harddrives but no idea why or when. The tag number
sticker doesn't seem to be on the box. The drives are arranged so it
will be easy to connect them via USB to my laptop, without removing
them, but I didn't have the connections with me at the time, and I have
to find a time when her tenant can let me in and help me. What I fear
will the be the case is not that the one with windows is broken, but
that both will seem good, and I won't know what to do.

4. If the one with windows is broken, I'd like to restore windows from
the hidden partitition , but that seems harder since that first screeen
never shows up on the monitor??? I suppose I can just keep pressing
F12.

Thanks a lot. This isn't my girlfriend so you're just helping out
someone who needs help. She's been using the computer at her job after
work hours for personal stuff, but I'm sure she'd be better off at home.

Sorry, this isn't worth the typing involved...P4, DDR, ATA, XP, if it was my best bud's I would trash it!