When I turned my PC on, it gave me a screen that said "CPU fan error". Should I be worried about this? What should I do?

10 years ago*

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Open your case and check if that stupid CPU fan is running ?

10 years ago
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Not sure if it's safe to do that while the computer is on.

10 years ago
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It should be. If you don't feel comfortable, open the side panel first and then start up your PC.

10 years ago
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Good idea. I'll try it. It does seem like the computer isn't making as much noise as usually.

10 years ago
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First, take off the side cover of the pc, then turn it on. Now either the fan turns or not.

if it does: Go buy a thermal- leading - pasta (in your next computer shop), then de-electrolyse by hitting something that is grounded with your hands (Like the side plate of the pc laying on the ground), take off the fan as shown in the instructions of your mainboard / cpu and put a whole lot of the pasta on the cpu (DONT TOUCH IT! ONLY WITH A TOOL/PLASTIC!). When it is creamed evenly on the cpu, get the fan back on

If it does not: Turn the pc off, get a vacuum cleaner, then put it on LOWEST ENERGY, hold the fan (or take it off the mainboard completely as shown in instructions) so that it does not move (important! Otherwise it will act as motor and may damage your cpu) and get the dirt and stuff out of the fan.

10 years ago
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boot-up fan-errors are caused by a missing-spinning signal...either the fan is not running or something else causes it...it´s not the thermal cpusensor, so i think i can skip the thermal grease part.

to clean the fan is always a good advise, simple solution putting a toothpick in the fan..so you can clean with full power :-)

10 years ago
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I've now started up my computer twice, and the error hasn't appared anymore. The fan does seem to be working. Could it have been just a false positive? Or should I still do what you said?

10 years ago
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  • remove power from the pc.
  • open the case
  • an clean all with a vacuum, hold fans or fix them with a toothpick, to let them not spin .
  • if possible, you can also plug out the power/signal cord of the fans while cleaning,but don´t forget to connect them after that.

It´s possible that you have huge amount of dirt in your pc/fan that sometimes prevented to startup the fan

something like here

10 years ago
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Alright, thank you both! I din't actually notice than you and EddyGaming were two different people due to the similar avatars.

Edit: The fan doesn't look like that even slightly. I did open and clean up my whole computer a few months ago, so there's barely any dust right now. But maybe the dust could be inside the fan somehow?

10 years ago
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it´s possible....it´s also possible that bearing of the fan is the problem....lubrication...depends on the type
a problem with the bios, signalgenerator or cable is unlickely, cause you said the error is gone for now
if nothing helps, replace the fan...

10 years ago
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