Technical Forum

ok so after the 5th tech forum question on my computer i am thinking maybe it is time to think about a new computer :)

for the past week when i turn my PC on i get a black screen with an error reading "CPU fan not detected". The first time i didn't hear it, so i vacuumed and turned it off for a bit and then it started working again when i turned it back on later.

now i get the error message sporadically even if the fan is indeed working and i am not sure why.

are there certain wires i should take a look at to make sure everything is plugged in properly? or is my fan just starting to die on me? do i need a new one even if i see it spinning there? is this something i can just go buy from the store and install myself? if it is indeed spinning, is there at least a way to bypass this dumb error message?

if you reply to any of those questions i will greatly appreciate it :)

thank you.

It could be that the wires that connect to the motherboard are a bit loose. There should be at least 3, maybe 4 depending on the fan. One of them connects the sensor that detects whether the fan is running.

If you're in the mood for some real tech reading, try your error message in Google - you'll get lots of hits.

i knew you would have an answer for me :)

and yeah, i kind of drowned in the links i was finding, so i tried here in the hopes that it might be a little more simple than they were all making it sound.

i guess i will try to tighten the plugs and see if that helps.

it occurs so randomly that it just doesnt make sense why.

Yes, well it could well be a loose connection - as it heats up and cools down it could be losing contact.

I had fan problem once and got strange errors. This was not the main fan on the housing but the little flat fan that sits across the big chips on the mother-of-a-board. It was running intermittently so I finally went to a computer fix-up shop after doing all the cleaning and checking that I could. They replaced the fan for 7dollars for the fan and 45dollars for the effort and I still can use that computer for running my printer and scanner. I have since bought a more up-to-date model for doing internet and business but keep the old one for the tasks mentioned.
Not sure which fan you are having trouble with but the computer fixit guy told me that I brought mine in to him just in time before too much heat built up on the main chips.
I am not too smart about computer but I did get lucky. Hope you do too.

oh no. thank you very much for the info...perhaps i should consider getting it looked at then :/ good thing you caught that in time. thank you :)