Precision M4600 Owners Lounge

Hello,

There seems to be an issue with the motherboard of a M4600 in my possession. The (tiny) slot for the graphics card fan is apparently cracked, which effectively renders the discrete GPU as unusable.

Would there be a method to fix this? Without replacing the motherboard or buying a new unit?

Please respond.

 

I guess I'm not sure what you are referring to when you say "tiny slot for the graphics card fan," do you mean the fan header that it plugs in to? Perhaps a picture would help us as well.

 

I apologize for the confusion. The header in to which the fan plugs, yes. It is labelled "FAN2."

 

How bad is it? Can you fix it with a little bit of tape or something similar? Are the pins for the fan still ok? A picture would probably worth a thousand words in this case...

 

It is not...as bad as it could be; the far side of the connector is merely split from the rest of the body. Tape would not be sufficient, but perhaps a form of glue would work (what kind to use I am afraid I would not know). The pins for the fan appear to be fine and, indeed, it passes diagnostics when that split portion is pushed toward its original location before reinserting the fan and turning it on.

I am sorry for not including a picture before. Enclosed is an attachment of the type of connector to which I refer. I have drawn yellow in the image to indicate the affected portion of the connector.

 

That's a lucky break, since it is only in the plastic part of the connector and the pins/electrical parts are still good. I'm not sure how to fix it. It seems to me that something like gorilla glue would work for a while bit it would be tricky to apply and might come loose after some time as the system is jostled around. If it is possible to insert the fan connector into the socket in a way that gets a good connection (even if it is loose), I personally would just glue the connector into place and call it a day. It would be a pain if you ever need to remove it, though.

 

That being said, the board is like 20 bucks on ebay so worse comes to worse shouldnt be too hard to replace for most.

 

samething happened to me. worst in my case i used crazy glue or cyan glue the glue ate part of the board according to the guy that looked at it. all you have to do is solder the fan wires to the pins. on mine a guy did it for me but unfortunatelly after soldering cause of the glue i used the volatge was -1 i need it 5V. so i end it up using a 2 wired fan soldered to a usb cable. it doesnt look nice a white usb cable coming out of the laptop where the lock is all i do if i need to cool gpu plug usb cable fan is direct all the time and unplugged when not need it.
lucky you still can get just the pins solder to the fan.

 

Thank you for your thorough reply. I would not know which type of glue to use. Ideally, it would be repaired without this. Do you believe that a repair of that connector would be possible without replacing the motherboard?

I have tried to write to DELL support, but I am not sure if there would be any fees incurred for using the Chat system for an out of warranty machine. Surely it would be possible to repair without replacement by DELL support specialists?

I have purchased a motherboard; thank you for your suggestion. However, I would rather work with the current board first, particularly as it has the Intel ME disabled (which the recently purchased motherboard does not). If it is not feasible then the motherboard could be replaced...

I am sorry to read of—and I can emphasize with—your experience. Thank you for your suggestion of using an external fan.

Would you know of whether it is possible to repair this connector without replacing the motherboard?

 

With the prices of motherboards at this point, I think that it would be more economical to just replace the board. I would get one from a third-party source (eBay/etc) and not from Dell, and just replace it yourself. Dell has all of the steps listed in the manual which you can find at support.dell.com. Repairing the connector is probably possible but I don't know what materials/glue to use, you'd probably want to talk to someone who specializes in electronics repair.