CPU Fan fails after LM repaste. Any thought?

Dear all,

I have repasted my 17 R4 (7820HK) recently with Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut. After repaste my CPU fan doesn't work at all. On first inspection, I realised I was too careless and plugged the fan cable wrongly. However, even after correctly replugging the cable, the CPU fan still doesn't work, it doesn't spin at all. ePSA Error Code is 2000-0511. The fan can be manually spun as well as the GPU fan, which currently works fine.

(Additionally, in HWiNFO64 with EC Support on, the software can no longer detect CPU Fan speed and GPU Temp.)

I have searched online and there are few posts with the same issue. (Same issue thread here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/cpu-fan-failure-in-diagnostics-mode-on-15r3-and-17r4.798160/)

Solutions I've gathered so far are:

1. Update BIOS. This doesn't work as I've tried reapplying the K1.0.9 BIOS update or downgrade to 1.0.8. I also update the Alienware Command Centre to the latest version. But all these doesn't fix the problem.

2. Removing the heatsink and 'check if you have liquid metal shorting one of the cpu/gpu pins' as @Mobius 1 suggests in the included thread. I've repasted yesterday and should've cleaned everything but still the CPU fan doesn't work, while everything else works fine. I've also used air-spray to blow the fan pins and socket. I wonder if some LM had been spilled into the fan.

I've submitted a support ticket but not yet received any response from Dell.

Any other people had encountered the same problem and had a solution? Any thought or advice be much appreciated. Thank you.

 

did you actually break the cable?


maybe got something stuck inside fan?

 

If it worked before and now if doesn't it has something to do with the fan pins since you inserted it back in the wrong position. My guess is by you forcing the connector into place backwards you messed up the pins on the MB for the CPU fan connector and if so, try and get a magnify glass to see if this is the case and use a tiny screw driver and bend the pins back into place or just move it a little to make it spaced better.

 

Best case, the fan has failed and needs to be replaced or you damamged the cable. Worst case, the LM damaged something and the MB is mad at you

 

you need a mMultimeter to check the electricity continuity from the fan soldering point to the little pins that plug on the motherboard ... that is easy to do

 

Unless you have accidental coverage you might not get much help from Dell as they've said that without that any damage that occurs while preforming a re-paste is unlikely to be covered.