Increasing the Fan Speed!

[BroMama]

Is there a BIOS Option to increase the Fan Speed on an HP 8300-CMT?

If so, please describe how to get to it>

Mike

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, Mike:

There is a way to increase the fan idle speed.

See the service manual, chapter 3, bottom of page 27 for the location of the fan idle speed setting:

c03612798.pdf

[SDH]

Latest BIOS is 3.08. An excellent post on how to safely update to that is HERE from Paul Tikkanen... it describes how to update BIOS from within BIOS.

Your answer:

F10 into BIOS, go over to the Power tab, go down to the Thermal section there, shift the arrowhead over to the right to boost system fan speeds to what you want, F10 to accept, press Esc key twice to back out to the File tab, choose to save changes and exit, answer Yes, hit the return key.

Note: you may be able to add a front case fan in the area below where the hard drives or SSDs are. My recall is that the tower (CMT) version has a space there for that and possibly had a black plastic fan holder for that which you might still be able to locate. Or, you can do a "Ghetto Mod" with velcro and a HP case fan that are easy to find on eBay.

[BroMama]

"Note: you may be able to add a front case fan in the area below where the hard drives or SSDs are. My recall is that the tower (CMT) version has a space there for that and possibly had a black plastic fan holder for that which you might still be able to locate. Or, you can do a "Ghetto Mod" with Velcro and a HP case fan that are easy to find on eBay."

I will need to install the Bios Upgrade. My HP 8300 CMT is at a lower level, lower than 3.08. I did go into the existing BIOS however, but there is no POWER TAB in it. I'm hopeful there is an upgrade in 3.08. With regard to the Fan, I'm going to go with a SLUM SOLUTION and hope that will keep things Cool. If you can, please refer me to HP Case Fan you mentioned and help me locate the "a space there for that and possibly had a black plastic fan holder for that". I have the PC in question opened up and I do not intuitively see what you're referring to. Thanks Mike

[SDH]

At the top of this page is a picture of what is a "Elite 8300 CMT" business class computer. Yours?

HP Compaq Elite 8300 Convertible Minitower PC - Setup and User Guides | HP® Support

Take some time to review the resources available. In particular:

F10 Setup overview for 2012 HP Business Notebooks and Desktops

The Power tab I was referring to is shown along the top when you F10 into BIOS, also known as Power Menu. The tabs start with File, then Storage, then Security, then Power, then Advanced.

You can look on eBay for HP Case Fan. An example that comes up can also be found by searching there for "HP Elite 8300 8200 Pro 6200 6300 Cooling Fan Foxconn PVA092G12H 92x25mm 4wire" and note the reddish brown plug end on the end of the wires... that is the HP type of case fan plug end you'll want, and you might be lucky enough to have a motherboard with an available unused case fan header near the front bottom motherboard corner:

They also come smaller...

Here is your reference guide, and you want to focus on the Convertible Minitower (CMT)  section of the 4 in there:

https://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c03347207.pdf

You may need to add a splitter for the PWM fan to feed off the rear case fan. You'd attach the fan low up front on the inside of the metal case where available perforations are. You'll need to be creative... hence the Ghetto Mod designation. Add a fan grille to the inside face of the fan to protect adjacent wires in the case. Have the fan blow inwards because you want cross flow from front out the back. Fans blow towards the fan label, shown in the pic above. You want a relatively low amperage fan as shown by the 0.40A value on the label in the pic. HP cases are engineered to cool best with the side cover on.