Cpu fan has failed. PC will automatically power down

[Redart2]

I have 9 yr old Pavilion elite hpe-560z. I thought I will clean the cpu fan. So, I took the fan off, just the fan not the heat sink. I cleaned it up, screwed it back on, but forgot to connect the pin. The desktop tried starting, but shut down.

I connected the pin back in the motherboard and push the power button. Now, I am getting an error message saying “Cpu fan has failed. PC will automatically power down”. Although, the fan is spinning fine.

I read somewhere that there is a BIOS setting to deal with this, but I cannot even get to bios. It shuts down before that.

 I appreciate any help. 

[old_geekster]

@Redart2 , welcome to the forum.

It sounds like the old girl didn't like the fact that you removed all of her protective dust! 😉

Seriously, I believe that a glitch occurred because you didn't connect the fan properly before trying to boot the system.  I suggest that you try Clearing the CMOS to see if that helps.  Here is the Motherboard Specifications page: https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-pavilion-elite-hpe-500-desktop-pc-series/5035344/model/50610...

There are instructions at the bottom of the page for Clearing the CMOS.  The CMOS is a chip that stores the settings for the BIOS.  Once you clear it, the glitch may be solved.

[Redart2]

Thanks for your reply. I did reset the CMOS as per the instructions, but that did not help.

Any other ideas :). 

Do I try replacing the fan?

[old_geekster]

@Redart2 

Since we are dealing with 9 year old parts, it wouldn't be a stretch to think that the fan just happened to fail when your working on it.  There isn't much that can be done if clearing the CMOS didn't solve the problem.

One last thought!  You might want to take the connector lose from the fan header and use some canned air to blow in the end of it and on the fan header.  This is a stretch, but who knows what will cause a fan to not register.

[Redart2]

Thanks, I will try that. I am also ordering a replacement fan. 

I don't understand well the hardware side of things. My current fan is 3 pin type. If I order something generic, like this

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KF7T9MI, would that work? Or, do I need to look for some specific things?

Thanks for your help.

[old_geekster]

You are welcome, @Redart2 

The generic fan may or may not work with a HP motherboard.  HP has their motherboards made to their specifications.  Here is the exact fan on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/HP-5188-3722-System-Fan/dp/B001U0JZDC

Also, here are all of the components for your computer on HP PartSurfer: https://partsurfer.hp.com/Search.aspx?searchText=XX094AV

None of them are available from HP because of the age of the computer.

[Redart2 · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I just wanted to let you know that the issue has been resolved. It was a dumb mistake on my part. I had the fan plugged into OPT_FAN port instead of CPU_FAN port on the motherboard. The two ports are so close together and the optional one is orange so it is more noticable.

Thanks for all your help!

[old_geekster]

Thank you for the update and admission of guilt! 😉  Believe me, with my old eyes I done things that I can even explain.  The parts in a computer seem to get smaller as I age.

I am glad that you solved your problem.