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April 2nd, 2025 17:21
XPS 8960, front fan failure
Was having an intermittent 'squeak' or 'chirp' sound emanating from my less than a year old XPS 8960 desktop. Tried to contact Dell support but they wanted me to ship entire pc back to them to diagnose. I opted to buy and replace the exact model # of this fan (delta model afb1212ej-01, dell p/n 76pc8-a00). However after replacing the fan, I now get an error when restarting pc saying the "front fan failed". Have verified fan is plugged into m/b and working. Is there a way to change bios to stop this error from occurring every bootup? Do not want to ship pc back to dell to resolve this as that seems inefficient and not very 'green'! Shipping me a replacement fan would be less costly for Dell!
ejn63
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April 2nd, 2025 19:20
If you've already replaced the fan to no effect, a second replacement is unlikely to solve the problem. It's more likely a mainboard issue. The warranty should cover the replacement, but I don't think you'll find Dell amenable to shipping that part for you to replace.
jrotten
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April 2nd, 2025 21:53
@ejn63 I was able to speak to a Dell Tech today & he said their policy is to have pc shipped to Dell to replace fan. I then asked for a supervisor and after he spoke to her, he was able to get authorization to ship new fan to me. Couldn't believe it but am very pleased. Will be happier when new fan arrives, is installed and problem goes away!!
ejn63
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April 2nd, 2025 23:21
But since you've already tried an OEM replacement fan to no effect, you're more likely to find the system needs a mainboard -- if the other new fan did not solve the problem, neither will the next one.
bradthetechnut
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April 3rd, 2025 02:32
@jrotten Please don't forget to let us know how it goes. :)
jrotten
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April 3rd, 2025 16:29
The fan I installed yesterday does not squeak or chirp, at least so far. The part from Dell is to arrive today and will install right away(as long as they send correct part)!
jrotten
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April 5th, 2025 14:01
@bradthetechnut , Rec'd the wrong part from Dell on Thursday(they sent a heatsink fan). Called them back & ensured they had the correct part number(previous rep never aske3d for it even though I offered) and part was rec'd next day!! Installed new OEM fan rec'd from Dell and voila, no more fan failure message at startup!! The fan I had originally replaced the 'squeaky' with was purchased from Amazon & looked exactly like the faulty fan other than the power cable was about 4-6 inches longer. Purchased it from Amazon because it had same model # & dell p/n. Hopefully, the new fan rec'd from Dell will not squeak!!
bradthetechnut
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8.9K Posts
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April 5th, 2025 21:41
One time an led fan I ordered from Amazon was not led and used and dirty. Somebody ordered an led fan and returned their used and dirty fan.
Glad you got your system working!! :)