CPU -fan- bios?
by George
(Ireland)
Hello. Whilst I'm no expert, I am familiar with the basics of the parts of a computer and pulling them apart and putting them back together again. Aquaintances come to me if they have problems with their computers which are usually computers I have given them, mainly old Dell's. As most of my pals are unemployed they can't afford to buy a computer and as they only want them for e-mail, facebook, twitter, Skype and the like I'm able to get second hand machines and put one together for them. More importantly for me, I really love doing it. Computers seems to be a "forever learning curve" and it keeps me occupied.
However every so often I hit a problem I can't get past and here I am. I've googled and not found what I need so it's time to contact an expert.
Up till now the computers I've been able to get cheaply and second or third hand have in the main been Dell's, some with everything still intact within, others completely cannibalised. The odd Dominion but mainly Optiplex's up to around the 240 or 260. These generally only have 2 memory slots, use the old DDR which has become expensive, and they only have an AGP slot.
My local computer repair shop who also bulk buy and sell old computers and parts and have been very kind to me over the years and knew I was looking for something cheap with DDR2 and a PCI slot rang me yesterday and gave me a Dell Optiplex 280 (and an Optiplex 270 mini desktop/tower) for 20 Euros. Their attitude is take them away and if you can get them up and running good luck to you. I have most of the parts and a good selection of memory at home and set to work immediately.
And now the problems of which there are 2:
1. The Optiplex 280. I inserted a DVD, 2 Gb DDR2, 320 SATA hard drive from my own computer(temporarily) and the floppy and cpu were already there. I connected the wireless keyboard and mouse and wi-fi internet and started her up.
The immediate problem is the CPU fan. It started getting louder and louder and faster and faster so much so that I disconnected it. Bear with me. I did have to switch the machine off and on a number of times after doing this but my main intention was to get a look at the BIOS. I couldn't get the monitor to show for some time but after messing around with a graphics card for a bit the screen came on eventually using the onboard graphics. I got the expected message - battery power low - press f1 to continue or f2 for set up. Went to f2 and up came the BIOS. While looking at the various info in the BIOS, the machine, apparently of it's own accord started a complete driver install or update. Any way it was at this point that I got the first of the now many messages - your machine has been shut down due to a thermal event. This message is beyond my knowledge of computers. I hoped the driver update might have helped in some way so switched her off, let her cool down, reconnected the fan and started her up again.
Same thing ever since. On start up the CPU fan goes steadily ballistic until I've no option but to disconnect it usually within 15 seconds of start up. I then get to hoke around the BIOS looking for what, I'm not sure, until I get the now regular thermal issue message. I know the disconnected fan is the most likely cause of the message but it is impossible to leave it connected as it just keeps increasing intensity in both speed and loudness.
I've been back to the shop and they gave me a second Optiplex 280 mobo and guess what, exactly the same outcome.
I don't know if this is of any use but the BIOS is A03-17/09/04 and the service tag is HJCND1J. If you need further specs I can try to get it to stay on long enough to run Speccy if thats any use.
Any ideas on where I can go from here. All suggestions greatly appreciated.
2. The Optiplex 270 mini. Wouldn't show on the monitor until I inserted a full size graphics card (unfortunately I've no low profile AGP cards) and when I did get the screen up it ran ok. The usual battery low message and time and date had to be set. I reloaded the chipset and then the onboard graphics and while still running took out the graphics card and connected to the onboard and no problem. Checked the hardware in device manager and all there (82865). Switched off and back on. Date and time need to be reset every time and the onboard graphics drivers gone every time. When I re-insert the graphics card she runs no problem. Can it just be a battery problem. Surely this should not affect the onboard graphics drivers. Again any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Apologies if this has been a bit long winded.
Many Thanks,
George,
