Dell XPS 700/720 - Fan Control

Pimp Ninja

Google has not been my friend for the last 2 days.

The system started as an XPS 700, but got a motherboard upgrade to the XPS 720.

Fan wise there are 2 large (120 mm ??) fans.
One cooling the CPU heatsink, and one bringing air in the front panel.
When you power the PC on, they run at full tilt for about 2-3 seconds and then slow right down.
But they never change their speeds.

Currently I am getting the odd bluescreen with all 000's for the registers, so Im figuring its an overheating shutdown. These can happen at any time, during games, refreshing a web page, hanging out on IRC.. complete randomness with both application, and percieved load on the system.

What I have done is take the side off the case and this seems to have improved - i.e. no bluescreens with the side off.

I checked the BIOS, and there are no options there to control the fans.
I also did an update to the latest version, but there is no change in options available on the Bios.

In the hopes of trying to control the fans to get them to run faster, I downloaded SpeedFan (Ver 4.42) - this app gives me the temps of the cores, and stats on the useage of each core. The weird thing is that it appears to tell me that I have 5 fans running at 0 RPM.
Also it does not seem to allow me to change the speeds of the fans as it already has them listed as running at 100%.

I also downloaded Core Temp (Ver 0.99.8) in the hopes that this could control the fan speed, but I cant see any options to do this.

Any ideas ??



TL DR Version - Im trying to increase the speed of the fans on my Dell XPS because I think its overheating

Pimp Ninja

Replying to myself here

I downloaded CPU-Z to check what chipset my mainboard has.
Now I'm downloading the appropriate version NForce Driver, and version of Nvidia System Tools.

Here is hoping that this works....

Pimp Ninja

Sad Panda
The driver 15.53_nforce_win7_32bit_international_whql.exe didnt want to install - error saying no such hardware detected.

Going for 6.06_nvidia_system_tools to see what I can get out of it anyway.

clacks

Sorry I've no advice but I have an xps 720 too and have a few BSOD's a week. Never could figure out why. Probably something to do with Dell's ****ty BTX motherboards. Anyway good luck with it!

Pimp Ninja

Pimp Ninja wrote: »

The driver 15.53_nforce_win7_32bit_international_whql.exe didnt want to install - error saying no such hardware detected.

Going for 6.06_nvidia_system_tools to see what I can get out of it anyway.

OK figured out why it wouldnt install - needed to download the 64bit, not the 32 bit.
Did that and updated.
Rebooted and tried the system tools but the fan options are all greyed out.

uberpixie

Would you consider a manual fan controller?
(if you are getting no joy from the speedfan software?)

Sample 1) http://komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_01COM/13_COOLERS/04_FANCONT/productdetails/15488202/ZALMAN_ZM_MFC3_System_fan_speed_controller/ZM_MFC3/default.aspx

Sample 2)http://www.peats.com/cgi-bin/catalog_v2.cgi?id=26171&type=product

Or something similar from the supplier of your choice?

Pimp Ninja

Thanks Uberpixie.

It is looking like fan controller may be the way to go.

Having a look at a few different fan controllers this morning - Im wondering as these seem to connect onto the motherboard fan connections, is that right?
Older models I remember connect direct to the PSU molex connectors, as did after market Fans I had before.

I suppose Ill start by figuring out what size the fans in my case are, and work from there...

Gamtu

I have an XPS 720

I have been looking for software or hardware for about 4 years now that can control the fans in this thing without success.

Dell built this computer so that you can not control the fans period.

There are a number of other things they did that have made it impossible or impractical to alter or change the way they built it.

There are a number of issues with regards to controlling the fans. One is that the fans are 4 pin (PWM). All other computer fans in the world are 3 pin.

If you just buy a couple 3 pin fans and a 3 pin fan controller thus leaving the 4 pin connectors empty on the motherboard the computer may not start because it can't find the 4 pin fans that are supposed to be connected to it.

If you can find a way to convince the motherboard that the fans are installed and working properly when they are in fact connected to something else, and find a fan controller that accomodates 4 pin fan connectors (two of them preferably) you'll have your problem solved. You will be able to increase the fan speed.

They do make fan controllers that will accomodate a 4 pin fan but then there is the issue of leaving that connector empty on the motherboard. Also some of the controllers I've looked at have only 1 4 pin connector and the rest (if it has multiple connections) are 3 pin.

sorry for all the bad news. It's just what I've found so far in my research of this problem.

One thing you can do is put a 120mm fan on the back of the case. Dell must have accidentally put 4 holes there that will accomodate a fan for the rear. I suggest getting a powerful fan that will move a lot of air to help vent the case. Dell also acidentally included additional power connectors off the powersupply that will accomodate any fan type. I dont know what graphics card(s) you have if you get a 400 series nvidia card the power consumtion is lower than the old nvidia cards (8800's) that came with these machines and thus you build up less heat. I personally put GTX 460's in there from MSI (HAWK). I did these things and the heat problem is better. My power supply no longer gets hot enough to boil water to.

Good luck

Gamtu

I think I found something

Heres a link to a PWM fan controller. It's not pretty but it might work.

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/11617/bus-233/Zalman_PWM_Mate_-_Automatic_Manual_PWM_Fan_Controller_-_Black_.html?tl=g47c17s240#blank

Gamtu

Well unfortunately the PWM MATE has a different connector than what is on the Dell XPS 7xx systems.

Dell Actually put a five pin connector on a 4 wire fan.

Gamtu

Well with some rearrangement of the cable wiring The Zalman PWM MATE will control the fans on the Dell XPS 7xx - 720. Thankfully the good folks over at FrozenCPU.com were a big help with getting this sorted.

I hope other XPS owners see the postings I'm making about this. I think I might actually be the first person ever to gain manual control of the XPS 720's two front fans.