I checked in a computer the other day for a customer that really grilled me over the phone about whether or not we could fix her computer problem. She mentioned how she had a CPU Fan alert at boot-up, but she was able to work around it by pressing F1 which would allow her to continue using the computer normally, only now she said her computer was infected, which is what she was primarily calling about.
As for me, I was more concerned about the CPU Fan issue, while she mostly wanted to talk about the infection. If her computer was infected, that wasn’t a problem for us because we specialize in virus and spyware removal. But the CPU Fan can be a serious problem because heat is the primary killer of CPUs. The cost to replace a CPU and Fan would be more than double the labor cost for removing any malware.
As it turned out, her computer only had mild infections and her problem was overheating. She thought the weird performance was because of a virus. Anyway, she knew about the fan issue for some time, but was led to believe it was okay and all she had to do was press F1 to bypass the Fan Alert. Sadly, the current fan problem was caused by another PC Technician that she paid to fix her computer before me. No wonder she grilled me in the beginning, because she was obviously not happy with the work from the previous PC Technician, and wanted to make sure that we would do the job right.
If you bypass alerts and continue to use your computer, especially thermal alerts, it is very possible to experience sluggish operation , errors, and freezes similar to what you might experience with a bad malware infection. Think of these alerts as the 104 degree fever, you got to get to a Doctor ASAP!
To make a long story short, when she brought the computer in for repair, I immediately removed the side-panel to checkout the CPU Fan before I even attempted to power-on the system. What I saw surprised the heck out of me and I immediately wanted to know the name of the so-called PC Technician that performed this hatchet job on her CPU Fan. She couldn’t or wouldn’t tell me, so I just assumed that it was a friend or one of those fly-by-night guys on Craigslist or from some sign posted by a freeway ramp.
The fan was not mounted onto the heatsink with any screws. Instead, it was loosely strapped down with 2 zip-ties (nylon tie-down straps). Anyway, the fan was not mounted flush and center over the heatsink, not to mention that it was very dirty as well, so I’m sure that there was a heat problem. Today’s CPUs get hot enough to melt your finger prints, so proper cooling is a must! To make matters worse, the original fan had a 3 wire connection and this fan was rewired for a 2 wire connection. The missing 3rd wire is for monitoring fan rpms.
I took a picture of this fan before I removed it, although I had already cleaned off most of the crud. As I always say, even a cheap computer can last you a long time if you keep it clean & cool and use a UPS.
A note about repair guys. Don’t ever settle for a repair like this unless it is an “emergency” and there are no proper replacement parts available. To put it in car terms: zip ties, chewing gum and bailing wire should only be used to get you from being stranded in the desert to the next town where you can get it repaired properly.
For a truly Professional Computer Repair, Call 676-1900
