Dell 690 card-cage fan failure
Timothy Daniels
desktop, a "Dell 690", and after a couple months
one of the fans starts howling like a vacuum cleaner,
and the BIOS reports a card-cage fan failure.
Since the PC is "used", there's no warranty,
at least not after 30 days, and the Dell parts guy
says he'll reimburse us $40, but we must both
supply and install the fan ourselves. And, oh!,
he recommends we buy it on eBay for $25, since
Dell Parts would probably charge us 3 times as
much.
Now the question arises: Are the replacement fans
found on eBay that say they are Dell parts and have
the Dell part nos. really any good? Why would a
card-cage fan fail in the 1st place, and why are
supposedly genuine Dell parts sold on eBay for 1/3rd
the Dell retail price?
*TimDaniels*
JayB
just make sure the person you are buying them from is good.
also, why not try calling dell parts directly for that part.
you may be surprised.
also they sometimes have coupons for 10% off floating around.
my only question is why did you only get 30 days???
any refurbished computer bought from the outlet has a fresh 3 yr
warranty. you should not buy refurbs from other than dell.
jay
William R. Walsh
> So my cheapskate company buys me a refurb
> desktop, a "Dell 690", and after a couple months
> one of the fans starts howling like a vacuum cleaner,
Thought about popping it open and working on that fan? A little bit of
light machine oil is usually all it takes.
http://www.dansdata.com/fanmaint.htm
I've done it lots of times, that's the first and only article I've
seen written about it. (Not that I've looked.) After you do, the fans
usually just keep right on going.
Heat will make most Dell fans run faster, as they have a thermocouple
on the fan that regulates speed. Cold seems to play hell on the
bearings, at least in the JMC/Datech fan that Dell used in some
systems. I have two OptiPlex GX400 with the Datech fan and it gets
very noisy or stops totally when the room is below 40 degrees
Fahrenheit. So too does the Datech fan in a Dim2400 box.
> Why would a card-cage fan fail in the 1st place
Age, cheapness of bearings, maybe it ran hard in your system?
> and why are supposedly genuine Dell parts sold on eBay for
> 1/3rd the Dell retail price?
Because lots of companies bought those parts to service machines back
when they were new...or because Dell themselves had an inventory of
them sitting around for warranty repairs. Today they're trying to get
some money out of them to recoup that investment, and they're hoping
that they won't have to throw them away.
There is no shortage of Dell parts on eBay. You can get parts for just
about anything they've produced in the last eight years or so,
especially common stuff like power supplies and fans.
I once bought a Latitude D800 docking station (two of them, actually)
from a seller who had thousands. All were brand new and in the Dell
box. I think it was more than a coincidence that said seller was in
Texas.
William
Timothy Daniels
> Timothy Daniels wrote:
>> So my cheapskate company buys me a refurb
>> desktop, a "Dell 690", and after a couple months
>> one of the fans starts howling like a vacuum cleaner,
>> and the BIOS reports a card-cage fan failure.
>> Since the PC is "used", there's no warranty,
>> at least not after 30 days, and the Dell parts guy
>> says he'll reimburse us $40, but we must both
>> supply and install the fan ourselves. And, oh!,
>> he recommends we buy it on eBay for $25, since
>> Dell Parts would probably charge us 3 times as
>> much.
>>
>> Now the question arises: Are the replacement fans
>> found on eBay that say they are Dell parts and have
>> the Dell part nos. really any good? Why would a
>> card-cage fan fail in the 1st place, and why are
>> supposedly genuine Dell parts sold on eBay for 1/3rd
>> the Dell retail price?
>>
>> *TimDaniels*
> [....]
> my only question is why did you only get 30 days???
> any refurbished computer bought from the outlet has
> a fresh 3 yr warranty. you should not buy refurbs
> from other than dell.
> jay
I don't know, I didn't do the purchase - the LAN admin
did, and he says that either the warranty has either run out
or there wasn't one. He's very defensive about his job, and
he doesn't give details. Meanwhile, I'm using my personal
laptop at work.
*TimDaniels*
Timothy Daniels
>> So my cheapskate company buys me a refurb
>> desktop, a "Dell 690", and after a couple months
>> one of the fans starts howling like a vacuum cleaner,
>
> Thought about popping it open and working on that fan?
> A little bit of light machine oil is usually all it takes.
The LAN admin won't let me even move the case,
let alone open it. He's very possessive about the
equipment he manages.
> [....]
> I once bought a Latitude D800 docking station (two of them, actually)
> from a seller who had thousands. All were brand new and in the Dell
> box. I think it was more than a coincidence that said seller was in
> Texas.
>
> William
Yup, the sellers of these card-cage fans are in Texas, too.
*TimDaniels*
William R. Walsh
> The LAN admin won't let me even move the case,
> let alone open it. He's very possessive about the
> equipment he manages.
Not that I'm advocating dishonesty, but if no other fix is available
AND he's not around...
"Well, I don't know. It just seems to have stopped making that noise."
If your system admin is a BOFH*, better to stop now.
Some Dell systems do have "tattler switches" inside, however. These
can produce a POST message to the effect of "ALERT: cover was
previously opened" and might be able to tell desktop management
software that such things took place. Or they can be silently tripped.
> Yup, the sellers of these card-cage fans are in Texas, too.
I am sure that these fans probably came directly from Dell, or from
someone very close to Dell at some point.
William
* The BOFH is a revenge-oriented system operator:
http://bofh.ntk.net/Bastard_Indexes.html (late 80s-1999)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/odds/bofh/ (2000-present)
Timothy Daniels
>> Not that I'm advocating dishonesty, but if no other fix is available
>> AND he's not around...
>
> "Well, I don't know. It just seems to have stopped making that noise."
>
> If your system admin is a BOFH*, better to stop now.
Yup, a BOFH. Rather than buy a fan for $25 from eBay,
he put WD40 on the fan's bearing and re-installed it.
*TimDaniels*