Additional Card Cage Fan Needed - Dell 8400 Solution

Alert! Additional card cage fan needed for PCI Express card over 75 watts. — That’s probably the message many of you have seen and hopefully I can help remedy it for you. The main reason I am blogging this is to help save others the frustration I went through to troubleshoot, research, order, and install this darn card cage fan.

So I purchased my Dell Dimension 8400 a while ago and decided to upgrade the video card to a GeForce 6800. After doing so, I started getting that message everytime I booted up. I’d have to hit F1 to continue which was annoying. So after some trolling through Dell’s support site, I finally discovered my problem wasn’t unique. In order to satisfy my machine, I needed to purchase an auxilary blower fan.

Ok….so to the right is a picture of the fan which obviously doesn’t have much to it. You’ll need to call Dell Spare Parts (800-372-3355) and purchase this part number:
H3840 Auxilary Blower Fan for an 8400 PCIe video card. I actually picked one up from eBay for under $9.00 + shipping so I’d recommend that route. I think Dell charges $20 or something.I was excited when my fan arrived (sad huh) because that stupid boot message will soon be gone! So I got home and popped open my computer ready to plug the sucker in. Well, I’m a pretty tech-savy guy and very comfortable working with computer components but couldn’t figure out for the life of me where this thing is supposed to go. Of course the package from eBay didn’t come with any sort of directions (maybe ordering it from Dell would’ve been a better idea after all).

My solution for pretty much anything I can’t quickly figure out is a little known site called GOOGLE. After over an hour trying to find a diagram of some sort of instructions, I finally came across a Dell forum post that led me in the right direction. “The install instructions were on page 89 I believe”…actually they were on pages 86-88. Thank you AZtoSD! So here are the instructions from the pdf Dell 8400 online manual.

Card Fan
NOTICE: PCI Express graphics card that run higher than 75 W require an additional cooling fan. Otherwise, your card could overheat and damage your computer.

If a card fan is not present in your computer and you are installing a graphics card that runs at 75 W or higher, contact Dell (see page 123) to find out how to purchase a card fan.

Follow the procedures in “Before You Begin” on page 59.
If spare drive rails are installed on the inside of the computer cover, remove them by gently pulling the rails up and out.
Slide the card fan bracket onto the hooks on the inside of the computer cover.
Press the top edge of the card fan bracket toward the computer cover until it clicks.
Route the card fan cable through the cabling slots.
Plug the card fan cable into the card fan connector (PCI FAN) on the system board (see page 71).
If you removed drive rails in step 2, you may attach them to the side of the card fan bracket for convenient storage.
Close the computer cover (see page 104). NOTICE: To connect a network cable, first plug the cable into the network device and then plug it into the computer.
Connect your computer and devices to their electrical outlets, and then turn them on.
Cross your fingers

So hopefully after you follow these steps, your machine is happy like mine was and didn’t display the boot fan message. I can’t say this solution will work for all machines since there are always so many edge cases, but hopefully it will. Feel free to comment below or provide any questions or other resources to this post.

13 Comments Already

Jeff Hopkins Said,

October 25th, 2006 @3:20 pm

Thank’s worked like a charm. The internet is an amazing tool

David Said,

October 25th, 2006 @3:28 pm

Hi Jeff, glad you didn’t have any issues and the article was useful!

david Said,

November 18th, 2006 @4:38 am

i installed the fan and got rid of the alert but still get the press f1 or f2 before it able to be boot up to run. what do i need to do to eliminate this action?

David Cowgill Said,

November 18th, 2006 @12:25 pm

Hi David-

Glad you were able to get rid of the alert but I’m not sure why the f1 or f2 action is still there. Seems like your computer is aware of the new fan but doesn’t completely aknowledge it. Sorry I can’t be of more help!

DJ Said,

December 6th, 2006 @9:56 pm

what BIOS (AO_) are you running for this to go away? i have been dealing with this message for a couple years and the last time i checked it out (maybe about 18 months), getting the fan installed did nothing to the alert.

thanks

December 9th, 2006 @2:06 pm

Hi DJ, I’m using bios A09. Have you upgraded to the latest? That might help.

vps hosting Said,

January 2nd, 2007 @1:11 pm

Great support post David, i think this should work out with quite a lot of people who face the same problem.

April 3rd, 2007 @8:38 pm

Thanks vps. Glad you found it helpful!

DaSwissDude Said,

June 13th, 2007 @10:00 am

My card (a X800XT from ATI, which came with the PC, no error message though), has been running at near 100°C (Scary) , so i was wondering if such a fan would help, or even work.

I cannot really see how it works, as it looks like its recycling air from inside the case. I was thinking maybe a an Artic Cooling solution ATI Silencer 5 (Rev. 2, http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=61) might be more effective, dut i have no idea if it would fit beacuse of the holding brackets of the PCI-e in the Dell, plus its not Dell-certified.

What do you think? Which one might be better?

BTW im in Europe, im currently working with dell support to find something (but its getting nowhere).

mel few Said,

July 22nd, 2007 @3:22 am

thanks for this posting. i found it interesting and helpful. i wonder whether you could advise which pcie card you upgraded to? Reason for asking is that my son has acquired the new Microsoft flight simulator programme, and with 2gb ram memory the graphics still stutter along.

the card installed (as per Belarc analysis) is ATI Radeon X300/X500 series with (i guess 128mb). THe ati site shows this product as obsolete!

the handbook for my 8400 mentions 75w or greater causing heating issues.. but can you advise which card would be appropriate for upgrading to say 512mb?

appreciate your advice.

Thanks
Mel Few

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vernerkids Said,

October 8th, 2008 @9:20 am

I’ll preface this comment by saying I will never purchase another Dell again. (Unfortunately I have 3 in my home already.) Their tech support is useless. I tried in vain to order this exact fan as I was having the same problem. However, I did not know the part number. They kept referring to the fan I was ordering as the CPU fan. I gave them the model number of the fan itself and they still couldn’t get it right. Then after sucking it up and placing the order, they call the next day (unknown caller came up on the caller id) to say they couldn’t find the part so cancelled the order but had found it after all and wanted me to give them my credit card number again. I said no…I’m not giving my CC info to someone who calls and I can’t verify their identity. Then I found this post (after HOURS of browsing blogs.) At least now I know the actual part number. I was right in my original fear that Dell was going to send me the wrong fan. They would have. The really distressing part of my story?? David found his part on Ebay for $9….I couldn’t find one anywhere so had to order if from Dell after all…to the tune of $108. God I hate Dells.