Error In XP Post at Boot

[Doc Watson]

On either a cold boot or a restart my XP system has been stopping during the post process at boot time displaying a "previous fan failure" error and requiring me to hit the F1 key before I proceed.

I don't play much in the boot sector (never interested me) and don't know how to make this error go away. I've checked in Device Manager and opened my case with the system running to physically check the fans and find no problems.

This seems to have begun early this year when I was hit with the phony malware warning bug that trashed my MBR. I recovered from that without any residual harm, I thought, but wonder if this could be related to that because of the MBR problem. But regardless of the cause, I want the machine to finish the postup and boot without my intervention to hit F1.

Thoughts ??

[stuck]

If the error occurs during POST then the message is coming from the BIOS. Reboot and hit the relevant key to get into the BIOS. Somewhere in there there will be a setting about displaying warnings. You will be able to clear the warning.

Ken

[John Gray]

There are a number of possible solutions found on Googling the message, the one I like being to "switch off 'Report Keyboard Errors' in the BIOS"! Seems unlikely, but worth a go...

[stuck]

This will be a 'helpful' message from the BIOS, I've seen DELL PCs do something similar if you open the case they then on subsequent boot/reboot you get a warning about the case being opened previously. It only goes away if you find the relevant line in the BIOS and reset it.

Ken

[Doc Watson]

Thanks for the reply Ken. As I said, I don't go into that playpen often and am cautious. But I will give your suggestion a go and report back. I'm away from that PC at the moment, but should get to it by week's end.

John... I'll try your suggestion as well. But, I don't recall my keyboard having a fan.

[Doc Watson]

To update... I went into the Bios and found no mention of the fan. However, doing John's trick of switching off "Report Keyboard Error", while not removing the error message from the post sequence, it does not halt the post and require me to strike F1 any longer. One for Mr. Gray.

[stuck]

You found no other entries in the BIOS that looked as if they were about error reporting and/or allowed you to reset them?

Ken

[viking33]

To update... I went into the Bios and found no mention of the fan. However, doing John's trick of switching off "Report Keyboard Error", while not removing the error message from the post sequence, it does not halt the post and require me to strike F1 any longer. One for Mr. Gray.

Hey Doc,
What brand of BIOS do you have, such as Award or some other one?
Some of the fan alarm setting are buried away and kind of obscure.

[Doc Watson]

You found no other entries in the BIOS that looked as if they were about error reporting and/or allowed you to reset them?

Ken

Not one that makes sense or is in the correct time frame.

In the System Log in the Bios (Promis, I believe, Bob) there are 6-8 entries between 7/25 and today indicating a CPU fan found to be "Out of Range". Seems to be an entry for each reboot since July 25th. The issue has been around since March.

[Sundog]

... indicating a CPU fan found to be "Out of Range".

On anything that might be heat-related, like a fan error message, I'd run Speccy (http://www.piriform.com/speccy/download, [free by clicking the Download from link, or donate via the Buy Online button]) from time to time to see if any temperatures are in the red, or tending that way. Click on the bar chart to the right of the temperature to see a real-time temperature graph.

CPUtemp.docx

[Doc Watson]

... indicating a CPU fan found to be "Out of Range".

On anything that might be heat-related, like a fan error message, I'd run Speccy (http://www.piriform.com/speccy/download, [free by clicking the Download from link, or donate via the Buy Online button]) from time to time to see if any temperatures are in the red, or tending that way. Click on the bar chart to the right of the temperature to see a real-time temperature graph.

CPUtemp.docx

Thanks for that.

I grabbed a copy of Speccy and it seems that both my drives are running a bit warm. The primary is steady at 53 C and the secondary is a rather warm 57 C. It's a 7 year old XP box, so I'll look into getting a larger fan or adding one to the case.

[Sundog]

The primary is steady at 53 C and the secondary is a rather warm 57 C.

If you click on Hard Drives in Speccy's left-hand menu, it displays a lot of drive info. On my system, my drive is running at 92F/33C, and Speccy says Temperature Range ok (less than 122F/50C).

However, I don't know where Speccy gets the drive temperature range. I'm certainly well under the indicated max.