Dell - ERROR 404: CPU Fan Failure

For about ten days now, I haven't been able to boot my computer properly. Every single time I try, I'm greeted by ERROR 404: CPU Fan Failure. Since I don't really wrap my head around this kind of hardware stuff, I have no clue what this actually signifies or how to stop it from popping up constantly. If anyone out there could offer some advice... I'd appreciate it.

This message basically means your CPU fan is acting up—I'm not entirely sure what went wrong under the hood, though. You should probably jump into the BIOS and check those temperatures, specifically the one for the processor. It might also be worth opening up the laptop just to see if that cooling fan is actually spinning like it's supposed to.

Larry Ortiz5 said:This message basically means your CPU fan is acting up—I'm not entirely sure what went wrong under the hood, though. You should probably jump into the BIOS and check those temperatures, specifically the one for the processor. It might also be worth opening up the laptop just to see if that cooling fan is actually spinning like it's supposed to.

Alright, thanks for the quick reply. Looks like a trip to the repair shop is unavoidable after all.😢>

It really depends on what we're looking at here. It could just be a massive buildup of dust—like, enough to actually choke the fan and stop it from spinning altogether. Or, you might have just had a hardware failure where the fan itself bit the dust and needs a total replacement. Honestly? I think a trip to a repair shop is probably your best bet to get this sorted out.

Larry Ortiz5 said:It really depends on what we're looking at here. It could just be a massive buildup of dust—like, enough to actually choke the fan and stop it from spinning altogether. Or, you might have just had a hardware failure where the fan itself bit the dust and needs a total replacement. Honestly? I think a trip to a repair shop is probably your best bet to get this sorted out.

I doubt it's dust. The thing is practically brand new; I haven't even had it for three months. This whole mess started right when it was running an update. I was in a rush, so I forced it to shut down before it hit 100%, and ever since then, it's been acting up. Though, who knows? Maybe that didn't have anything to do with it.🤷

Wait, so you're saying that before you even get into macOS, you're getting an error about the CPU fan? What does it actually say? Does it give you an option to ignore it, or does the system just boot up normally into macOS right after?

Larry Ortiz5 said:Wait, so you're saying that before you even get into macOS, you're getting an error about the CPU fan? What does it actually say? Does it give you an option to ignore it, or does the system just boot up normally into macOS right after?

It displays ERROR 404, followed by "press F1 to enter setup, F2 to resume." If I hit F2, it boots up fine. If I hit F1, it takes me straight into the BIOS settings.

Try hitting F1 to jump into the BIOS and see if the CPU fan setting is enabled under the settings. While you're in there, you might want to take a quick look at what the actual CPU temperatures are looking like.