The rear case fan makes noise when booting, but goes away after boot complete. I've been trying to find a replacement case fan, but I'm confused about the wording on one I found on eBay: "If the 3 pin connector does not fit, you should use the 4pin molex connector, the ones that are used by the CD-ROM, hard drive, and DVD optic drives. When using the 4pin connector, the fan will work just fine. However, your computer may think there is no fan installed because of not using the motherboard connector. You simply can turn off the fan detector to avoid warnings." Does anyone know if the Dell Dimension 2350 case fan is a 3 or 4 pin? Are they difficult to install?

From what I can tell, the case fan also functions as a CPU fan. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like a standard fan mount, so you may have a little difficulty installing a standard case fan. I could be wrong, though; I'm looking at a pretty grainy picture. Since it's connected to the motherboard, it's a 3-pin fan. "The rear case fan makes noise when booting, but goes away after boot complete." What kind of noise? If the fan revs up during the POST/boot process and slows down after 10-20 seconds, you have nothing to worry about. Both of my computers give a blast of air at start-up, but quickly quiet down after POSTing. The Quad-Pumped Super P3: Pentium M Dothan @ 2.82GHz (166x17) 3GB PC6400 @ 667MHz 9600GT Blu-Ray Modified PowerMac G4 Quicksilver case Homebuilt 1080p projector Vista SP1

yeah i believe the 2350s have that green plastic wind tunnel that holds an 8x8cm fan over the cpu heat sink, and points out the back of the PC. The fan has four holes per side (1 per corner) which are often used for screwing the fan onto the case. The plastic wind tunnel piece has rubber posts that poke through the screw holes on the fan and hold it in place. Just be careful not to break the rubber when you remove the old fan and install the new one. as for 3 or 4 pins, the point is that you should be able to use either - it depends on the fan. Some fans will only have a 3 pin, some only a 4, but many will have both, though only 1 should ever be used at a time. If you want the bios to control fan speed and report rpms, you need to use the 3 pin and connect it to 3 pins on the mobo (they'll be labeled as case fan or cpu fan or something). if there's no spot on the mobo and the fan supports a molex (4 pin) connection, you just plug in a cable from your PSU the same way you would an old IDE HDD or CD/DVD drive.

Thanks for your reply, Jack. My concern is that I'm afraid if I take the existing one out, I won't be able to install the new one. The noise is like a fast clicking that, as I previously wrote, goes away once everything's running. Bearings? Are the bearings on a case fan? The noise started only a couple of weeks ago. Would be great if it was normal, but I don't think it is.

Yes, upandcoming, the green cover is called a shroud. Easy enough to take off, as I did it when I cleaned the inside of the CPU the other day. You lost me at the end of your post. I don't know all the lingo. What's PSU? Thanks.

yeah, the "shroud," thanks =) PSU = Power Supply Unit I think if you slide the green shroud off and unplug the fan as you do, you'll see how easy it would be to slip the current 8x8cm fan out and stick another one in it's place. because yeah, a clicking like you're describing is usually bearings in the fan or something like that. the 4 pin molex power connector: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped... that's the power connector that you plug into most optical drives, older hard disk drives (HDD), some video cards, and some case fans.

Take a look here: http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/... "So won’t you give this man his wings What a shame To have to beg you to see We’re not all the same What a shame" - Shinedown