Yesterday my old windows 7 workhorse, a Dell Precision 690 (2 x Quad 3.75 ghz Xeon's/32 gig ram) started booting with a BIOS error:
"System thermal solution compromised. Replace system cover and reboot"
A side effect is that all system fans (they are many and large) go into ludicrous speed and the result is 100db of noise, so you can't really use the computer!
Some quick googling revealed this is related to the system intrusion detection switch located at the rear of the case:
The switch has a plastic plunger that is depressed when the case in closed, open the case and the plunger goes up - triggering the system intrusion function.
No problem - right? I go into the BIOS, system, security, and set the intrusion detection to OFF.
Save and reboot and...same ERROR
Internet suggestions included:
"System thermal solution compromised. Replace system cover and reboot"
A side effect is that all system fans (they are many and large) go into ludicrous speed and the result is 100db of noise, so you can't really use the computer!
Some quick googling revealed this is related to the system intrusion detection switch located at the rear of the case:
The switch has a plastic plunger that is depressed when the case in closed, open the case and the plunger goes up - triggering the system intrusion function.
No problem - right? I go into the BIOS, system, security, and set the intrusion detection to OFF.
Save and reboot and...same ERROR
Internet suggestions included:
- removing all USB devices - what how would that help?
- Cleaning out the dust (done in the spring during it's annual maintenance &checkup. You do this right? But it is not a heat problem as it occurs at boot. It the CPU was overheating you would get either a boot at reduced speed or a cpu thermal event error message
- resetting the cmos
The last one seemed reasonable so i did it by removing the battery and the password jumper. No joy, same ERROR at boot. I was contemplating removing the massive heat sinks and cleaning the cpu's and re-pasting them as a measure of last resort when my brain finally started working. It's the intrusion detection mechanism that is causing the problem...so
First i removed the mechanism entirely by unplugging the cable and taking it out. Rebooted and the same ERROR. (even tho the intrusion detection is turned OFF in the bios)
So if the bios setting is overridden by the mechanism we have to make sure the mechanism does not continue to think the case is open - viola! The mechanism is at fault - maybe the plunger is not being depressed far enough or something...
Turning to the IT person's secret weapon - duct tape, we tape down the plastic plunger so it is fully depressed and then put the intrusion detection mechanism back into the computer BUT place it sideways facing the front pressed up against the metal so there is no way the plastic plunger can not be depressed.
We boot and SUCCESS - no error message and the PC is purring along so quietly like it used to do when new...
This problem seems common with all the precision workstation models so try it on your 380 or 490 or what have you.
7 comments:
Just wanted to say thanks for saving my sanity.
I literally just went through the entire process you described, and was about 2 seconds from pulling the heatsinks and applying new thermal paste.
I figured before I did that I would take one last look online and found this post.
Funny thing is, I already had my intrusion switch taped down. But I ran the process of disabling it, removing it, and then putting it back and somehow that magically worked.
Cheers for taking the time to post and save others some headaches.
Really a very fine way to express and looking a very pleasant article with full of healthy information. I am definitely going to tell in my class about this platform and the information shared here. Very well written.
Catalyst C2960X 24
Dear Barrett,
thank you for the solution.
My "old windows 7 workhorse", a Dell Precision 490 had the same problem.
Thank to you, I managed to solve it.
Nik
Dear Gord, even if this post of yours is about 4 years old: my prob was fixed too -many many thanks a lot from Berlin for your very comprehensive description. Nevertheless I've an alternative suggestion. I sticked a thin piece of veneer at the side of the metal cover (or any hard piece of other stuff would do too). This would press the detection knob closer down....and it helped too. But I'm so thankful bec of your remarks so it saved time to solve this -Thank you regards, Alexander
Hi Gord,
Thanks for the post, it helped solving the same issue with my Dell T5400. In the end the switch was replaced by a jump wire. Some pictures of the opened switch can be found at https://bosiki.home.xs4all.nl/T5400.html
Best regards,
Chris.
Hola mi dell T7400 de la nada me dio este error "alert! system thermal solution compromised. replace system cover and reboot . No pude encontrar algo especifico...hablaban de varias causas... incluso de cambiar la pasta térmica..algo que hice...pero un comentario me ayudo..cambiar el swich de la tapa..o el sensor o boton que marca que el gabinete esta sin tapa... lo mire ...vi donde estaba la conexión a la placa y lo apreté un poco y listo...un falso contacto...me estaba preocupando...si esta roto obvio hay que cambiarlo pero puede que solo sea un apretón.. suerte, Luis desde Uruguay
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