I’ve tried running the diagnostics in the BIOS and the fan just doesn’t respond. It’s usually somewhere around 6,000 RPM.

It’s worth noting that we did send it in to Dell for repairs multiple times over the Yellow Light of Death (which turned out to be caused by a dead CMOS battery). After the last time it was sent in they basically told us to never contact them ever again. At that point I took a look inside the computer and found that it had the battery was wrong (it’s supposed to use a CR2032 and the battery in the unit was around half the size of that).

I don’t think that’s the issue, but thanks for trying. The computer is an Alienware Steam Machine (my sister gave me it after she got a new computer) and all the parts are stock except for the CMOS battery. It’s worth noting that it didn’t actually have the fan issue until after I replaced the battery, but it also didn’t boot at all before doing that. These things are notorious for the CMOS battery issue, but the fan issue seems unique to mine.

The fans in my computer are perpetually in MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE. I assume it’s some kind of hardware issue that’s beyond my skill. Literally nothing I’ve tried has worked, so I just live with it. I just wish it didn’t always sound like it’s ready to takeoff.