Have a Dell docking station and the fan is driving you nuts? Loud fan is spinning up forever and longer than it ever has?
Short answer: It's a known manufacturing defect affecting many Dell docking stations. No, it's nothing you did. It's just bad luck. There is no settings you can change, no drivers to update, nothing. The only 100% way to fix it is to get another one.
So...lets suppose you are using this for work, and it's driving you nuts...but you aren't getting a replacement from your work for XYZ reason. Is there anything else you could do?
Yes.... You can covertly disassemble the box, disconnect the fan, and reassemble it. WAIT, WHAT? !!- what kind of reckless idiot would disassemble their work's hardware? What if you get caught, or if you burn down the house, or cause an explosion? It's 10 screws - that's all!! Summon your inner James Bond. Search YT for another vid titled "The Dell WD19DC dock disassembly and assembly"' as of Feb '23. Or just search for "dell docking station disassembly".
Result: The fan won't bother you anymore. Think about it, how often did you hear it turning on before it went bezerk? There won't be any indication you deleted the fan from the outside after you reassemble - even the foam pad sticks back very well. You could even add the fan back in when you need to return it to IT at a later date. Think of all the peace you'll inject back into your life !! And you'll have a story for the grandkids too!
Wait, won't this cause the unit to overhead eventually? Won't it break the computer?
The computer doesn't seem to notice. Some users said they receive a error somewhere (ie, fan not attached, etc) and they have to dismiss it once per boot.
As for the overheating - it's a risk, but I think it will be fine. If the unit overheats, it should fail isolated from you computer. Then you just detach it, tell work you need a new one ASAP, and continue working without it.
What do you think?
