Anyway to diagnosing a laptop fan issue without physical access to the fan?

"Well I wasn't able to find any tools to get readings on the fan at all even in the BIOS and Dell support wasn't much help. Since the problem was started after I used compressed air to clean the fan area I did just the opposite...

I connected a hand held vacuum to the fans vent areas and sealed of the area around it. I then turn on the vacuum and sucked out bunch of dust that I must have blown in. After that I started the computer back up and the fan started to work again :)"

Contact Dell support, they might have a program to help force turn it on. If it is not running however when the laptop is hot then most likely it is broke, or a loose cable.