Based on nonlinear mapping relationship between fault symptom and fan faults,probabilistic neural network(PNN) approach was presented for fault diagnosis.Then fault features were extracted from fan failures and the extracted features were regarded as fault symptom eigenvector.Fault diagnosis model and fault diagnosis algorithm were given using probabilistic neural network.The result shows that probabilistic neural network can overcome the limitation of local infinitesimal of BP,and can meet the requirement for fast diagnosis rate and high diagnosis precision during fault diagnosis process,so probabilistic neural network can be used in the real time diagnosis.And it shows that the fault diagnosis based on probabilistic neural network is useful.