So even if the cover isn't all the way up and the knob isn't engaged the fan should have still begun to spin? Right? I think that's how my 14 speed is. It needs to have the knob pushed up and engaged and it will bottom out when its all the way up and dead ends and stop the motor. So the only thing I can guess is shut the main power off to it and see if it resets or something. Mine has a remote control with soft touch and it rings a bell about removing batts. I have never had that happen so I'm just guessing in the way that I boot my phone or computer when it has a glitch. Again, just a wild guess.