Thanks westaust55, the plan is to run the fan at full speed.
In the past when I played with PICAXEs I just have been using an old cell phone charger or a 5V regulator with batteries. This time I need 12 volts for the fan and I figured I would use my regulator, not with the caps I now see in the manual, off the same power supply. It took me a while to figure out that my issues was with my power, or at least I think so. I now have the 12V supplying just the fan and another power supply for the PICAXE. I have no clue why this happened and am left wondering by not using the capacitors, like the in manual 1, pg26, all would be well.
Jarubell