Fan bearing in PSU bad?

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The VCR King

The VCR King

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At least once a day my power supply begins making an awful loud grinding noise and it vibrates but if I open my case and open-hand smack the top of my power supply the noise stops for awhile. Is the fan on it getting ready to go? I wouldn't be surprised either with my dumb luck anyway.
 
You should be able to answer that just by listening to it while the side panel is off or listen by the fan.
 
I have never in my whole life seen a user with so many computer problems. No offensive, but for the love of all things holy buy name brand crap. LOL Well, what brand is the PSU and how old is it? Ideally, you should replace a PSU every five years or so. If the PSU goes it could take out your whole system.


And never, I mean NEVER monkey around with the inside of a PSU. The caps carry a hell of a lot of voltage and amperage and WILL kill you. Always just buy a new PSU and toss the old. Wearing gloves means nothing with high voltage. Just don't do it. Do you want to see your next Birthday, Christmas or New Years Eve? Perhaps get laid again? Think for once.
 
It's interesting to me since you were very scared to build or touch a PC, but you don't have a problem proposing popping open a PSU. This is very backwards.

Given the problems you get yourself into, I'd just replace the PSU. You could also try RMAing it since you didn't buy it that long ago.
 
Ah, just read his Sig. Has a Thermaltake. I have never had a PSU go bad. I would indeed see if you can RMA that. In my time of buying PC parts I have bought nothing but PSUs from FSP and Antec, and all have performed well. But I suppose it's possible to get a dud every now and then. I see this a lot reading Newegg reviews. Some ass hat gives a score of one egg all due to a fluke quite frankly and everyone else gives rave reviews. If it were me, I'd RMA the damn thing, wait a while, then give feedback. If I still had an issue then I'd be obligated to leave a bad review. Then I see some people leave bad reviews for things they know nothing about or had other expectations. I think reviews should be allowed only by verified purchasers and you have to wait at least three months tops. But then again, I'm a no nothing clown. LMAO!

The VCR King said:
I wouldn't be surprised either with my dumb luck anyway.
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I can't telll you how much money I blew on the lottery never to even make $3 bloody dollars. A month ago when Mega Millions was pretty damn high I bought about $25 in tickets. You'd think I'd win at least three bucks, but nooooo. Murphy and his BS law can screw off! Now I just buy one or three tickets at any one time, and I play the same three sets of numbers. So I figure by the time I retire I may hit the damn thing as my numbers will surely come up. Then it will be at that precise moment I drop from a massive heart attack or I'm stricken with cancer. And that's my luck and how my life works.

My aunt often said lifes a bitch and then you die. Well guess what. She was in her 50's and got cancer and died. WTF s that?! My cousin, too died of cancer in his fifties. But that was more than likely due to all of the alcohol he consumed. In the case of my aunt, that was more than likely cigarettes. She was always meaning to get a colonoscopy, but never did and paid for it. So when you turn 50 DO get your ass checked. It's not that bad really. I had one, ,but I was 25, and that was for other reasons. I'm 37 now and when I turn 50 I'll schedule one. But make damn, DAMN sure you have a Doc that has years and years of experience. I can't stress that enough. I've known of a pfew people dying due to colonoscopy F-ups.

Anyways.... Luck, if I didn't have bad luck I wouldn't have luck at all. Such is life. I hope I come back reincarnated as someone filthy rich. And here some 25 or so year old wins the lotto in Florida and another young punk in NJ. Go figure. Pisses me off. Think about the possibilities that little bastard will have. A helicopter, nice cars and fast woman. LOL Fer!
 
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If the PSU has a bad fan then it can be easily fixed and safely (if can't RMA).

Novice:

1. Unplug PSU
2. Discharge PSU, you can this by pressing the computers power button or by bridging the green wire on the psu to any of the black ones, 12v won't shock you, unless you lick the wires (don't of course), but if you do somehow mix up the wires you could cause damage to the psu.
3. Remove psu from computer
4. Release 4 screws to open the psu and release the other 4 mounting the fan.
5. Cut the fan cable and cover the ends with shrink tubing using a lighter. Its important to make sure there are no exposed wire anywhere.
6. Mount a powerful molex fan (high amperage), on the outside of the psu blowing in, so it will be screwed in on the other side.
7. Connect this to a molex power connector, as the fan can't be controlled by the psu it will be necessary to run it at full speed all the time.
8. Once reassembled and mounted in the pc, check the psu has good airflow. Put the psu under load and make sure it does not get hot, warm is normal, but not hot.
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If you know how to use a multimeter and soldering iron:

1. Unplug PSU
2. Discharge PSU, you can this by pressing the computers power button or by bridging the green wire on the psu to any of the black ones, 12v won't shock you, unless you lick the wires (don't of course).
3. Remove psu from computer
4. Release 4 screws to open the psu and release the other 4 mounting the fan.
5. Cut the fan power connector, leaving enough cable to solder the new fan.
6. If the fan wires are red and black, then its running at 5v, if it using a yellow and black cable then its 12v. In both cases you can use a 12v fan, use one with the same amperage than the original.
7. Put shrink tubing over the cables and then solder the new fan on, black cable to black cable, red cable to red cable or red cable to yellow cable, shrinking the tubing over the solder points.
8. Reassemble the psu making sure the cable won't interfere with the fan.

I have a psu with a bad fan that needs replacing, I guess I could guide with pictures or maybe a video, if anyone wants me to :)
 
Agent Smith said:
I have never in my whole life seen a user with so many computer problems. No offensive, but for the love of all things holy buy name brand crap. LOL Well, what brand is the PSU and how old is it? Ideally, you should replace a PSU every five years or so. If the PSU goes it could take out your whole system.


And never, I mean NEVER monkey around with the inside of a PSU. The caps carry a hell of a lot of voltage and amperage and WILL kill you. Always just buy a new PSU and toss the old. Wearing gloves means nothing with high voltage. Just don't do it. Do you want to see your next Birthday, Christmas or New Years Eve? Perhaps get laid again? Think for once.
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LMAO at the first part of this post.

As for the rest of it...screwing around inside a PSU is not THAT dangerous. I'm an electrical engineer by the way and I work inside of guitar amplifiers all the time (tube amps), which are far more dangerous. Now if you don't know what the hell you are doing I wouldn't recommend it, but 12 volts is not going to kill you. In fact 120V is unlikely to kill you, unless you connect two hot leads directly to your heart.

The PSU should be totally disconnected from the MOBO, wall outlet, removed from the case, and discharged before anything is done. If you wear gloves you won't have any problems.
 
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The caps in a PSU are more than likely carrying some serious amps, and if I can remember right it only takes like a 1/10 of an amp to hit you right to kill you. 120v mains will kill you if it hits you right. In fact, there was a recent story out of Perth where a little girl got shocked from the water faucet outside and died. There was some sort of misswiring in the house. But it goes to show you that even standard mains voltage can and WILL kill you. Never mind the punch a capacitor can put out. I have read many times over that PSUs are dangerous and in fact there are no serviceable parts. Well, to the untrained there aren't.

Based on the OP's level of computer competency, I would NOT recommend you mess with the PSU. It may sound like a simple easy fix, but touch the wrong thing or do something wrong and it's 6 feet under. It will be your final mistake and there's no respawn.
 
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Agent Smith said:
The caps in a PSU are more than likely carrying some serious amps, and if I can remember right it only takes like a 1/10 of an amp to hit you right to kill you. 120v mains will kill you if it hits you right. In fact, there was a recent story out of Perth where a little girl got shocked from the water faucet outside and died. There was some sort of misswiring in the house. But it goes to show you that even standard mains voltage can and WILL kill you. Never mind the punch a capacitor can put out. I have read many times over that PSUs are dangerous and in fact there are no serviceable parts. Well, to the untrained there aren't.

Based on the OP's level of computer competency, I would NOT recommend you dick with the PSU. It may sound like a simple easy fix, but touch the wrong thing or do something wrong and it's 6 feet under. It will be your final mistake and there's no respawn.
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You are correct, roughly 0.1A DIRECTLY THROUGH YOUR HEART can stop it. But to get that 0.1A through your heart requires a lot of voltage applied across your chest or even more across your arms. Capacitors do not "carry" amperage. The amount of amperage in a circuit depends entirely on the voltage available and the resistance of the circuitry (amperage is current flow and is created by voltage). I say it again, 120V is unlikely to kill a man, I've been electrocuted by it numerous times. It is unpleasant for sure, but its not going to kill you. A little girl who is wet or in water, that is worse case scenario right there.
 
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I'm not arguing. If that's how I'm coming across then that's not how I feel. Just pointing out to the OP he should never service any parts in a PSU.
 
gillmanjr said:
You are correct, roughly 0.1A DIRECTLY THROUGH YOUR HEART can stop it. But to get that 0.1A through your heart requires a lot of voltage applied across your chest or even more across your arms. Capacitors do not "carry" amperage. The amount of amperage in a circuit depends entirely on the voltage available and the resistance of the circuitry (amperage is current flow and is created by voltage). I say it again, 120V is unlikely to kill a man, I've been electrocuted by it numerous times. It is unpleasant for sure, but its not going to kill you. A little girl who is wet or in water, that is worse case scenario right there.
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So true, its really hard to die by electrocution from your average household electrics, you need the right amperage in just the right place and that requires you to be really unlucky. I was electrocuted by 240v in the UK when I was a kid, it lock my fingers to the wire and it hurt, but I just walked away like nothing happened. Also been electrocuted here in Spain by 220v a couple of time and basically ignored it, fortunately skin is a great insulator causing great resistance and will greatly impede the flow of current (amperage). Don't try it though, avoid it at all costs, because you might be unlucky and end up dead.
 
Agent Smith said:
Ah, no.
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I hate to come back to this but actually...YES. He is correct. Skin is designed to protect us, and that includes from electricity. Look it up, the resistance of the human body under normal conditions is very high (around 100,000 ohms), and a lot of that comes from our skin. That can drop rapidly under other conditions (being wet for example) but most of the time it applies.

Again, I wouldn't recommend that anyone "play" around with a PSU if they don't know what they are doing (primarily because they will probably damage the PSU or the MOBO, not themselves). And I would agree that there are probably very few components that can be fixed in a PSU, but the fan is probably one of them. He wouldn't be putting his life at risk to replace a PSU fan, its not that dangerous. As long as he doesn't do it in a bathtub full of water with the PSU still plugged into the wall, he'll be fine.
 
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