Ever had a power supply fan fail?

[Jonathan59]

Talk about a quick way to overheat a computer! happened with my AMD 486dx4 120Mhz & the CPU didnt have a heatsink or fan!

 

[Zorba]

Never has happened to me. But I know some people that have lost theirs. Usually no big deal, unless it happens at night with no warning.

 

[Mikewarrior2]

Yes, but only on a cheap generic Power Supply.


Mike

 

[Vortak]

Yup, sure have, on a couple of machines in fact. However, both times the fans let me know they were on the brink of disaster by making a pile of noise. The fans are fairly easy to replace, if you have enough courage to get past the Do Not Open warnings on the power supply.

 

[NaughtyusMaximus]

..Good timing.

I just bought an old AT case w/ 200Watt PS. It cost me all of $5, and I took it home to find that the fan doesn't work. I didn't realize that it wasn't working till after around 24 hours of running the computer (486DX2 66). Nothing seems to be overheating, but I'm wary of leaving it like this.

 

[odog]

hell yeah... anyone that ever works in a computer store will encounter this... it's the other bad noise, but still far better then the worse of the two.... HD noise... nothing like having to tell someone that thier HD is toast... and they have to spend $$$ if they even what to attempt to recover the data

 

[Windogg]

I had one fan in a old AT power supply fail. It also made a hell of a racket which game adequate time to find a replacement. Overheating wasn't an issue on the old 386-16 which didn't have a heatsink anyway.

Windogg

 

[JellyBaby]

Never had a PS fan die, or even make excessive noise. But case fans? Oh yeah. And CPU fans as well. Seems these have historically been cheaply made. I do feel today's more expensive fans last longer and don't violate noise statutes nearly as often.

 

[Stark]

What's really fun is when they start smoking and sparking. I once took my computer to europe and an associate plugged it in without switching to 220v. I thought at m-80 went off in the room! Luckily the mobo and everything else survived. The power supply literally had stuff inside blown to pieces.

 

[PCAddict]

I've seen a few of them in my time. Most of them made noise before they crapped out, but a few didn't.

 

[corkyg]

Several times over the past 10 years or so. It is usually when the P/S has a sleeve bearing fan (Cheap!). It lets you know usually in advance by noise. They are easy to replace with good ball bearing fans.

It really ain't no biggie. Remove the P/S . . . remove the fan holdingscrews. Clip the two wires. Replace the fan. Splice the two wires. Replace the P/S. Back in business.

 

[gerbz]

One day a buddy calls - wants me to check out the noisy fan in his new computer.
Next day he calls and tells me not to bother, fan is quiet now, he loves his new machine.
The next next day, he's in a panic - his computer exploded ! it only smelled awful by the time I got there, but unbelievably, the only thing damaged was the power supply itself.

 

[dszd0g]

<< Yes, but only on a cheap generic Power Supply. >>



Two of the times I've seen it has been with Antec power supplies. Although some people on here seem to consider Antec power supplies cheap Happened to one of my roommates and he took one of his case fans opened up the power supply took a soldering iron and swapped the fan. Back up and running in under an hour.

 

[robisc]

Yeah, I had one die on a Dell Optiplex server, don't know how long it was down, but that box was pretty warm.

 

[cavingjan]

I had the fan of the power supply from my old Dell 486 crack apart and started making all kinds of noise. Shut the system off and popped the power supply cover so I could get at the fan. Poor boy at the time,so I decided to grab a tube of model cement from the hobby shop around the corner. That was 4 years ago. Still running like a champ. That case has seen more motherboards than anything else I own.

 

[jamarno]

Several retail boxed AMD K6-2/500 chips with Delta brand fans - would buzz because their rear sleeve bearings were too tight (most ball bearing CPU fans have just one ball bearing, at the front). A drop of oil (never WD-40 or silicone) fixed them for good.

About a dozen power supply fans jammed up because of dirt or melted and distorted thrust washers (sleeve bearings rarely fail unless they're plastic). Two fans failed electrically, each with a burned coil.