PSU fan chirping?

[Suppressor1137]

So I booted up my pc and can hear a constant, high frequency, low volume chirping from the PSU fan.

I'm guessing the fan is on it's way out, because it is faily old: 5/6/2011 purchase date.


With my headset on, it is inaudible. But otherwise fairly annoying.

How hard is it to replace the fan on a psu, and should I bother, or should I just replace the whole unit* I really don't want to if I can avoid it.*

 

[S_I_N]

should be easy enough but be very careful some components inside psu will retain a charge even after powered off and unplugged. I'm not certain how long it takes to dissipate there are others here that are more versed in that but imho a 6 yr old psu might just want to replace it.

 

[trents]

If you unplug the PSU and then push the case power button as if you were turning on the PC it should drain the capacitors. It's easy to replace a fan but if the replacement fan has a different connector you may need to do a little splicing and soldering. a lot of PSU fans only use two wires. The red wire is the power and the black wire is the ground. You would do well to choose a replacement fan of about the same amperage or wattage so as to maintain adequate cooling but not generate excessive noise.

 

[S_I_N]

I'm not sure that sufficient enough to drain the psu but it will be enough to drain the mobo

 

[trents]

I'm not sure that sufficient enough to drain the psu but it will be enough to drain the mobo

Well, to be sure of draining the PSU caps you could short across any black and any green wire at the 24 pin main connector and then attach a fan to a molex connector. Of course, this assumes the PSU's power switch is on. That way you would bypass the ATX power scheme built into the motherboard. I have done this a number of times with no problems.

 

[Suppressor1137]

okay, well, next month I'll buy a new psu. I'm not confident in my soldering skills, and with my luck, i'd drip some on the psu pcb like i did on a quad pdb. lol.

EVGA g2 or g3 is in my future.

600 watts is likely.

I'll give my current psu to my mom, as her psu is going on 10 years, and it is some no name budget psu

 

[EarthDog]

I like this solution... get a new psu.

There should be no reason to go inside a psu tk replace a fan on a 6 hear old psu.. let it die and move on.