My daughter is getting a scraping sound from the fan blade on her power supply. If she turns the case on it's side, the sound goes away. It's loud and annoying. Here is a picture. Can the PS be opened and the blades cleaned, or replaced? Or is a new PS the only solution?
Thank you.
TRS
If you're comfortable and qualified to work around electrical components that have the ability to deliver a lethal shock then yes, the case can be opened and the fan replaced. Make sure the system is powered down and unplugged from the wall before you start. Even after doing that, it's still possible that there are capacitors within the PSU case that still are charged with enough voltage to cause injury or possible death.
All of the potentially lethal voltages that exist in your computer are contained within the metal case of the PSU, as long as you never open that metal case, there are no lethal voltages that you can come into contact with. You may still get shocked or possibly burned but the 12V and 5V voltages that are present within the computer case are not high enough to cause death.
open the PSU case with a phillips screwdriver & remove the screws as strollin suggested, therealsimpsons.
other than that, get a new quality brand PSU like Corsair, Antec, OCZ, Enermax or even Seasonic.
Until you look, you'll never know for sure!
I've opened up hundreds of PSU's and never even got a shock. Once it's unplugged from the line power, and still connected to the motherboard and drives, it will totally discharge in just a few seconds.
If the noise seems to be coming from the fan, then it's likely to be some foreign object that's crawled in there or has been inserted by some small 'Someone'. You would not believe the things I've seen poked into a desktop PC. Take a look! If it's not something you can fix yourself, then you can always get a new PSU, but that one is a Single Rail (1x12v rails) 450 watt unit and typically NOT JUNK. It's better than what most new PC's come out with today. Single rail and 230 watt are more typical, even with major brand PC's.
If I opened that one up, and found that I could quickly repair it, I would. But once you get it open, look at the tops of the little metal can type capacitors. They should all be perfectly flat. If any (even one) has its top bulging or with yellow or brown deposits on it, it will have to be replaced. (Unless you're qualified as a Board Level Repair Tech.)
Good Luck,
TechnoMage
Is there something in the picture I (we) are missing?
It looks like 2 other fans in pic. Maybe something (wire?) is touching the fan blades on them, causing the noise and tipping the computer moves them? away????
The fan on cpu?? looks like it needs a cleaning.
Inside those psu's, most everything is zip tied or glued down solid. Could be the fan bearings are shot.
Try unplugging the fans 'not' in the psu! & see if noise goes away. Unplugged fans for a few minutes/seconds arent gonna allow cpu to get too hot, dont leave it on too long tho, , , , ,
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