Question about PSU fan

if i took a guess i would say the one that plugs into the PSU is the power source and the one that plugs into the motherboard is a way for the motherboard to monitor fan speed etc which is likely not even needed.

but unless you really need that fan i would probably just leave it unplugged especially if you already got a decent fan to pull air out of the case. it's possible the PSU does not get all that hot to really need a fan too much especially if you already got a decent fan pulling air out of the case.

my case just has one 120mm fan pulling air out of the case and that's it as far as the case goes. my PSU has a fan on it also and i just checked it a moment ago and it is spinning but my guess is my computer does not tax it all that much as i don't have anything that really drinks the power.

with that said... my PSU does not have any plug for it's fan as everything fan wise is contained within the PSU box. i got a Seasonic PSU which has a 5 year warranty which means i got about a year left on it as i think it was Nov 2012 when i installed it.

either way, if you have to invest much into fixing it, it's not worth it considering you can get a decent PSU for a reasonable price.

p.s. i would just keep the case/PSU/CPU/GPU area as clean as possible of dust as i typically blow out my case thoroughly about twice a year (in fact, it's probably due for a cleaning with air compressor which blows a lot of air). but if your place is really dusty you might need to do that more often.

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I need to replace one of the fans in my PSU.
I'm more confused by the above. By definition, the PSU is a self-contained Unit. One normally replaces the entire Unit, and not disassembles the Unit to replace a fan within the Unit.








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Yes, the PSU is not supposed to be serviced but i imagine it's possible to do it in some cases.

but if i was in their spot... if the fan is not working, if possible, i would just disconnect the fan and run it as is especially if the case already has decent cooling and the PSU is not being stressed too heavily. or... just replace the PSU as decent PSU's are not too expensive as i would say you should be able to get a decent one for no more than around $75, possibly less.

p.s. this is the one i currently have... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16817151093 ; it's $69.99 currently (free shipping) for the 520watt version and has a 5 year warranty which is good as most seem to be in the 2-3 year range. plus, the last i checked Seasonic is one of the most reliable PSU brands. mine is still going strong as i had no issues and it's 4 years now and i always had worse luck with PSU's dying than hard drives (3 PSU's dead vs 1-2 hard drives) even though hard drives are probably the most common hardware failure in a computer. but in my case... the PSU's fail not long after the warranties are up as i had one that cost about $110 back in 2006(Enermax brand) and it lasted about 4 years before it died and had a 3 year warranty. then then one after that i got cheaper(i want to say around $60), and was a cheaper brand(Rosewill), and that died not too much after the 2 year warranty is up. so i said screw it and went with a higher quality one with a long warranty which is what i got now and so far so good as it's i believe 4 years old this month which means i got about 1 year left on the warranty and i figure if it makes it 5 years it will probably last well beyond that is my guess. but thankfully when those PSU's died it did not damage any other computer hardware as i simply just got a new PSU and installed it and powered the computer up and all was good. on a side note... i leave my PC running pretty much all of the time to.

but the OP never said how old their computer is but unless it's pretty ancient chances are that PSU i linked to should work if they got pretty standard computer hardware and don't have a PC that uses too much power.

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A power supply is a very touchy piece of equipment, you could get
seriously hurt or even killed by opening and servicing such a
proprietary piece of equipment that can continue to hold
a powerful charge long after it is unplugged.

You should get a power supply tester to test the replacement power supply
to make sure the new one isn't defective.

So many things can go fatally wrong with high ampere power supplies
in the 400 to 1200 watt range. Which is why such power supplies that
only fail partially usually get thrown away and replaced.

"Without education and intellectualism there is no morality."

A power supply is a very touchy piece of equipment, you could get
seriously hurt or even killed by opening and servicing such a
proprietary piece of equipment that can continue to hold
a powerful charge long after it is unplugged.

it's basically the capacitors that hold their charge. outside of that, you should be fine to my knowledge.

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What about when you plug it back in?
If it shorts out you could be electrocuted or it could start a fire.

It isn't worth your life just to save $55 dollars.
Which is about how much a new power supply costs.

"Without education and intellectualism there is no morality."

What about when you plug it back in?
If it shorts out you could be electrocuted or it could start a fire.

well naturally you have the thing unplugged when you fix it and then you reinstall it etc and lastly you then plug in the power cord to the PSU which the power cord itself (like the coating on it that you touch with your hands) does not conduct electricity so you can't get electrocuted from that.

but at the end of the day... i agree it's overall best just to get a good quality PSU. for $70 or so you can get one with a 5 year warranty as to me it's not worth getting the more typical ones with a 3 year warranty for only around a $15 difference.

but that option aside... i would imagine if you do things properly (with a attempted fix) it's fine but generally speaking i would just dump the PSU and get a new one or continue to use the current one as is as it might not get all that hot as if the PSU is not taxed all that much it might function well enough without the fan if you don't mind rolling the dice for a little while til you get a new PSU. but if you want to play it safe, which is what i would recommend, just get a new PSU.

although the one i linked to in my initial post above was $70 with free ship but now it's $92. but i imagine if you look around you could get it for a bit cheaper. but @ $92 that 5 year warranty vs the typical 3 year (for maybe $50-60 area give or take) might start to be less appealing since the price gap is quite a bit higher at that point. either way, never buy a low quality PSU as the lower quality ones could potentially make your PC unstable etc. the better ones tend to have a nice stable power current to the computer components etc.

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Sorry for the late reply, everybody. Thank you for taking the time to respond.

To answer the question about why I want to replace a fan, it is because of this: I noticed my PSU's fans were incredibly dusty so I wanted to clean them. I dismantled the unit and cleaned one of the two fans properly, but when I attempted to unmount the second fan, the plastic corners that held the screws in place broke off because it was so tightly mounted inside. So I had no way to properly mount the fan back into its intended location.

Normally I don't mess with PSU internals and like a few posters here said, I would just replace the thing entirely. But since it was still working very well and this was just a simple problem I opted to just replace the fan instead of buying a whole new unit.

I eventually found a proper replacement fan and reinstalled everything and it is working OK again.

Thanks again for the input to everyone who replied.

Matt