My desktop today has been randomly turning off, I just opened up my tower and found that my power supply fan is not running! I can’t really afford a new power supply. Do any of you know how to fix the fan?! The power supply is functioning fine, the fan is not.
PLEASE HELP!!! I am working on this weeks episode of my show Premier Prep and every shot needs green screen work, which I can’t do on my old laptop, it is due this Friday!
If the fan is the only thing wrong. You can find a fan for $5 that will probably run off of power from your motherboard. You could tape it to your power supply. It might not look pretty, but would be a cheap solution.
You can also fasten it to the PSU with brass wire - that’s what I currently do.
Once you have your external fan going, you should get a program that lets you keep check on your voltages. Check on them every couple of minutes after having the fan put in for a few days, then every now and then afterwards. The voltages that should be monitored in particular are the +12 +5 +3.3 and Vcore ones. They need to be within ±10% of those numbers as that’s what all the other components in the computer are designed to tolerate. If they go out of range, you might end up with memory errors, freezes reboots, or maybe even failing hardware. (Sometimes a program reports voltages WAY out of line, or even negative - some combinations of motherboards and metering programs don’t correllate like they should, it’s not an exact science)
It may be a good idea to consider replacing the PSU at some point. If the fan doesn’t spin, components inside (namely the big capacitors that keep current steady) can prematurely wear out due to heat buildup. Heat causes internal resistance of all metals to rise; higher resistances means that part will consume (dissipate) more power and more heat as well as, in the case of capacitors, become less able to function at high frequencies (not so important if it’s connected to 50/60/120 Hz but very if it’s 1200 GHz FSB).
It’s possible for the PSU, if it fails, to take out a motherboard or more with it. Do check on the voltages, to see if they’re at or over tolerance.
Now, with all that said, I found that in my case the PSU fan, while it wasn’t spinning on its own, merely needed a tiny push to get it spinning. Having that external fan in there is all it needs to keep running. (It’s a little noisier too because of it, but pales in comparison to having the GPU running at full.)
OK. Thanks guys. I probably will get that fan(any suggestions as to which one?), and save up for a Corsair power supply. I am also in desprite need of more RAM, I only have 8 gigs, so I might save up and buy more RAM and a PSU. Thanks again guys.
Be careful… I recently had my computer randomly turning off/on, and it turned out to be the PSU was completely finished. (You could hear it shorting out.) I almost lost the motherboard… in fact I think some RAM slots died, but thanks to a miracle from God, the motherboard is still working! If you don’t change the PSU, just be careful that you don’t wind up losing other PC components.
You could probably buy the actual replacement fan for $5 bucks as well. You can even open the case up and point a window fan at the entire innards of the pc and it’ll keep it cool enough until you can secure a proper replacement fan or better yet new, higher wattage rated power supply.
I̶f̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ When you choose to get a new PSU, it would be good to figure out how much power your system needs.
Use this number for your lower bound of PSU needed.
Use this for the upper bound.
(I couldn’t say which is the accurate one; the top calc is supposedly the more thought out, more accepted one. It gives me a rather low estimate on the power my system needs. (575W)
The bottom calc on the other hand seems less specific on listing hardware yet gives an astronomical power figure. (850W)
Strange as it is, it’s this high figure I previously alloted for when I went for PSUs (when I didn’t use a calculator to budget))
When you figure out how much power your system uses, add on an extra 15-20% to it, as the power a PSU supplies goes down as it ages, and that’s the expected decrease in efficiency when used for many years and for high use.
(If GPU rendering, in my case (with my particular video card) an additional condition was that the PSU deliver 42 amps on the +12V - something I couldn’t find as specified on my PSU until I read the manual - 40 amps… oh well it wasn’t a spec people talked about much back then)
If I were to imaginate, perhaps the PSU giving trouble is because it’s been drawing alot of current (too much?) and it’s reached its end of spec. Running a PSU at its limits (a system that draws 550W over a PSU rated at 550W) means running it at less than efficient conversion ratings, plus the heat generated at that lower efficiency.
If you get a PSU with too low of wattage, and what happened to the old PSU was because of the drawing of too much current, then the same problems could happen again with the new PSU.
Thank you guys SO MUCH… You have been a great help. I tried the fan next to the tower but it still does it, I think the PSU is shorting out. That ASUS web-sight looks great. My mother board is actually an ASUS.
Thanks again. This is an awesome community.
I will be buying VERY soon. I’m not even sure if I can finish editing this weeks episode of Premier Prep. I might be able to edit something different on my laptop.
I might be able to edit something different on my laptop.