Power Supply Questions

[Joe]

I have an old P3 case working fine until the Power Supply (300W 20
pin) fan started doing a weird grinding noise. At one point the
computer was acting slow and letargic (pausing) on a game. I decided
to find out what was happening. The PS fan is making the noise...had a
lot of dust on it. Knowing this could be trouble I started by dusting
off all case fans including the power supply. I did a good dust off
job on all the computer. Air is now flowing nice.......I still noticed
the PS fan still does the grinding noise sometimes only. The computer
boots and works fine.

In my wisdom I decided to buy a newer Antec 350 PS Unit at Staples and
replaced.

The new had the 24/20 pin and I pulled the 4 thing adapter and it is
20 pin..but i noticed that ONE PIN about the middle was like empty and
did not possess a copper end like the others. This was not the case
with the original PSU mb connector.

Well guess what....The NEW PSU unit NEVER booted. I tried everything,
but it would not boot. I went as far as clearing the CMOS. It did not
went ON at all never. No BIOS No boot up just nothing.

Then I took it out, replaced with the OLD PSU and guess what, it
booted up normally....


What happened?

I returned the new PS got my money back..

Computer still works but sometimes the PSU unit makes the funny noise.

Any suggestions?

I have scoured the internet and all PSU now come with the 20/24 pin
adapter, but do not find a 20 pin 300 psu anywhere.

 

[stargazer257]

Joewrote
Any suggestions?Joe, just replace the noisy fan in your existing PSU
There are articles on doing this at "Quiet PC" sites on the ne
(google it). If you are at all handy with a bit of wire solderin
(meaning you don't have to solder on the PC board in the PSU), the
you can do it. Just honor the polarity so the new fan blows th
right direction.

This assumes that the PSU is fine, just the fan is getting old an
cranky. Some out there (myself included) have swapped in a quie
Panaflo L1A 80mm fan for their noisy 80 mm OEM fans in their PS
(measure yours to be sure of the size, standard sizes for fans ar
60, 80, 92, and 120 mm, but dollars to doughnuts yours is 80). Jus
be aware that lower airflow will be more stress on the PSU. But I'v
had no problems with this mod done to generic 300W units running chip
with a higher power consumption than yours (amd paliminos)

Remember, you obviously do this at your own risk, but it is not tha
challenging to do and worked ok for me

Price for fan $5-10. Cheap fix to get a quieter PSU

Anyone else do this mod to their psu as well

 

[The Outsider]

Anyone else do this mod to their psu as well?

No, but I have read of others doing it. Don't you have to let the PSU
stand for about 24hrs. before working inside it to make sure it is
fully discharged? My Zalman PSU is fairly quiet already but I wouldn't
mind doing this mod if it will make it even quieter.

 

[stargazer257]

The Outsiderwrote:
Don't you have to let the PSU stand for about 24hrs. before working
inside it to make sure it is fully discharged? My Zalman PSU is
fairly quiet already but I wouldn't mind doing this mod if it will
make it even quieter.I wouldn't mess with the Zalman, as Zalman stuff
is designed with quiet in mind (for the most part).

As for working inside the PSU, the only thing I can think of that
would store power would be the capacitors (typically look like large
cylinders in a PSU), but you can discharge them by just pulling the
power plug from the PSU, as the MB/NIC/other parts will slowly drain
the capacitors within 5-10 seconds. For me, I just watch my NIC
light (it supports WOL so it is always "awake") and it will turn off
within a few seconds after pulling the plug.

Now that is for PSUs. DON'T mess around with a CRT monitor/TV. There
is a spot in them that has HIGH (>10,000) voltage IIRC.

 

[The Outsider]

As for working inside the PSU, the only thing I can think of that
would store power would be the capacitors (typically look like large
cylinders in a PSU), but you can discharge them by just pulling the
power plug from the PSU, as the MB/NIC/other parts will slowly drain
the capacitors within 5-10 seconds. For me, I just watch my NIC
light (it supports WOL so it is always "awake") and it will turn off
within a few seconds after pulling the plug.

Now that is for PSUs. DON'T mess around with a CRT monitor/TV. There
is a spot in them that has HIGH (>10,000) voltage IIRC.

I've read in the past that working inside a PSU is also dangerous just
like a TV/Monitor and you have to leave it quite a while to make sure
it is fully discharged. That's what I've read anyway.