Noisy Power Supply Fan Concerns

[KrewL RaiN]

Think its time to look into this. A year ago I started to hear a noisey fan in this old dell comp of mine. It gradualy became a steady noise. Right now, the noise picks up then fades completly randomly.

Just wondering if this nosey fan is a threat in anyway, as in the fan may be dying on me and if fan dies is that ummm "uh oh" lol

The crappy thing with dell is its riggery. I have a 400 watt power supply sitting around that came with this case (friends say power supplys that come with cases = ick) and it wont work cause of this: http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/std/sku=dellconverter Picture there is what the connection looks like on this PC

As I await for that video card return for my new pc the though of fixing this kinda slips my mind, but I would still like this old PC operational anyhow its still good for somthings hehe.

Anyone know were I can grab dell parts for cheep or get that adapter thingy shown in the link (canadian sites plz if you know, exhange rates can be a pain. That link may be ok to order from, just checking with other peoples optinions before desiding anything just to be safe).

Thanks for your time

EDIT: lol dumb me, this power supply does have that connection, but it never worked to begin with when my dad tryed it out

[topaz]

A loud fan is often a good sign of your PSU beginning to fail.

[RealityRipple]

It's also a sign of dust...

[KrewL RaiN]

It's also a sign of dust...

That could be it. Should dust this thing way more often, been holding off on it. If its still loud after a good dusting then I need to look into a new power supply, the hard part is finding the same model since this pc is old and that its a dell.


EDIT: Dusted it all out, and the noise remains. Guess I have been lucky on how this PSU hasnt died on me yet.

[topaz]

You should replace it as soon as possible, your components can be damaged [badly] when the PSU shorts, has unstable voltage, or dies.

[RealityRipple]

If you have a prober program that can look at voltages, you may wanna make sure they're in reasonable ranges right now. 1 volt too high or too low is usually bad. As for replacing a Dell PSU... if it's still under warranty, they'll send you a free one ususally. Otherwise, you can probably find one online somewhere (make SURE it's guarunteed good, though). If it's not proprietary (rare in Dells), try Newegg.com

[topaz]

Go Antec if you can - their PSU's are the best.

[RealityRipple]

I have a nice Aspire that's been treating me well. 3 internal fans, blue lights, fan speed control, 520 watts. Enough to run 9 case fans, a cd-rw drive, a dvd+/-rw drive, a cup holder (modified cd drive), 5 1/4 floppy, 3 1/2 floppy, zip 100, and 120 gig hard drive. Ph34r t3h p0w3r!

[Newby]

You should wait until you smell smoke, then wait a bit more until it actually catches on fire. Like me.

[RealityRipple]

OOO... that reminds me of a great newspaper article from a long time ago... http://realityripple.com/Uploads/smoke.jpg

[KrewL RaiN]

If you have a prober program that can look at voltages, you may wanna make sure they're in reasonable ranges right now. 1 volt too high or too low is usually bad. As for replacing a Dell PSU... if it's still under warranty, they'll send you a free one ususally. Otherwise, you can probably find one online somewhere (make SURE it's guarunteed good, though). If it's not proprietary (rare in Dells), try Newegg.com

Newegg doesnt ship to Canada unfortunatly. I emailed my dad to see if any werehouses in kitchener waterloo have the part I want. The part is a dell PS-5201-7D and from some sites they range from about 35 dollarish. I have to wait till my money comes in to order the video card for my new system so I have been really pushing my luck here with mr dell PSU lol. This pc is like estimated at about 5+ years old so I think the warinty be poofed. (specs of this system is a P3 930 mhz with 512 ram and 40 gig HD.) Since this noise started like a year ago, the PC gods must like me for keeping its from blowing up xD

The fan is a bit more quiet with the dusting, but I have been still pushing my luck. I'll look into a "prober" program

You should wait until you smell smoke, then wait a bit more until it actually catches on fire. Like me.

* KrewL RaiN gets the smores ready

[vuther.de]

You should wait until you smell smoke, then wait a bit more until it actually catches on fire. Like me.

I didn't go that far, I only waited till I smelt smoke