Is there a way to repair the power supply fan? [psu] [power supply]
Q: I have a diet that still works but the fan does not turn anymore. I took the PSU apart to look at the fan. I tried to spin the blade, but its really tight. Is there a way to solve the problem? Otherwise it is possible for another PSU fan? I went to a bunch of stores today, and they all said I needed to get a new PSU.
thanks
Re:Originally posted by: guy
In case anyone takes the A+ exam, the correct answer to this question is: "No, power supplies are dangerous – replace the power supply." I'm not saying I've never done this, 'cuz I have, but seriously, you should be VERY careful when opening up and working on these – even more so for monitors. I speak from many years' experience.
Absolutely correct. "No User Servicable Parts Inside! Refer to a qualified service technician." I have changed many power supply fans (as they seem to be one of the first things to fail) without problems. I have also taken and passed the A+ cert, and I am an industrial electrician by trade. It just seems silly to buy a new power supply when all you need in it is a $6.00 fan.
Re:In case anyone takes the A+ exam, the correct answer to this question is: "No, power supplies are dangerous – replace the power supply."
I'm not saying I've never done this, 'cuz I have, but seriously, you should be VERY careful when opening up and working on these – even more so for monitors. I speak from many years' experience.
Re:Originally posted by: guy
ive never tried switching the polarity on a dc fan. However, the problem with not observing polarity on a computer case fan is that the actual fan pitch is made to spin in only one direction. If it spins in the wrong direction, the fan is not running in the most efficient manner. The correct manner to reverse fan air flow, is to actually reverse the fan housing in the oppositing direction.
Actually, it won't turn the opposite direction. It could destroy the fan if it's hooked up too long. Keeping polarity is simple – black to black, red to red.
As for connecting the wires, I always just use a wire stripper and some heat shrink tubing. With the wires cut and stripped (.3-.5 inches) slide a 1" piece of tubing over each lead of the fan, twist the wires together, slide the tubing over, and heat it with a butane torch. It creates a very good, insulative seal, and the new fan is good to go.
Also – "leads" (pron. leeds, at least that's how I pronounce it:)) are the same thing as "wires" here.
Re:The arrows are molded into the plastic on one side of the fan. Your fan may be different, but practically every one I've bought has 'em and even some I saved from old power supplies. As for the wire, you could try cutting and splicing in new ones and making sure the connections won't come loose. I would get a 'y' style molex connector and splice the wires in there.
Re:really? where are these arrows? also, I tried connecting the fan to the fan connector on the MB, and what do you know, it worked. Problem is, I need that connector for my cpu fan. So I guess it's the wire that the wire connects to, and which goes the molex connector is bad. Is there any way to fix it?
Re:guy is absolutely correct. I was just illustrating a point about polarity. Most every fan I have seen has a direction arrow (for the way the fan is supposed to spin) and an air direction arrow (depicting the direction the air will blow.) Any permanent magnet DC motor can reverse rotation by excanging the leads. For field wound DC motors, you can swap the field supply leads to change rotation.
Re:ive never tried switching the polarity on a dc fan. However, the problem with not observing polarity on a computer case fan is that the actual fan pitch is made to spin in only one direction. If it spins in the wrong direction, the fan is not running in the most efficient manner. The correct manner to reverse fan air flow, is to actually reverse the fan housing in the oppositing direction.
Re:You can switch the direction the fan spins by reversing the leads. All DC fans are like this. If you hook the red lead to the black power supply lead and black power lead from the fan to the yellow power supply lead it will spin in reverse. If you are certain that the electrical connection between the fan and the power supply are good, and the power supply is indeed working properly, then the fan should spin. If not, you have a bad fan. Don't worry about the polarity. Most power supply fans blow air out, and that the way you probably want your relacement fan to work.
Re:look on the sticker for the panaflow flan. it should read 12V …. take the fan out and connect to a 12v power source manually black to black wire and Red wire to the yellow wire in the power supply ( a quick way wihtout turning on the computer would be to connect to a car power source, such as the battery..)
Polarity just means you hook up the postive lead to teh postive battery sourve and the negative to Negative.). In this case, the red lead is the postsive and the black lead is the negative.
Re:Hi, thanks for the advice, but the fan spins freely..I can spin it manually pretty easily. Is there any other way to test it? What's this polarity you speak of though? That might be the problem. Can you explain please? Thanks
Re:SLightly off-topic seeing the way the thread is going. When I encounter a stuck or noisy computer fan, a good way to unstick em is to shoot some compressed air (those can things) in the fan and manual turn the fan..that usually get all the dust that is trapped in the bearings etc…. or if I am out of compressed air, I spray silcone lubricant (not wd40 or heaven forbid graphice lubricant) until it spins freely.. that usually does the trick. Otherwise, you can just replace the fan with the appropriate size and voltage. Make sure to test the fan manually before putting it in.. and make sure to watch polarity.
Re:the fan is a replacement that I had. I'm pretty sure it works. If I spin it with my hand, it seems fine; it's not tight or anything. It is a 12v panaflo. The power supply works, I know that. I'm running off of it right now. I'm not sure when you say red "lead" and black "lead" but the red wire from the fan connector goes to the yellow wire to the molex connector, and the black wire goes to the black wire.
Re:Where did the new fan come from? Are you sure it is a 12 volt fan. If it doesn't work, maybe the power supply is bad too. You should be able to make the fan turn if you hook the fan's red lead to a yellow wire and the black lead to a black wire (aside of the yellow.) Give it another try.
Re:Actually, there is no connector in the power supply, or any free connectors on the MB. So the wire from the fan comes out through the hole with the rest of the wires. It runs to one of the power connectors that goes into the hard drive (I guess they're called molex). I still can't get it to run. The wire's red and black too, but I'm pretty sure the fan is 12V. Not sure if that means anything.
Re:It could be that the power leads from the circuit board inside the case are dead. I cannot explain why this would be, but have seen it once before. What I did in this instance was to route the wires from the new fan outside of the power supply (through a vent slot in the power supply's sheet metal case) and connecting them to a hard drive molex connector. The replacement fan should be 12 volts and you can get this from a yellow and black wire. (Red and black is 5 volts). Good Luck.
Re:Hey, thanks for the advice. I tried replacing the fan, but the new fan doesn't run. Is there any other reason why the fan might not work?
Re:You can replace the fan with little difficulty. Most power supply fans are 80mm though I've changed a few 92mm fans as well. Just carefully remove the bad fan, and install the new one. You may have to splice wires together if the new fan's plug is different than the bad one or if the bad one is soldered directly in. Be careful inside the PS as the large caps can hold a charge for a while (15 min usually is safe) though don't risk getting a nasty shock! If you do splice the new fan in, be careful of how you route the wires so they are not up against anything and not impeding airflow inside the PS chassis. Good Luck!
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Tags: power supply, psu