I’ve replaced the power supply in 'puter several times
so far, and the fan makes a high pitch buzzing sound
everytime I turned it on. I even replaced the fan, still,
the buzzing noise returns. Does anyone have any idea to
this conundrum I face everyday?
1: Make sure the noise is not coming from the CPU fan or a hidden, front mounted case fan.
2: Buy this PS. Guaranteed to be quiet. They are not cheap in quality or price.
http://www.pcpowercooling.com/products/power_supplies/ultra_quiet/index.htm
Definately check the CPU fan as astro suggested. I have those go out all the time, or did until I got a good fan. Also if you have a high end video card it might have a fan as well. I have rarely had a power supply fan go out on me.
Are you sure it’s the power supply fan? Run these checks and see what you find.
Use a Q-tip to briefly stop the power supply fan. It won’t hurt the fan to be stopped for a few seconds. If the noise stops, it’s the fan. Replace it or live with it.
If the noise doesn’t stop, check the CPU cooling fan the same way (briefly! They can heat up fast!). Again, if the noise stops, replace it or live with it.
If the noise continues, does your case have a secondary cooling fan? Many mid-size towers do, usually in the front of the case blowing air into the case. Check it the same way.
If the noise still continues, it might be a noisy hard drive. Boot the computer, and stop it from loading the operating system by going into the bios setups (usually pressing the Delete key during the early boot does this). While the bios setup screen is up, carefully unplug the power cable (the little 4 wire connector) from each hard drive. You should hear them “spin down”. If this is noise you’re hearing, it may be normal for the drive (a fairly quiet high-pitched whine is normal) but may be sign of drive going bad. If you’re not sure, back up your data ASAP (always a good idea anyway) and take it someone to be checked. If the drives sound normal, power the system down before you plug the drives back in (this isn’t real critical usually, but why take chances.)
If the noise still continues with the hard drives unplugged, it’s probably not a fan or mechanical component, but maybe a solid state component inside the power supply. Caps & inductors can buzz or whine if they are loosely mounted, or slightly damaged. If you have a stethoscope (I keep one in my toolkit for just such occasions) wrap some plastic wrap or a baggie around it for insulation, and poke around inside the case (the computer case, NOT the power supply case, and do it carefully! It’s all low voltage outside of the power supply, but a circuit problem or a wet hand can give you jolt you don’t want) and see if you can hear anything. If the noise comes from the power supply, replace it again. If it comes from somewhere on the motherboard, you may want to live with it, as a motherboard upgrade frequently means upgrading other components as well, and the cost may be more than you want to spend.
If it is the power supply fan, and it’s not the first replacement (or even the second one) it sounds like a bad design. Have the replacements been the same brand as the original? If so, try a different brand, or a different case (it could be a bad fit in the case, distorting the power supply case, and pushing the fan mount out of line).
Good luck.
Ugly
I know it’s not the cpu fan, 3 years old and it hasn’t failed on me yet. I know the noise is coming from the PS,
If I hit or tap it the sound goes away. I replaced the case
and 3 days later, the noise returned. The good news (sic) is that the sound lasts 2 minutes after the first boot. I have opened the PS, replaced the fan and the noise returned. I went out and got a new PS, 3 days later, the noise came back. I had an Enlight PS, silent and reliable, until it shorted out last summer. Right after I replaced it, that’s when the buzzing began.
It sounds like sympathetic harmonic vibration - you said it was a buzzing sound.
Fans, hard disks etc tend to make a squealing sound, buzzing is normally from vibrations either from a badly balanced fan or motor or from a loose component.
Try holding, one by one, (ie just a little hand pressure) the various bits of the PC to see what is buzzing. if you can wear a plastic or rubber glove - this is best as there is live voltage in there and you don’t want to damage yourself. The voltages outside the power supply are all low, so you are more likely to damage the machine than yourself.
Anyway, just try to stop the components and case from vibrating. when you find the culprit, use a rubber washer or a bit of paper to hold the bit in place and stop it vibrating.
You could also try lying the machine on its side.
Looks like this could take forever. Why not just get a whole new case & powersupply? They are only about $70 for an ATX one. ALsomake sure your computer is level & has rubber feet.
I had problems with fan noise and I couldn’t figure out which fan it was. Eventually I noticed that my video card (Diamond Viper V770) had an eensy-weensy little fan on it.
The problem is, apparently the fan only turns on when the card is working hard, so sometimes you’ve got the noise and sometimes you don’t. That can make it hard to find the problem, since when you’re peering inside the computer case, you tend not to be simultaneously playing video games.
I had the card replaced under warranty, but one month later I’ve got the same problem. I’m waiting for a call from Dell to see if they can give me a different card. Apparently this one is susceptible to dust. (The tech guy said it has “single bearings”, rather than “double bearings”, but to be honest, I don’t see what bearing that has on the problem.)
Some fans make noise for a while then settle down. I have a room fan that rattles like crazy for five minutes, but after its bearings warm up (and presumably expand), it settles down to a pleasant whir. However, it has metal bearings, whereas tiny computer fans probably have nylon or teflon bearings, so I don’t know if the expansion will affect intermittent noise in quite the same way.
Right now my video card fan is buzzing away. Man, is that annoying!
The Diamond fan is complete crud. They will keep replacing it as long as your warranty is good but they won’t improve your fan.
If you want a decent fan thats got a good price and will actually cool better than the stock fan http://www.plycon.com/blueorb.htm is the fan for you. This is probably the best fan on the market for small chipset cooling for anything less than 30$. And if it DOES go out all you need to replace is the fan. I took my GFIIMX card, lapped it, and put this baby on then overcooked it up by 40mhz stable. I don’t advise you do all that (I only did because I was replacing the card anyhow and wanted to see what I could do with it) as it does void the warranty. But replacing the fan alone shouldn’t void anything.
Compare the CFM rating on this little guy (cubic feet per minute) which is 15 to most other chipset fans.
Sorry this post was off topic sorta’, but I really love my fan! 