So here’s the deal. Yesterday I go to work, leaving the computer on - as I always do, since it’s the router on our (VERY primitive) home network. I came home later that night, and the computer’s off.
“Huh,” I think. Inquiries with the roommates bring forth the information that there was a ‘brown-out’ while I was gone, and apparently that shut off the computer. Not that big of a deal - it’s happened before, I have a surge protector, and nothing bad’s ever seemed to come of it.
So I boot it back up, and everything’s fine…except that the fan in my power supply is making some absolutely demonic noises. Upon closer inspection (i.e. peering at it from the back), it looks like the fan isn’t turning always, or isn’t turning right, or SOMETHING.
So my question (a two-parter):
Why the hell could a power failure make my fan do wacky things?
Is there any simple way to fix this, short of buying a new power supply? (I’m not real keen on messing around with a 300W power supply, but it’d still be annoying to have to buy another one.)
The fan’s bearings probably went dry. My PC used to make a sound like a cat in heat impersonating an airraid siren after a startup (I rarely shut it off.) If I toggled the power a few times, it would start up without the noise.
Finally, I got tired of this and
[ul][li]pulled the power supply, then pulled it’s fan, []made sure that the bearings didn’t have any play, []took the sticker off to expose the shaft underneath, []lubed it with a light oil, []replaced the sticker, using mailing tape to make sure it wouldn’t come loose, put everything together and booted up.[/ul](And did this really need instructions?)[/li]
My PC’s a 166MHz; it works fine. If I had a faster or more expensive PC, I probably would have bought a new fan just to be safe.
Oh yeah, I’m 99.9999 percent sure that everything’s low voltage, but you might want to wait a few minutes after you power off to let the voltages bleed down.
Hate to break it to ya, but it was probally damaged by the brown out – ya have a surge protector, not a surge preventer. If the fan was working pefrectly before the brownout, but dosent work properly there after, its most likely damaged the fan’s electrical motor
*TIME ELAPSED SINCE I QUIT SMOKING:
Six months, six days, 23 hours, 3 minutes and 41 seconds.
7598 cigarettes not smoked, saving $949.80.
Extra time with Drain Bead: 3 weeks, 5 days, 9 hours, 10 minutes.
So, Mr. Prince of Darkness which was it; did you fry the windings or dry the bearings?
I don’t want to be a jerk and belabor this point, but if I was going to, I’d point out that the motor probably wouldn’t turn after a spike arc’ed in the windings, and this is a DC motor, so it wouldn’t hum much either. OTOH, the bearings might work quietly on a hot motor but not after the motor cools down.
Besides, the last time I did something like this, I was proven horribly, horribly wrong (Oh God, the anguish!)
Not being a jerk though, I’ll just say that Satan attacked the PS fan. Get a new one. The specs are on the tag; you might need to solder on the old connector.
