Ageing PSU?

arc@css · 4 Jun 2011 at 22:38

I'm not sure if it's the psu or not (can't think what else it might be), but it seems that the power supply is somewhat noisey at idle, continuosly in fact. It's not unbearable but other parts are quiet in comparison, in all other respects my PC isn't a noisey one.

Do power supplies make more noise with age? It's three years old now so I'm not sure how old that is for a psu, not very I'd have thought.

Ta.

RJC · 4 Jun 2011 at 22:38

What PSU are you using, could be a fan bearing going.

olivier renault · 4 Jun 2011 at 22:47

If you change the fan, careful rummaging inside a PSU.You can get zapped really bad, even with power off (high voltage capacitors storing a lot of energy for a long time).

panyan · 4 Jun 2011 at 23:03

does anyone know how long to leave a psu off for before the capcitors have discharged enough for it to be safe?

arc@css · 4 Jun 2011 at 23:26

RJC said:
What PSU are you using, could be a fan bearing going.

It's an Enermax Galaxy 1kw.

I know my new optical makes a bit of a racket once in to desktop after booting, but that sounds different - and it doesn't long at all.

arc@css · 4 Jun 2011 at 23:28

olivier renault said:
If you change the fan, careful rummaging inside a PSU.You can get zapped really bad, even with power off (high voltage capacitors storing a lot of energy for a long time).

Thanks for the heads up there, must admit I would have never of thought of that (capacitor storing).

fleming222 · 5 Jun 2011 at 00:14

It could be a dust build up causing the fan to make more noise.

Does it sound like it's spinning faster than it usually does?

Craterloads · 5 Jun 2011 at 00:45

Your quite safe just changing the fan. Theres nothing really on the top side that can do much harm to you if your careful. Its the underside you need to be careful of. I changed my fan on a old 1k unit and had to splice it into the 5v line.

arc@css · 5 Jun 2011 at 11:19

Thanks, guys. Might be worth me taking a look at it, I'll check to see how how dusty it is. I have given it a thorough clean once before but that was about eighteen months ago now.

Phenomenologica · 5 Jun 2011 at 11:31

panyan said:
does anyone know how long to leave a psu off for before the capcitors have discharged enough for it to be safe?

You can help the situation by pressing the computers power button after removing the power cable, discharges a lot of the capacitors. Still need to be careful though.

DazQ87 · 5 Jun 2011 at 11:53

Yeah, some of the larger capacitors may be able to hold some charge for an order of days, however i would have thaught that any modern PSU would have some form of bleed resistance to do this at a quicker rate.

arc@css · 5 Jun 2011 at 12:15

I might check the bios to make sure the cpu fan isn't spinning too fast, though I highly doubt it is that. Almost certainly got to be the psu.