PSU problem / annoying noise

[Star-Com]

Hi,

My Power Supply Unit is an :

Enermax Noisetaker 485W EG495AX-VE(W) PSU
Model Number : EG495AX-VE(W)(SFMA)(20+4)P RING CORE

bought and installed about a year ago.

Recently a strange annoying noise is coming out of the PSU every so and then;
a noise like as if you rub two iron wires to each other.

I disconnected the UPS and connected the Power Supply directly to the main source, just to check if this was the problem; it didn’t work.

Any ideas please on what the problem can be? What can i do about it?

[flanzig1]

Probably a fan with bearings going bad.

[Star-Com]

What do you mean by

fan with bearings

Can it be fixed easily?

[larrymoencurly]

What do two iron wires rubbing together sound like?

You can check if the fans are causing the noise by temporarily blocking their movements with plastic straws. Don't try this with anything made metal because there's lots of exposed high voltage inside a PSU, including on one of the big heatsinks (I measured about 170VDC on one in my Enermax EG365P-VD), and don't use anything hard because it could shatter a fan blade.

[Star-Com]

Hi
As i mentioned before an annoying buzzing noise is coming out of my PSU every now and then;

Is it possible that the fan bearings lubricant run out; thus causing that buzzing noise?

Do this Enermax PSUs' fans need to be lubed every so and then?

If yes, please give me some instruction or refer to some website on how to do it, along with some lubricant type.

[Alaron]

Most likely the fan is going. I would try what larrymoencurly suggested. Use plastic straws to stop the fans from spinning temporarily. Do this on both and see if the noise stops, and on which fan.

[FLG]

Just to add, once you have found the problem fan; you could either

A) Remove and replace the fan

or

B) Remove the fan, carefully remove the sticker on the front of it, in the middle of it theres a hole, in the hole theres the bearing. Filling the hole with a tad of oil and putting the sticker back on will help, though it might only be just a temporary fix depeding on how shot the bearing is.

[Star-Com]

In case i need to replace the fan, in this case of my PSU i guess there must be an exact type of fan for this specific model of PSU; isn't that right?

And the same applies for the CPU fan or the video card fan, yes?

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by Star-Com In case i need to replace the fan, in this case of my PSU i guess there must be an exact type of fan for this specific model of PSU; isn't that right?

You just need to get the right size. If you want you can try to find one that uses the same amount of watts and amps. You don't have to worry about the power connector because you're going to have to cut and splice the new fan to the old wires that are usually soldered to the PSU PCB.

Originally Posted by Star-Com And the same applies for the CPU fan or the video card fan, yes?

You just need to get the correct size with the right type of power connector.

You'll want to get ball bearing fans, not sleeve bearing too. Ball bearing fans last longer.

Cricket

[Star-Com]

The CPU & Video Card fans : do they have feed wires and get power from the PCB?

[Alaron]

Your CPU fan does plug into the motherboard CPU_FAN header near the socket.

The video card fan gets its power from the power on the card. The card is powered by the slot and usually an extra power lead.

[Cricket]

The CPU heatsink fan will get it's power from the CPU FAN header. It'll be either a small 3 pin or 4 pin connector.

The video card GPU heatsink fan will get it's power from a connection on the video card somewhere. It's usually a small 2 pin connector but the replacement fan will probably come with a 4 pin molex power connector that will connect directly to one of the power supply 4 pin power connectors.

Cricket