[plug] OT: high pitched noise from PSU

[Cameron Patrick]

On Fri, Dec 26, 2003 at 09:10:28PM +0800, Chris Caston wrote:

| I think it might be the fan but I haven't open it up yet so I'm not
| sure. I hear that fixing/replacing them requires use of a soldering
| iron.

How high pitched is the noise?  It may well /not/ be the fan, but
capacitors or some such (note that my electronics skills are lousy so I
may have named the wrong bit).  If it sounds like something mechanical,
it's probably the fan; a really high pitched squeal (like you get from
the telly) is probably something else operating at high frequency.

If it's old-ish, it might be a fan that requires oiling.
See http://dansdata.com/fanmaint.htm

Replacing fans is pretty easy[1].  If there's a connector on the fan,
unplug it.  If there's no connector, snip the wires to the fan about
half-way along (so you're not re-soldering too close to the PSU), get
out a new fan (you do have a spare 80mm 12V fan lying around, don't
you?), and solder the appropriate coloured wires to it, and you're done.
Make sure you cover the exposed wires with e.g. electrician's tape, so
they don't short out.  Incidentally, when you've got the fan
disconnected from the PSU would be a good time to verify that the fan
really /is/ making the noise - plug it into a spare 12v supply (you've
got one of those at least, right? at the very worst, you could
cannibalise a molex connector and borrow a computer's PSU) and listen to
it.

Cameron.

[1] I've only done it once, it worked the first time, and the PSU in
question is still going strong.  So it can't be too bad.