noise - Power suppply sounds like a hard drive being defragmented
2014-07
DustByte
Came back from a holiday and noticed that my computer makes a new sound: the sound of a (quiet) hard drive being defragmented, i.e. reading/writing lots of data. Was worried it was one of my hard drives but turns out to be the PSU. The sound intensifies under CPU load. The PSU is only a year and a half old. Model is "Nexus NX-5000 R3 530W Real Silent 80+".
My first and immediate question is if I should stop using the computer. Is it possible that the PSU will send a surge or similar and fry the other components?
Second question: what could it be?
Xen2050
The PSU is usually silent, like a laptop or other power brick. The fan(s) are what makes noise. Unless something is REALLY wrong, then there'd probably be a sizzling type sound & smoke too.
Extra noise could be the fan starting to fail. You could try testing if it's the fan by taking something firm (like a q-tip maybe) and slowing down the fan for a second, or very very briefly stopping the fan & see if the sound changes...
If it's still under warranty, I'd look into a warranty repair, especially if it's easy like a local store you can walk it into.
Replacing the fan yourself is an option, it's just a regular fan with probably 2 (maybe 3) wires to cut & solder in a new one. BUT there are some dangerous things (capacitors) inside a PSU to be careful of, and that would void the warranty.
Or if the fan still "blows" good you could just leave it, might keep blowing and get louder until it quits but it could take months... or could take a day.
If the PSU fan gets too slow or quits, the PSU would overheat and it could just shut off (one I had did that, computer would just shutdown, I think the fan was too slow but don't know why), or the PSU could send damaging voltages?
Extra idea (good/bad?): there's also a guy on youtube who adds a tiny bit of light oil, like sewing machine oil, under the sticker of his fans to lube them, if there's a metal bit you can see that spins with the blades. He thinks it'll make them last longer & be quieter. I'd be a little worried about spraying oil all over the place, and a new cheap little fan is only $5 or $10... but it's another DIY option
BrianAdkins
Mechanical grinding noise is probably a bearing going bad slowly.
You best bet may be to replace the fan if possible.
Here's a related thread on psu fan replacements : http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=258799
Questioner
I have just bought a new power supply for my PC.
Can I plug it in and start it up without inserting into my PC?
I want to see how loud it is.
Will it blow up?
nik
You should not power the PSU without load.
A power supply that is turned on with no load attached will either fail to function or will function improperly... Better-quality supplies will detect a no-load situation and shut down.
The amount of load required by a particular power supply is often specified as its minimum load... You will sometimes see these minimum current requirements listed as part of the power supply's output specifications.
Modern power supplies have drastically reduced the degree to which loading is an issue. Most newer power supplies have very small +3.3 V and +5 V load requirements, and many have no minimum at all for +12 V. The lower loading requirements make testing and troubleshooting much easier.
PSUs are supposed to be either connected with your system or loaded with special devices for testing. I would suggest that you connect the Unit to your system and then check the sound.
Duey
It's not advised to plug a powersupply in without a load. You should either plug it into a motherboard or a psu tester. Some advanced psu will simply not power on without a load but in many cases the psu without load will fail (and in some cases perminant damage).