Had a client tell me his computer was making a "humming noise" and it turned out to be a dying PSU fan

Guy brings in his Dell desktop last Tuesday, says it's been humming for like a week. Opened it up and the power supply fan was barely spinning, bearings shot. Replaced it with a $45 EVGA unit and he was happy, but it stuck with me how many people ignore that sound until something dies.

2 comments

2 Comments

wren_brown15d ago

I actually read something the other day about how a lot of people mistake computer fan noise for just normal "running" sounds, like they think it's supposed to hum and it'll just work itself out. It's crazy because a dying fan is usually one of those things you can catch early before it takes out the whole system, especially with a PSU where if that fan stops you're basically cooking the capacitors. I mean, it's not like a car where you can hear a belt squeal and ignore it for months without major consequences. With a computer, that humming is almost always a bearing getting crunchy or something rubbing that shouldn't be. Idk, maybe it's just me but I feel like people get so used to the ambient noise of their PC that they tune out the one sound that actually means something's wrong.

riley_bell14d ago

I mean, is it really that serious though? Half the time that "bad" fan noise is just dust or a wire barely touching the blade and it runs fine for years.