Current Mood: Erm…

That was sarcasm.

A few posts ago, I talked about hearing the sound of a fan dying. I thought it was the CPU fan–a simple job. Really simple: Unscrew old fan, unplug from mobo, plug in new one, screw fan to heatsink, turn computer back on. And, I’ve got a spare sitting right here, so I wouldn’t even have to wait for delivery of a new one.

So of course, Murphy couldn’t have that! It’s against his Law!

Yesterday the thing was sounding off rather badly and I downgraded its survival rating from “up to a year” to “mere weeks, better get on it.” But for some reason, I decided to look in the case with my keylight to make sure it was indeed THAT fan.

And, it’s not.

When I touched the case, the bad fan was actually vibrating it on each revolution. Grind…grind…grind, it went… and each grind rattled the whole box. I looked with the light, and all the fans were spinning away, with no visual clues. So, I touched the fan case of each one.

CPU fan case…no strong vibration. Graphics card fan, no strong vibration. Case fan? Nope.

That left one. The power supply fan. Sure enough, that PSU was jumping around like it had a jet engine inside!

So, I “get to” tinker with a type of part I’ve never opened up before! (sarcasm) Goodie! (/sarcasm) Well, somewhat sarcasm. It beats buying a new PSU or paying some clod to do what I can do for free (labor-wise). On the other hand, I only bought that PSU a few months ago and the fan shouldn’t be dying yet! But, it’d cost more to ship it back than it will to just get a new fan.

So what’s different about this fan other than it’s in the PSU? The PSU isn’t made to be opened by “the consumer.” But I’m opening it anyway. So, chances are, it won’t have an easy-peasy plug for the fan’s power intake, and I’ll have to splice the new fan in. No biggie from a technical standpoint, but it’s a pain because I’ll have to find or buy some electrical tape as well as a new fan.

You may be wondering why I’d need to buy a new fan, when I’ve got one here! Simple: It’s a different size. The PSU has a big 120mm fan. The CPU one is 70mm. And the case fan I’ve had laying around here for 2 years daring me to forget about its presence and step on it one night, that’s 90mm.

So Murphy’s done a fairly good job of making a simple fan switch into a Job. I just keep reminding myself, I can:

Get a new PSU of this size and type: $89.

Send back the old one for an exchange: $10-12 shipping to California (via DHL)…AND about 2 weeks of being offline while it’s in transit both ways + another 3 days or so while the new order’s being processed

or
Just get a new fan and a little roll of electrical tape, timed to arrive before the old one’s death: $10-$15, free shipping, and no significant downtime.

Needless to say, I’m going for Option 3 and adding another Thing I’ve Fixed to my portfolio!