Running a Power Supply without a Fan

[retexan599]

I recently found that my five year old HP 760n computer power supply fan had been stopped for an unknown length of time. I am able to 'coax' it into running again by using a thin piece of plastic to start the blades moving; it will run for perhaps hours and usually stops again. I found an old article in here from April 21, 2002 - by Mike Chin: "Run a Power Supply without a Fan?" and was looking for more discussion.

I am presently expecting delivery of a whole new computer system and just want the old one to last another couple of weeks. I am guessing that the existing power supply is fairly robust on temperature, as I have had zero problems (no spurious reboots, etc.) even when the fan was stopped. I did not realize how quiet my machine was until I coaxed the fan into life

I am not one to try replacing the fan or the power supply, no skills.

Mainly I am writing to report my experience, and to wonder just how long computer power supplies are likely to last without the fan to cool it. Btw, there are two fans in this case: one blows in through a duct onto the electronics and the psu fan exhausts.

Thanks.

John Hanley
Sugar Land, TX

[Sendorm]

the power supply is probably fine, without the fan running. Just get the excessive dust out of the power supply with some pressurized air.

[retexan599]

the power supply is probably fine, without the fan running. Just get the excessive dust out of the power supply with some pressurized air.

Thanks, I did that last week. I was surprised on opening the case just how little dust there was inside the case or around the power supply. But it is clean now.

[IsaacKuo]

I've killed more than my fair share of old expendable PSUs by running them fanlessly (on purpose). It will definitely increase the chance of the PSU dying. If you're not up for a fan swap, at least run the computer with the side open and use a small desk fan to blow air around. It's only temporary, after all.

[frostedflakes]

Yeah I was thinking you had run some older power supplies fanless Isaac. What kind of load were you putting on them and how long did they last?

I was messing around with an old Celeron 667MHz system and was able to run the power supply fanless. System seemed stable during normal use, but I just ran it like this for a few days. No idea how long it would've kept on chugging, based on Isaac's experiences probably not long.

[IsaacKuo]

I never really kept track of how long...maybe a few months, at most. I didn't put any special load on them...maybe a bit less load than usual because of the use of no hard drive or a 2.5" hard drive, and of course no fans.

The only PSU death which really surprised me was the fanless AT PSU I was using to power just a single 120mm fan (for personal person cooling). I didn't really expect this modest load to be a problem. But one day...fzzzt!

[retexan599]

I've killed more than my fair share of old expendable PSUs by running them fanlessly (on purpose). It will definitely increase the chance of the PSU dying. If you're not up for a fan swap, at least run the computer with the side open and use a small desk fan to blow air around. It's only temporary, after all.

Actually, I did something like that, in that I ran the old machine with the side open (but not with any external blower) and it shut down abruptly and without warning after about an hour. So I put the side back on! I have given my psu fan the name: "the little fan that could", at least with an occasional nudge of the fan blade

My new machine is enroute: May 22, 2007 4:43 PM Departed FedEx location FORT WORTH, TX

It should be fun, it is a brand new Vista based machine, with these specs:

• HP Pavilion d4890y desktop
• Intel Core 2 Duo processor E6420 (2.13GHz)
• 2GB DDR2-667MHz dual channel SDRAM (2x1024)
• 250GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
• 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 7500LE graphics card
• No TV Tuner
• Norton Internet Security 2007
• HP w2207 22-inch Widescreen Flat-Panel Monitor
• HP Photosmart C4180 All-in-One (new)
• Tower Power supply 350 watts