Power Man 300w PSU

madlee · Post by **madlee** » Sun Jun 29, 2003 1:06 am

I have a Power Man model HP-D301GFS rev. 02

I swapped the stock fan with a panaflo and it has made an big difference.

This was the stock fan:

Nidec BetaSL
Model DO8T-12PU
DC12v 0.22A
44.14 CFM
34 dBA
3400 RPM

I replaced it with:

Panaflo Model # FBA08A12L

the stock fan was soldered directly into the board so I just snipped the wires and soldered the panaflo leads...

However, there was an odd and troubling situation when I tried to put the cover back on the power supply. It would switch off and not turn back on until I unplugged it and removed the cover. Then it would reset and power on after toggling the switch.

So l left it on with the cover removed and jarred all the wires with a wooden dowel.

Nothing happened. It continued to work. So something was happening with the case itself. There were no bare wires... What was it hitting?

The bizarre thing, is that the PSU's circuit board was screwed into the case with 3 pan head screws and one counter sink screw. When I took it apart, I just figured it was assembled in a shoddy manner and they just put any old screw in.

Turns out there was an ear or a tab of bent sheet metal from the cover that was supposed to cover that counter sunk screw. I had mistakenly put one of the pan head screws there so, it was making contact with the case cover. Somehow, that caused the PSU to short and shutdown.

I swapped the panhead with the counter sink screw and that mysterious shutdown sympton went away...

Anyway, I put the new panaflo in at 12v and despite the higher CFM rating of the Nidec, the PSU isn't any hotter and I'm under the impression that the Nidec fan was way over rated in CFM and way under rated in dBA.

larrymoencurly · Post by **larrymoencurly** » Sun Jun 29, 2003 10:14 pm

I have a PSU where one heatsink has 170VDC riding on it. One of the case screws sits right above it, and if it was substituted with a screw only 1/8" longer, that 170V would be shorted to the case and cause an electrocution hazard if the AC outlet wasn't grounded.

energy · Post by **energy** » Fri Jul 04, 2003 12:52 pm

All FSP/Sparkle/Powerman etc PSUs have very over-rated fans. PSU manufacturers assume they need to cool your case as well, in regards to ATX spec.

madlee · Post by **madlee** » Sat Jul 05, 2003 12:06 am

Well, I tried out that Nidec fan (see specs above) and it does have a seemingly high CFM and considering how much air it's blowing it's somewhat quiet by itself

I'm assuming that the noise it generated inside my PSU was because of the turbulence and it's general higher speed etc.

None the less, the PSU is still going strong, although I still have no real understanding as to why the PSU had the mysterious shut down problems while reassembling..