It’s The Power Supply Stupid

My new replacement fan from Dell arrived this evening. I cracked open the case and felt the fan force when it was running, not much air movement. Popped out the assembly and pulled the fan off its rubber mounting posts. Installed the new fan and snapped it back into the case. Leaving the case open I hit the power button.

Fan started running, so far so good. I felt for air movement and it didn’t seem any better. As the computer finished booting up I just listened. It seems like the new fan has a tick to it that the other didn’t. Sigh, but at least it isn’t making the horrible vibrating sound. I scissor the case halves together and stand it upright. Just as I reach vertical….brrraaattttttttttttt. The sound is back.

I carefully laid the case back down horizontal….brrraaattttttttttttt. Opened up the case again and unplugged the new fan and….brrraaattttttttttttt, the noise is still there. Put my ear up to the power supply and that is where the racket sounds like it is coming from. Rap on the power supply grating hard with my knuckle and the noise stopped.

Damn! I was so sure. While trouble shooting it was making the noise and I unplugged the CPU cooling fan and the noise stopped, how could this be? The only thing I can think of is the first time I unplugged the fan it jostled the computer enough that the power supply fan quieted down.

Back to the Dell website to see about ordering a power supply. If you remember I complained about struggling to find the parts ordering section on the Dell site, I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. All you have to do is click on the pertinent system type on the blue menu bar along the top and right there second from the bottom is Dell Parts & Supplies. But you didn’t think it would easy though did you? Nope, drill down through the hierarchy and sure enough you are told that these items can not be purchased on line, please dial 1-800-Phillipines.

Well, I’m not going there. I’m going to go to Centrix International. It might even be a used power supply, but I’ll be darned if I’m going to have to deal with the refusing to buy a book or putting it on my Dell account madness again. Let alone how much they will want for that sucker. Centrix-Intl has four numbers listed as fitting my box, Guess I’ll be cracking open the case again to check the part number of the P/S.