David Landau wrote:
> Could anyone suggest a way of quieting a noisy fan. The fan in the rear of my mini-tower case is beginning to make a steady drone, which gets louder and louder each day. If I give the case a smack, it quiets down, but then after a few seconds it starts again.

Caution! Smacking the case can destroy the hard drive, especially when
it is reading or writing. The drive's head can dig into the media
and gouge it.   Don't smack.
The bearing is failing in the fan. Time to replace it.
If it is an extra case fan, simply buy a new one of the same size,
voltage and type and swap it out. Count the wires, (see below).

If it is in the power supply, you can buy a new power supply, (maybe
more watts for future expansion) or open up the power supply,
measure the fan, (inch and metric), read on the fan for voltage
requirements, (usually 12 volt DC), and count the wires. Some fans
have a third wire for feedback of fan speed to a chip on the
mainboard that monitors that. Buy a new fan and replace it.
Soldering required. It is not necessary to replace the wires at the
circuit board junction... a splice of the wires will do, but solder
the spliced wires and wrap the splices good with electrical tape.
There may be a connector there to plug into the pwr sply circuit
board, but the replacement fan will not likely have such a connector.
Even if you replace the whole power supply, you might want to go
ahead and replace the fan so you'll have a good spare pwr sply.

You can pay a little extra for a ball-bearing fan which will likely
last the life of the pwr sply, and the computer. The standard sleeve
bearing fan doesn't last long.

Dalco is a good source for fans and pwr splys; http://www.dalco.com/
Or Radio Shack might have the fan you need.
Don't work on it hot... unplug it.

Larry Hooper

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