Real talk, I’m not that smart, but my case has… an excessive amount of fans. This one in particular makes a grinding sound when it runs and having it stopped or reduced by other means hasn’t affected the temperature. The CPU is water cooled, the affected fan is not a GPU or PSU fan, and there are 5 other chassis fans running perfectly fine.
Will keeping it jammed in this manner do anything other than potentially hurt that fan? I’d unplug it but it’s apparently plugged into the PSU, not the motherboard, which is a lot more of a pain to mess with and involves taking off a heavy back panel (screwdriver required) with a mess of wiring stashed behind it, so I’d rather avoid that if jamming up the fan won’t hurt anything other than the fan itself.
Thoughts?
Beyond “That’s stupid”, anyway. I’m aware. But if it’s mostly harmless stupidity I’m okay with that.
I would consider just buying a new fan and eventually replacing the noisy one.
A single non-functional case fan doesn’t do MUCH.
Now if the CPU fan ever breaks…
Edit: The fan is probably spinning a bearing which means it will eventually die on its own anyway. Keeping it from spinning will likely just burn the motor out and speed up the process. Fans and generally pretty cheap, they just take time to swap out.
I spent 3 hours yesterday because I couldn’t get a screwdriver in to unloosen a fan screw without dismantling the case, so I had to go out and buy a 90-degree screwdriver and carefully work it out of that spot. The fan had been dead for a while now, but I didn’t want to replace it until I needed to do something else with the PC.
Alright. That’s what I was looking for, thank you.
If anyone else has thoughts on it, feel free to share though.
As far as replacing it, which I acknowledge I -should- probably do, I probably won’t unless I do start having overheating issues. Almost solely because I really don’t want to mess with wiring that I’m not familiar with. I got this through CyberPowerPC or something like that so I’m not the one that did it. I already tried unplugging what I thought might be it (before I figured out where they’d be plugged in if they were plugged into the MB) – no, PC wouldn’t boot. So if anything gets nudged wrong in the messier bit, uh, I’d probably be screwed.
Best thing to do is get yourself a solid surface with plenty of light (and a flashlight as additional help) and slowly dismantle your way in.
You may have to unplug or remove a few things to get your hand in there to the right spot. I’ve been inside some computer cases that have some SERIOUSLY poor cable management and it’s often hard to track a wire back.
Take it slow and remember where everything was (take pictures if necessary). That way you can ensure you get everything back and the computer will boot up again.
Edit: If the fans are cheap enough, you might consider replacing all of them at once. Sometimes a full refresh is the best way to go to keep the longevity of your computer.
Hello. In the computer BIOS, is there any method of adjusting fan usage or speed? You may be able to turn it off.
My MB/ BIOS has a fan failure protection. If a fan plugged into the MB should fail, I would be alerted. I don’t recall if my computer would shut down with the alert or possibly be prevented from starting, but if it were an option, I’d take it.
So, if I were to snip a wire to kill a fan=overkill. If your MB has the same function, then unplugging/snipping won’t work.
The fan, energized, trying to turn, will be getting hot. How hot, idano. Hot enough to catch on fire? Idano. Hot enough to eventually cause a dead short? Idano.
It would worry me though.
At this point I’ve determined that the fans are plugged into the PSU, not the MB. BIOS has options, but since the case fans are not plugged into the MB, theyre not actually monitored and making any changes does nothing (and I’d imagine, similarly, that any “failure shutdowns” would not apply, since its not monitored).
If it were the MB everything would be significantly cleaner, because I could probably stop it in BIOS, and failing that I’d know what to unplug and how to reach it without making a mess of things.
FWIW, It’s been jammed since I made this post, and there have not been any issues yet. Granted, I do turn off my PC at night and while I’m at work, so it’s not running 24/7,
