[SOLVED] (URGENT) PSU grinding noise out of nowhere

[apostolovskimarko]

I urgently and desperatly need help, yesterday i just put my pc to sleep, everything wad normal, after 2 hours i turned it on and the pc started making veery loud grinding noise. I opened the case up and i realised its the psu, the sounds were loud. When i lightly tap/hit it on the side the loud noise stops and its back to normal sound, 5seconds later the same thing

Psu is pretty old, but i dont really have the budget for a new one
Its a 400w one, and its going fine theese 6+years, it was fully cleaned 2 months ago by my cousin. So idk what should i do help please, 😪😪
It does the sound while booting, i havent boot to windows yet, im scared not to push the psu even more

 

[Solidjake]

Might be the fan failing. With that age I would buy a new psu sorry to say.

What is the make/model of that psu?

 

[apostolovskimarko]

Might be the fan failing. With that age I would buy a new psu sorry to say.

What is the make/model of that psu?

Yeah i understand, the model is a codegen 300xa, at this point the only psu i can afford is a Matrix 800w psu so idk, its cheap, around 28$

 

[Solidjake]

Yeah i understand, the model is a codegen 300xa, at this point the only psu i can afford is a Matrix 800w psu so idk, its cheap, around 28$

Everyone on the forum will tell you that those power supplies are of extremely extremely poor quality and have a lot of fire risk... What country are you in? I would recommend a Seasonic, Corsair, Evga power supply.

Something like this is far better than the matrix psu

https://www.newegg.com/corsair-cx-series-cx450-450w/p/N82E16817139201?Item=N82E16817139201

 

[apostolovskimarko]

Everyone on the forum will tell you that those power supplies are of extremely extremely poor quality and have a lot of fire risk... What country are you in? I would recommend a Seasonic, Corsair, Evga power supply.

Something like this is far better than the matrix psu

https://www.newegg.com/corsair-cx-series-cx450-450w/p/N82E16817139201?Item=N82E16817139201

Welp i live in a dumb lik country, macedonia, like i dont think i can find name brands, for real, and if i do find any corsair or evga psus they are over 150-200bucks which sadly are more than i spent to makr my old pc "gaming" and newegg doesnt ship here, and if i order from online that would be an extra 1-2 months, so idk☹😿.. And i dont have much money for a psu cuz i spent them all on my cpu, gpu, ram.... Thats why

 

[bignastyid]

So you made the rookie mistake of not thinking the PSU is important, when in reality it's one of the most important parts of a system. A poor PSU choice can literally ruin the whole system. I suggest not running the new parts till you can get a decent PSU to power them. Using a cheap garbage quality PSU could easily destroy all those new parts you spent so much money on.

 

[apostolovskimarko]

Welp i live in a dumb lik country, macedonia, like i dont think i can find name brands, for real, and if i do find any corsair or evga psus they are over 150-200bucks which sadly are more than i spent to makr my old pc "gaming" and newegg doesnt ship here, and if i order from online that would be an extra 1-2 months, so idk☹😿.. And i dont have much money for a psu cuz i spent them all on my cpu, gpu, ram.... Thats why

So you made the rookie mistake of not thinking the PSU is important, when in reality it's one of the most important parts of a system. A poor PSU choice can literally ruin the whole system. I suggest not running the new parts till you can get a decent PSU to power them. Using a cheap garbage quality PSU could easily destroy all those new parts you spent so much money on.

Well yeah ik, bad play, but like almost a year snd everythings fine, so idk

 

[bignastyid]

Well yeah ik, bad play, but like almost a year snd everythings fine, so idk

So you have been lucky with the gamble so far, but that luck will run out. When it does you'll need a new PSU and whatever else it takes with it when it fails.

 

[apostolovskimarko]

So you have been lucky with the gamble so far, but that luck will run out. When it does you'll need a new PSU and whatever else it takes with it when it fails.

Yeah, so i guess i cant fix this one and i should buy a good quality one, which will be in a long while😐😐

 

[geofelt]

I suspect that while cleaning your pc, your cousin damaged the psu fan.
An unbalanced fan will get noisy.
But, since all seems to be working I think no more damage will occur until the fan ultimately stops working.

Put a quality psu on your to buy list.

A cheap PSU will be made of substandard components. It will not have safety and overload protections.
The danger is if it fails under load, it can destroy anything it is connected to.
It will deliver advertised power only at room temperatures, not at higher temperatures found when installed in a case.
The wattage will be delivered on the 3 and 5v rails, not on the 12v rails where modern parts
like the CPU and Graphics cards need it. What power is delivered may fluctuate and cause instability
issues that are hard to diagnose.
The fan will need to spin up higher to cool it, making it noisy.
A cheap PSU can become very expensive.

Do not buy one.

Avoid no name brands.
Here is one list of psu quality for future reference. Look for no less than tier 3.

PSU Tier List [OLD]

Credit to @Starelementpokeand @Energycore for helping out with this long-awaited refresh of the old PSU tier list by Aniallation (who previously went several months without logging in), leaving the old list in need of help. This is simply an update of the list that was flawed in creation by the P...

linustechtips.com

 

[apostolovskimarko]

I suspect that while cleaning your pc, your cousin damaged the psu fan.
An unbalanced fan will get noisy.
But, since all seems to be working I think no more damage will occur until the fan ultimately stops working.

Put a quality psu on your to buy list.

A cheap PSU will be made of substandard components. It will not have safety and overload protections.
The danger is if it fails under load, it can destroy anything it is connected to.
It will deliver advertised power only at room temperatures, not at higher temperatures found when installed in a case.
The wattage will be delivered on the 3 and 5v rails, not on the 12v rails where modern parts
like the CPU and Graphics cards need it. What power is delivered may fluctuate and cause instability
issues that are hard to diagnose.
The fan will need to spin up higher to cool it, making it noisy.
A cheap PSU can become very expensive.

Do not buy one.

Avoid no name brands.
Here is one list of psu quality for future reference. Look for no less than tier 3.

PSU Tier List [OLD]

Credit to @Starelementpokeand @Energycore for helping out with this long-awaited refresh of the old PSU tier list by Aniallation (who previously went several months without logging in), leaving the old list in need of help. This is simply an update of the list that was flawed in creation by the P...

linustechtips.com

I dont think he did something bad, hes been doing this for a long time but u never know, thanks anyway i think in my country the only psu i can get is a matrix 800w sadly i cant get anything better even if i hsd the money, i would have to order online and would take atleast a month to get here so idk

 

[bignastyid]

Would you rather wait a month for a decent PSU or wait even longer to save up to buy a bunch of new parts including a PSU?

 

[apostolovskimarko]

Would you rather wait a month for a decent PSU or wait even longer to save up to buy a bunch of new parts including a PSU?

Look, i cant wait at all because i really need it so tomorow im getting a matrix 800w psu, sadly cant save up nor wait, thanks for the help and i guess i will be putting my whole build in danger, sadly cant do much about it 😪

 

[bignastyid]

Hopefully your luck holds out and you are able to get a better PSU before anything bad happens.

 

[apostolovskimarko]

Hopefully your luck holds out and you are able to get a better PSU before anything bad happens.

Yeah thanks, i hope so too

 

[geofelt]

Do not compound your problem with another cheap psu.
The wattage of a psu does not have any connection to quality.
Do you have any other options?
Better to wait for a good psu. At least the unit you are using is now ok, be it a bit noisy.

 

[apostolovskimarko]

Do not compound your problem with another cheap psu.
The wattage of a psu does not have any connection to quality.
Do you have any other options?
Better to wait for a good psu. At least the unit you are using is now ok, be it a bit noisy.

Its not a bit noisy, its VERY loud and i dont want it to be running at all, i will do one of these 2
A)get another cheap ass psu, and pray that it will be good
B)go to my dads friend and maybe he will try to open it and see if its the fsn, myb lube it idk, just so it can start working normally for some time until i save up monry for a much better psu

Im going for option b😂🙃

 

[geofelt]

Try option b) first. You may find that the problem is as simple as a wire rubbing against the fan.

You can also try placing the pc on a different orientation. On it's side or even upside down.
If upside down works, a psu can be mounted upside down with no issue.

 

[apostolovskimarko]

Try option b) first. You may find that the problem is as simple as a wire rubbing against the fan.

You can also try placing the pc on a different orientation. On it's side or even upside down.
If upside down works, a psu can be mounted upside down with no issue.

I tried every orientation but when its laying down if i lightly hit it on the side of the psu it stops for a second so i think its something simple, gonna update tommorow.. Thanks anyways

 

[Solidjake]

Remove the psu from the case, clear any static you might have on you, open it up gently and see if there is a wire touching the fan. use a zip tie to hold it away from the fan and be sure not to have the wire on a capacitor or any other part that may get hot

 

[apostolovskimarko]

Remove the psu from the case, clear any static you might have on you, open it up gently and see if there is a wire touching the fan. use a zip tie to hold it away from the fan and be sure not to have the wire on a capacitor or any other part that may get hot

Thanks for the help, tommorow my dads friend who does things like this on a regular basis, imma update tommorow

 

[Solidjake]

Thanks for the help, tommorow my dads friend who does things like this on a regular basis, imma update tommorow

Awesome, keep us posted!

 

[apostolovskimarko]

A little late to report but the psu for now is fixed, the thing was it was the fan, it was about to die so he kindly replaced the fan with another one from a diffrent psu that fit.
I stress tested cpu and gpu on full load and everythings stable, thank you everyone 😁😁

 

[Solidjake]

A little late to report but the psu for now is fixed, the thing was it was the fan, it was about to die so he kindly replaced the fan with another one from a diffrent psu that fit.
I stress tested cpu and gpu on full load and everythings stable, thank you everyone 😁😁

Awesome, glad to hear the fix was easy.