[SOLVED] Why is my PSU fan making a strange noise

[Inc0gn1to]

I have a Corsair VS650, its an old model but its been working fine for the past 3 years i have had it, it still works perfectly except for one part.

The fan makes a grinding noise everytime i turn on my PC, usually it stops after a min or two, but recently it has become worse.
The fan now starts making its loud noise while im playing a game or watching Youtube. I found that slapping the bottom of my PC stops the noise but it comes back after around 10 mins. i dont know what to do. I don't really have the money at the moment to buy a new PSU so i came to ask here if anyone knows how to fix it.

I tried taking the fan out of the PSU and it looks normal, i cleaned all the dust off of it but that did nothing.
Thanks

 

[Lutfij]

its an old model

Is it the orange label or the yellow label? Either one aren't good units.

Please include/list your specs like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
GPU:
PSU:
OS:

 

[Inc0gn1to]

Is it the orange label or the yellow label? Either one aren't good units.

Please include/list your specs like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
GPU:
PSU:
OS:

CPU: I7 6700k (im not currently overclocking)
Motherboard: ASUS H110M
Ram: 16 GB
SSD/HDD: 1TB HDD
GPU: GTX 1080
GPU:
PSU: Corsair VS650, i believe it is the orange label if im not colourblind
OS: Win10 Home

 

[Karadjgne]

Fan bearing is going bad. Once it spins up for a second, whatever lubrication is in the bearing heats up and distributes more evenly, noise goes away, but until that happens, you get grinding. It's going to progressively get worse and one day will just stop altogether, the fan, not the noise, as the bearings will just lock/freeze up.

As old as that psu is, it's well out of any warranty. So you have 2 options. Replace the fan or replace the unit.

With current pricing, replacing the fan is the far cheaper option, but due to the age of the unit itself, the loads a 1080 can ask of it, the fact its the bottom shelf psu in Corsair's lineup, that's a band-aid fix, I'd not trust it to last all that much longer.

 

[Inc0gn1to]

Fan bearing is going bad. Once it spins up for a second, whatever lubrication is in the bearing heats up and distributes more evenly, noise goes away, but until that happens, you get grinding. It's going to progressively get worse and one day will just stop altogether, the fan, not the noise, as the bearings will just lock/freeze up.

As old as that psu is, it's well out of any warranty. So you have 2 options. Replace the fan or replace the unit.

With current pricing, replacing the fan is the far cheaper option, but due to the age of the unit itself, the loads a 1080 can ask of it, the fact its the bottom shelf psu in Corsair's lineup, that's a band-aid fix, I'd not trust it to last all that much longer.

Thanks for the answer, say i were to buy a new PSU, what would be a good one that is around £50-60 or under?

 

[Karadjgne]

PCPartPicker Part List

Power Supply: Corsair TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (£64.99 @ Currys PC World)
Total: £64.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-11 21:31 BST+0100

That's the cheapest psu I'd recommend. There's a new version of the VS that's a few quid cheaper and considerably better than your current version (most likely), but I'd not recommend them for gaming rigs, the VS is designed for a simple office pc, not high, instant demand gpus.