PSU Question: New Corsair Fan

Hey, quick question: I just bought a brand new Corsair PSU. The fan refuses to work and I cannot find anything online on how to set it manually. Or set it to normal, etc.

 

Anyone else have a Corsair HX series?

If something as simple as the fan isn't working on a brand new PSU I'd return it under the warranty and get a new one. A faulty PSU is not something you want in your case.

Some higher-end PSUs don't run their fans until the power load or temperature reaches a certain level, so if anything it's the sign of a good model. A quick search shows at the very least some Corsair HX series models have this functionality, though look up your specific model to be sure. (EDIT: Or just play a game for a few minutes and see it spin up I guess)

Edited March 4, 2014 by Humanoid

Nice save.

Some higher-end PSUs don't run their fans until the power load or temperature reaches a certain level, so if anything it's the sign of a good model. A quick search shows at the very least some Corsair HX series models have this functionality, though look up your specific model to be sure. (EDIT: Or just play a game for a few minutes and see it spin up I guess)

Exactly right, PSU don't run at their native wattage threshold so if it is temperature based it has to build up to it.

 

For ones that are load based I've had experiences where I had to use six 8 watt digital valves for a 300 watt power supply to be loaded.

 

Spent many days looking at characteristics of PSU's with an Oscilloscope and doing crazy experiments with an AC source (to a point where the noise was very very audible) to send HF noisy AC signals to them. Just to see how well it can filter out the AC noise within the Digital Output. 

Hey, quick question: I just bought a brand new Corsair PSU. The fan refuses to work and I cannot find anything online on how to set it manually. Or set it to normal, etc.

 

Anyone else have a Corsair HX series?

My car has this red light that says "Engine" that's been on for like, two weeks, what's the matter with my car? I also noticed it sounds weird when starting up and sometimes smoke comes out from under the hood. You guys know what the problem is?

 

 

 

 

....Why are you asking Obsidian forum members and not Corsair?

Edited March 4, 2014 by AGX-17

Because he wanted the answers people already gave, badass.

Some higher-end PSUs don't run their fans until the power load or temperature reaches a certain level, so if anything it's the sign of a good model. A quick search shows at the very least some Corsair HX series models have this functionality, though look up your specific model to be sure. (EDIT: Or just play a game for a few minutes and see it spin up I guess)

That's interesting. Is that something relatively new or have some models "always" done that? Next time I get a PSU I'll have to keep it in mind. Don't think I've ever really checked my PSU fan per se...I've only occasionally noticed when gameplaying because the back of the case is spewing out hot air in all kinds of ways, since I don't have water cooling.

Depends how long you define "relatively new" as - it's been around for somewhere between a few and several years, coinciding with the trend for higher efficiency PSUs - a more efficient PSU will have less heat to dissipate. Generally speaking you'll mostly see the feature on gold/platinum rated units, and not all of them at that. e.g. The Seasonic X series has the feature, the G series does not, both are gold rated units. Incidentally they're also the two units I recommend to people building PCs, pick depending on budget.

Edited March 4, 2014 by Humanoid

 

My car has this red light that says "Engine" that's been on for like, two weeks, what's the matter with my car? I also noticed it sounds weird when starting up and sometimes smoke comes out from under the hood. You guys know what the problem is?

 

 

Your missing a timing belt and a flywheel :D /s

 

 

 

That's interesting. Is that something relatively new or have some models "always" done that? Next time I get a PSU I'll have to keep it in mind. Don't think I've ever really checked my PSU fan per se...I've only occasionally noticed when gameplaying because the back of the case is spewing out hot air in all kinds of ways, since I don't have water cooling.

 

Majority of that heat is probably from your CPU mate, ever tried powering on a PC with a loose heat sink (this happened to one of my college professors) or none at all?, CPU usually sets itself to overheat status within 2 - 5 seconds. Granted enough that might be very dependent on your build.

 

Go with what Humanoid said above, I have nothing to contribute to that statement.

 

 

Speaking of power supplies, I really want to take a PS4's PSU and tear it apart (I'm aware there is a video of a tear down of it, its not the same as taking it out of its enclosure powering it up and probing it with a multimeter). Not to question Mark Cerny or anything I just want to know why the hell isn't the AC side of that PSU tied to earth ground. Or if anyone on here can elaborate that decision for me I'm all ears.

Edited March 4, 2014 by Whitefox789

"Relatively new" = 3-5 years for me, for tech. Usually.

Typically I haven't had to replace a PSU during the life of using a PC ... maybe I should have to be safe, but I haven't.

 

When I put my hand behind the case, the spot where the PSU fan is is pretty warm. But I think the GPU above it is warmer. Not sure about the CPU since it doesn't have a specific connected outlet to the outside. Just the 3 case fans sort near it that pull the overall air out so by then it's not directly so hot against a palm. But yeah, I can believe the CPU is a heater.

But yeah, I can believe the CPU is a heater.

 

It's all those millions of transistors    (sometimes billions). Curse you Moore's Law! 

Hm.

While that *is* a nice feature, I've been getting heat from 60-71 degrees ever since installing it. Could be the broken CPU fan, as well.

 

My last PSU was the bad one. I'm replacing it.

 

Hey, quick question: I just bought a brand new Corsair PSU. The fan refuses to work and I cannot find anything online on how to set it manually. Or set it to normal, etc.
 
Anyone else have a Corsair HX series?

My car has this red light that says "Engine" that's been on for like, two weeks, what's the matter with my car? I also noticed it sounds weird when starting up and sometimes smoke comes out from under the hood. You guys know what the problem is?




....Why are you asking Obsidian forum members and not Corsair?

 

1) I asked every tech forum I was a part of.

2) I asked the Computers subforum. As we all play on them, I was pretty sure someone would know.

The PSU doesn't report temperature to the BIOS/monitoring software does it ?. Mine doesn't. If your board/CPU is running very hot it doesn't mean the PSU is, or that it has anything to do with it. 

I've got a Corsair but I can never tell if the fan is running or not. Granted mine blows air out the underside of the case. 

The PSU doesn't report temperature to the BIOS/monitoring software does it ?. Mine doesn't. If your board/CPU is running very hot it doesn't mean the PSU is, or that it has anything to do with it. 

I am using an external software for monitoring since my NZXT is not hooked up yet.

 

The PSU, I know it is not related. I think it might be the old fan.

"Relatively new" = 3-5 years for me, for tech. Usually.

Typically I haven't had to replace a PSU during the life of using a PC ... maybe I should have to be safe, but I haven't.

 

When I put my hand behind the case, the spot where the PSU fan is is pretty warm. But I think the GPU above it is warmer. Not sure about the CPU since it doesn't have a specific connected outlet to the outside. Just the 3 case fans sort near it that pull the overall air out so by then it's not directly so hot against a palm. But yeah, I can believe the CPU is a heater.

Loading both a typical CPU and a typical gaming GPU to a proper workload, you'll typically find the GPU is about double the CPU in terms of power consumption, and therefore in heat. ~200W for a GPU, ~100W for the CPU.

Interesting indeed and I stand corrected in regards to my original post. I was unaware of the 'fan off' feature of some newer models. I'm still rocking my 550W Coolermaster that I bought in early 2006, that has lived and not needed upgrading through 3 builds now. Still works more than fine.

 

I'm not sure I'd buy a PSU that had such a feature though as how are you to know if the fan is faulty and doesn't work if it's designed to sometimes run and sometimes not?

A good PSU has a large quality fan that spins so slowly anyway that'd you'd not know it was running even if it didn't have the smart feature. You'll find that typically a good PSU has a single fan on the 'fat' side of it, instead of on the outwards facing panel (as used to be standard), so it'd be impossible to see it without physically opening the case.

 

The other thing is that the good PSUs have tremendous tolerance anyway, they have fanless PSUs of 500W+ now. But I guess you'd find out when it tripped the heat threshold and spontaneously powered off.

 

 

My car has this red light that says "Engine" that's been on for like, two weeks, what's the matter with my car? I also noticed it sounds weird when starting up and sometimes smoke comes out from under the hood. You guys know what the problem is?

 

 

Your missing a timing belt and a flywheel :D /s

 

 

And bad oxygen sensors. A freeze-plug may have burst, so no compression, either. All the smoke, however, is from burning off all the Snark brand motor oil. 

New PSU just buzzes.

 

Thinking it is the wiring now.

Real mechanical buzz or more like electrical, high-pitched coil whine?

It's probably just electrical noise (leftover AC ripple from the transformer and filter capacitors to a DC signal) that wasn't fully filtered out, it won't affect your DC signal too drastically (could have AC readings on it of about maybe 250 - 500 uV). If anything it'll just be an audible annoyance.

 

I don't know why, I've taken apart so many PSU's that are all the same model yet some of them will make a small audible noise and some of them won't its completely random.

 

 

Real mechanical buzz or more like electrical, high-pitched coil whine?

The only moving mechanical part in the power supply should be the fan. I think he would of noticed that sound pretty quickly.

Edited March 5, 2014 by Whitefox789

I'm lost now. So there was an old power supply that didn't fan-on at start-up, but also a case fan that wasn't installed but didn't fan-on either ... plus a CPU fan/heatsink not fanning or sinking? And an enclosure that's not hooked up to anything, but then a new PSU that makes noise ... whatever the problem is, I'm gonna need another beer to re-read this thread.     

Within the fan itself though it could be something as simple as the fan hitting a wire every rotation, or a dodgy bearing. Having no background whatsoever in electrical stuff, coil whine does seem like alien magic to me, heh. The weirdest things can trigger it, such C-states in the BIOS or other power-saving settings, though more commonly it's a bad cap or a GPU pushing hundreds of frames a second. Some people solve it by dabbing hot glue on the offending component which is a pleasingly low-tech solution.

 

But yeah, I'm actually a bit lost in what the present setup is now.

Edited March 5, 2014 by Humanoid