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[Elf]

I have a friends computer at home (2ghz celeron) and the USB ports need fixing. When I turned it on I noticed the PSU fan isn't going.
I turned it off, open the case and vacuum the dust up including the PSU fan at the back.
Turned it back on, the PSU fan still isn't spinning but the computer posts and windows works ok.

How long will the PSU last without a fan working?

The PSU is a Ritmo 500W.

[H-kon]

Never heard of the brand before, but it could be that the fan in the PSU is temp controlled, but those PSU's are mostly high end.

Give the machine some high load work and it should turn on, if not, it's time to replace it.

[Elf]

I don't believe the fan is temp controlled. There still a reasonable amount of dust on the fan. Ritmo is a cheap PSU brand.

I could give the computer some high work load something like prime cpu test. Can you still replace PSU fans or does he need to get another PSU?

[H-kon]

It's a hit and miss. Some PSU fans have a standard 3 or 4 pin connector, while others use a not too common connector. I have replaced a few fans, but there are many i just had to throw away since i couldn't replace it, or it was too much hassle doing it.

Open her up and take a look

Just don't touch the heatsinks

[Elf]

I'm not sure if it's under warranty. This is the second PSU he has had. I will look if any of the warranty stickers are intact.

How long does it take for the heatsinks to cool down after use? I know for a CPU heatsink it's only ~20min.

[H-kon]

5-10 minutes i believe I usually go take a cigarette or something before i open one up, it's usually cool by then

[Elf]

Well I think the PSU was second hand when he brought it. I took it out of the case and the warranty stickers were already broken. I opened it up and the fan appears to be connected directly into the circuit board. Don't know how to replace them.

When this computer was scanning for virus, about 30 min in it would freeze. Now I have my spare  PSU installed it was able to complete the scan which took 1hr. Sometimes it would freeze while loading windows. It would load to displaying the desktop and the icons and loading the things in the system tray and freeze (like it did tonight). Took old PSU out put in my spare PSU, 400w Usicase and rebooted 5 times so far with no problems.

[H-kon]

Sounds like the old PSU had done it's job then Still stable?

[Elf]

I ran Memtest 86+ for 16hrs with no problems and it now boots into windows every time without fail.

Might get him to buy a fan less PSU. His computer had a lot of dust in it. Surprised the CPU fan is still working.

Now I just need to get the usb ports working.

[H-kon]

Hmm. The old PSU might have damaged the motherboard :/. I have experienced a few motherboards with dead USB ports that failed after a while.

[Elf]

You could be right. I have had bad PSU's before but the USB ports were still working. Maybe they are still going to fail.

This is his board. http://au.shuttle.com/product_detail_spec.jsp?PI=583

As well as the 2 standard USB ports it has 4 USB ports that are pluged into a 2 connectors on the motherboard and a 2 USB port pci card.

1 standard port and 0 of the 4 ports are working. The pci card with 2 usb ports works ok. This was the same with a fresh install of Windows XP pro.