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In my mining rig I have a corsair hx1000 professional, it is quite old and has some capacitor whine but is otherwise healthy. The fan spins on start up.

I've got 3 AMD RX570 GPUs in it running at ~78° and it is drawing 535w at the wall. The PSU is meant to be intelligent and should only activate the fan when it is under load. However the fan is not spinning and the PC has a "hot" smell. Should the fan be spinning?

Thanks,

Joe

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  • You mean 535 W right? Not amps?
    – psusi
    Jan 18, 2018 at 1:24
  • Oops, corrected
    – JoeS
    Jan 18, 2018 at 9:53

1 Answer 1

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According to the manufacturer the fan doesn’t turn on until its needed, so you can enjoy silence at “low and medium loads.”

Bad fans usually don’t spin when they are cold and then will keep spinning once they warm up or are given a push.

Since you see the opposite - the fan spins when you first turn it on then stops, I would have to say this sounds like normal behavior. It may be the fan is simply not needed at the time.

Warm components are not necessarily overheating components. You should attempt to better identify exactly where the smell is coming from. If you find something excessively hot, or you are concerned about failure, improve your cooling or replace it. If it’s a power supply, it could damage other components when it fails.

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  • Except he said it is under a heavy load, not light, so... it certainly should be spinning. Sounds like a failed temperature sensor.
    – psusi
    Jan 18, 2018 at 1:25
  • @psusi I tend to agree with what you said. But it is hard to make that determination based on available data. He didn't actually say it is under heavy load. He indicated 535a at the input, which I assume he means 535 Watts. This is an 80% efficient PS, so that would seem to be 428 Watts on the output side. For a 1000 watt power supply this would seem to be medium load, not heavy. If the system has plenty of airflow due to other fans, the power supply fan may not be needed at all to keep it cool. But, I tend to agree that it seems like some fan would be needed at this level of load. Jan 18, 2018 at 2:38
  • Thanks for the responses. I think that I may know what the issue is. The fan cover on the PSU is almost too hot to touch. However it also has a graphics card blowing directly on to it. So maybe the GPU fan is cooling the PSU. I'll try removing that GPU/covering the PSU fan and see if it starts spinning.
    – JoeS
    Jan 18, 2018 at 11:43
  • @JoeS no part of the case should be too hot to touch. Isolate the two components like you suggested, then keep a close eye on that. It does sound like the power supply is not cooling properly, but it doesn’t sound like it is because of a bad fan. It may be a bad sensor, as suggested by a previous comment. You may be due for a new power supply. If you’re handy you could mount a second fan on to the power supply externally and run it all the time to push or pull air through. Then it may be fine. But that is a risk you’ll have to decide to take. Jan 18, 2018 at 13:22
  • ....and it just went POP :( what are the chances that I've damaged other components?
    – JoeS
    Jan 18, 2018 at 23:00

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