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Antec Earthwatts 750 - tick

U

unreal89

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 21, 2010
Messages
270
My PSU ( Antec Earthwatts 750 ) has steadily begun to make a ticking noise, I think its the fan. At first is was intermittent, about once every two days for like 5 seconds. It's now 99% of the time it ticks really loud.

I checked that there's no obstruction to the fan, and it doesn't make noise when I manually spin it, so it makes me think its the fan motor or bearings at higher RPM than I can manually spin it.

Any one know if I can swap the fan for another case fan?

I'm a bit concerned about my replacement fan not having enough airflow or drawing a different amount of current. I want to put in an Antec TrueQuiet 120. Good for about 21.5 CFM ( I want to keep it on the lower rpm setting).

Also do PSU's have 3 pin connectors?

I don't want to damage the PSU because I really think its a nice unit. I'm also tight on $$ so a new PSU is not an option.
 
Judging by the last line of your post alone I would say you need to RMA it... otherwise if you screw it up taking it apart you're SOL, and you're also voiding any warranty it may have by opening it. While it may be [H]ard to replace your PSU's fan it's not something to do if you're low on cash.

As far as whether you can do it or not? Sure... I've replaced many a PSU fan.

Keep in mind that your particular PSU uses an oddball ADDA 135mm fan, so mounting holes most probably aren't going to line up with that 120mm Antec you plan to use as a replacement. That's going to lead to some sort of 'creative' redneck engineering to get it mounted....

It also uses 2 wires and plugs in with a mini-connector on a control daughterboard inside the unit. You'd probably be best off cutting off the connector from the old fan (leaving some wire on the connector) and then splicing the wires from the new fan onto the old connector being mindful of polarity.

See the 'build quality' section of the [H] review of the Earthwatts 750 for pictures that may help you...


And the 'ticking' may just be the fan blades hitting some plastic inside the unit. Many PSUs have thin plastic film positioned in order to help guide airflow inside the unit. It may just be that the plastic film has warped or moved over time in such a way that the fan blades are hitting it at full high rpms.
 
Thanks for the advice, Blue Falcon. I would RMA it, but I don't have proof of purchase, which is required of Antec.

I don't think its hitting plastic because:
A. It gradually got worse
B. I spun it be hand and couldn't replicate the noise

It's good to know that the fan can be replaced, although I wish I didn't have to splice a mini connector.

I found a 135mm fan on Newegg ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185165 ) that states it uses the same mounting holes as a 140mm fan.

Any one know the spacing between holes on a 140mm fan so I can measure the ones on my PSU?
 
unreal89 said:
Thanks for the advice, Blue Falcon. I would RMA it, but I don't have proof of purchase, which is required of Antec.

I don't think its hitting plastic because:
A. It gradually got worse
B. I spun it be hand and couldn't replicate the noise
Click to expand...

A. Which is exactly what would happen if heat from the PSU gradually warped the plastic sheet inside the PSU.
B. Firstly the problem might not be apparent when the fan is moved by hand because it might not happen until the fan spins at a higher speed. Also the shaft on most fans will actually move forward (or backward) several millimeters when power is applied, again making the fan blade touch the plastic sheeting (or something else) in the PSU.

The best way to test this would be to open the PSU and power it up with the fan out of the way and see if the fan still makes noise. (or remove the fan and power it from another source to check if it still ticks.

To answer your question about fan screw holes:

On your standard 140mm fan the screw holes are 124mm apart, the screw holes for a 120mm fan are exactly 105mm apart.
 
Last edited:
First off, Blue Falcon thanks for all the help.

I decided to open up the PSU, it was pretty straight forward. Once I separated the shell, I removed the fan and inspected it better. It looked good, no warping or damage. I then tried to line up a 140mm fan I had laying around... no dice. The spacing of the holes is slightly closer together than a 140mm fan. This would be no problem if you had a drill/dremel to modify this. I dont have those tools ATM.

I decided to see if anything was wrong with the fan motor, since I really had nothing to loose. I peeled back the sticker on the fan housing which revealed a mess of what seemed like plastic bits. I cleaned it up and saw that the little ball bearing (looks like a mini skateboard bearing) was grimy looking. I decided to take it apart, following some instructions I found online. Basically most fans have a tiny retaining clip that holds the fan from sliding axially. The one on this antec unit was metal, but many fans have a white plastic one. Once that is carefully removed (I used tiny glasses screw drivers) you can slide the fan off. On the ball bearing models (such as in my case) there are two bearings - one on the front side and one on the back. I inspected these and both seemed a bit out of whack. The front bearing had a dent in the side seal, and the rear seemed to be leaking grease. I had a number of spare fans so I thought I could just swap the bearings. Well turns out a lot of fans use plain bearings (just a soft metal bushing with some lube) and could not be used as donors. Luckily I had a nice corsair fan lying around that had the exact same ball bearings. I replaced them and reassembled the fan and the PSU. As I am typing this it seems to have worked. I haven't heard any clicks for about 2 hours. I have attached pictures of the damaged bearings and the donor ones. What a difference!

Goes to show you that good quality bearings are key. Hopefully the corsair fan didn't die in vain and will provide my PSU with years of use!

TL;DR - Detailed explanation on how I replaced bad bearings in old fan with new bearings from a donor. Fixed the problem.

PICS
Damaged bearings:
DSC07693_zps3894d201.jpg


Replacement:
DSC07695_zps084a95cc.jpg
 
Was there a plastic or rubber plug under that sticker? If not there should have been... sounds like it might have disintegrated somehow and fallen into the bearing where it got chewed up!

Good show on replacing the bearing... I've done a lot of weird geeky stuff in my time with case fans but I can't say I've ever actually replaced the bearings before! :D
 
No, there was no rubber plug. I know that some of the other fans I was searching through did have it, but some didn't. It makes sense that a quality brand like Antec should have had the plug there. Maybe it was a defect. I didn't swap the plug over from the corsair fan, but I think I'm going to do that now, for security.
 
I think the fan blade isn't balanced or something. I just checked the bearings again and they look like crap. I replaced the fan with a 140mm. I didn't drill any holes because I mounted it using nylon rubber mounts. Its much quieter now too :)
 
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