power supply kicks into high gear

2fast4all

2fast4all

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 1, 2006
Messages
115
For some reason my power supply fan goes on and off A LOT, its like going under heavy load when im pretty much doing nothing, example: firefox and wmp its loud for 15-20 minutes then it quiets back down. Same while gaming. I know how to lower the fan speed (put a resistor) but does anyone know why its doing this? Its a cooler master 500W PS.
I wonder is this also why my games and occasionally online videos crashes on me?

Thanks
 
Even when you're doing "nothing", the system still uses power. PSUs have a certain threshold of power usage where the fan really kicks up. It sounds like you reached that threshold now that fan kicks up. Not surprisingly considering that you have the CM Extreme Power 500W which is actually a semi-decent Seventeem 450W PSU.
 
Another quick questions people.
Is it normal for the 12v rail to be running at 13.22v (according to HWmonitor)?? In speedfan it reads 12.51v.

thanks
 
Your PSU fan is thermostatically controlled. If the PSU is sucking in hot air, it's going to ramp up it's fan to push that hot air out. Your case fans, if they're plugged into the motherboard, are probably controlled by the motherboard and therefore controlled by thermistors on the motherboard, outside of your chassis's air flow. So your PSU fan ramping up could simply be a matter of your chassis fans not doing their job.
 
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