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December 24th, 2023 00:06
XPS 8930, PSU noisy, replacement?
At first I thought the noise was from the top fan but now I realize it's the PSU (power supply unit). I've not disassembled anything yet but am not too confident that it would be easy to find a replacement fan - so I'm thinking power supply. I'm not sure if this power supply is 'custom' or if there are 3rd party power supplies that would work. I've got an old 1080 card so I don't think this power supply would be in the high wattage variety.
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redxps630
9 Legend
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14.8K Posts
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December 24th, 2023 00:45
Re: if this power supply is 'custom' or if there are 3rd party power supplies that would work
it is oem but not proprietary. any standard 3rd party ATX psu with 24/4 pin and 6/8 pin PCIe would work.
there are multiple Dell oem 460w psu c/w 8930.
D460AM-03 (Delta)
HU460AM-01 (Huntkey)
AC460AM-01 (Acbel)
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rh310
2 Intern
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175 Posts
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December 24th, 2023 00:16
Well, maybe I'm a dummy. Of all the "spare parts" I've ever wanted for a Dell computer I've never been able to find them AT Dell.com. But under spare parts for the 8930 I see 3 choices for power supplies. Oddly, 2 different 460w models are offered - $40 price difference. I guess this is my safest bet.
RoHe
10 Elder
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45.2K Posts
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December 24th, 2023 02:14
Sure it's not the top fan or the GPU fan, or even the CPU fan?
The fan in XPS 8930 PSU only runs when needed. At least on my XPS 8930, I rarely ever hear the PSU fan running (Dell OEM 850W PSU). So I'd be surprised your PSU fan is failing vs one of the others which run more frequently/longer.
Run PSU BIST test using the PSU test button on rear of PC. If you hear the noise when its fan spins up (it should spin up during the BIST, assuming the PSU is OK) that can help you decide if that fan is the culprit or not...
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rh310
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December 24th, 2023 03:56
@RoHe - I did read other posts here about the PSU fan hardly ever running - that was news to me. It's random - but it happened today when I had time to open the cover and stick my head inside. That's when I saw the PSU fan. It was still a toss up even that close to it. But I stuck that plastic straw that comes with compressed air through the hole and as soon as the fan stopped spinning, the noise stopped - hence my conclusion. I stuck the same straw through the top cover last week and that fan (120mm) just kept going and the noise didn't seem to change in any way.
Had no idea about the test button, I'll certainly try that next. Thanks!
RoHe
10 Elder
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45.2K Posts
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December 24th, 2023 21:25
If stopping the PSU fan stopped the noise, that's a reasonable indicator of which fan is the problem. Could it be something is vibrating when that fan is spinning, rather than fan itself?
Did you give the PSU fan a blast of canned air to see if you could clean out dust/dirt?
rh310
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December 25th, 2023 14:44
@RoHe You can bet I'll be trying that next time it starts making the noise. It's only been doing it for about a year and in that year only done it 4 or 5 times. When I stuck the straw in, the noise stopped and hasn't come back. Next time it starts I'll press on the cage at various points to see if that helps, then give it a blast of air.
About once per year I open all mine up and blow them out. The graphics card on an old XPS-9000 is bad about collecting dust. When I hit that squirrel cage fan with a blast of air I become Pig-Pen for a moment. I wear a mask now since wrecking my sinuses for 2-days straight after cleaning out a VERY old unit last year. With a high intensity LED headlamp on, it's amazing the cloud of dust you can see that just hangs in the air afterwards that I never could see with the naked eye. I now perform this task outdoors!
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RoHe
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December 25th, 2023 23:57
As Pigpen would say: "Dirt happens..."