is my power supply dieing?

[Brian Cluff]

On 7/13/20 8:41 PM, Michael via PLUG-discuss wrote:
> inxi tells me this about my fans:
> Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0 fan-1: 3139 fan-3: 0
Look at the fan while it's on... does it look like it's spinning? It 
possible that it IS spinning and the CPU fan is fimply plugged into the 
wrong fan connector or the CPU fan is running but is a 2 wire fan that 
doesn't report fan speeds.
> So my cpu fan isn't working. I thought my computer would CRASH/FREEZE
> more often if the cpu fan wasn't working.
There is still a heat sync which does give the CPU a bit of cooling all 
by itself, so that could give you a buffer until it can't cope with the 
amount of heat being produced anymore.
> I'm not sure but I think my power supply fan is running slow. Is that a thing?
That's absolutely a thing, and one of the most common power supply 
problems you will find. If your fan is indeed spinning slow, it is 
possible to replace a CPU fan but it will require a little bit of 
soldering if you are comfortable with that.  You can also buy yourself a 
little time by putting some oil on the fans bearings.. but it won't buy 
you very much time... a few months maybe.
Otherwise, if your sure it's spinning slow, it might be time for a new 
power supply.... but make sure it's truly spinning slow.  If you are 
using an LED flashlight, it may be using PWM modulation to dim the 
light, which can make computer fans appear to spin at different speeds 
that they actually are.

Good Luck,
Brian Cluff