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ImageDr. Digit 'Splains It All

The fan had been going bad on my computer for a long time.  It got very noisy, and as it turned out it was not cooling the inside of the case as it was designed to do.  That's probably why my hard drive died.  Moving parts don't really like heat.  So after replacing the hard drive and restoring Windows and all my software -- the programs I could still find -- I started thinking about replacing the fan.

Well, one of the fans.  My computer has three: one cools the CPU deep in the bowels of my computer, another is attached to the back of the case, and the third is part of the power supply.  A power supply -- you guessed it -- supplies power to the various components inside your computer.  It is a metal box with a fan inside and tons of wires and plugs that connect to your hard drive, DVD player, and the other components.  You can't replace that fan without replacing the whole power supply.  Guess which fan broke?

At some point an HP rep had told me that the case that came with my computer only takes a special size fan, so I couldn't just go to Best Buy to get a replacement.  Yep, they have them, but according to this guy they wouldn't fit.  So I figured I'd look on HP's Web site and find a replacement fan there.

It wasn't easy, but after a lot of searching and poking around I found a part number.  But, unlike most parts in the HP Parts Store, I couldn't order this power supply online.  So I called the 800 number only to be informed that they don't have any.  But the rep gave me the 800 number of another company that supposedly had them in stock.

Except that rep, armed with a parts list and not much else, had a slightly different part number.  She wouldn't say it was compatible, and I wouldn't buy it unless it was.  Standoff!

When searching for my computer's model number and 'power supply' on Google I got one other hit on a generic power supply.  The hit was on a customer review on NewEgg.com that said that a particular generic power supply worked perfectly in his computer, the same model as mine.  He said that one of the wires didn't reach his video card, but otherwise it was a good buy.  Other reviewers complained this power supply had a huge number of wires and plugs they didn't need, but I viewed that as insurance that some of them would be the ones I do need.

Thirty nine dollars and ninety two cents (the shipping was about a third of that) plus three business days later I had my new power supply.  Now I had to open it, unplug everything, replace the power supply, plug the new one into everything, and hope it would work.

This is actually a quite simple job as long as you remember which things in the box need to be plugged in, and can figure out which plugs they connect to.  And HP's Web site has these handy picture tutorials on how to replace this component or that -- a step by step look at taking your computer apart and putting it back together again.

But it couldn't go without a hitch.  The biggest plug is supposed to connect to a socket on the motherboard, and on my HP that is a 20 pin socket.  Fine, except the one on my new power supply had 24 pins, and even if I plugged in the first 20 the other four smacked against something else so I couldn't push the plug all the way in.

I was convinced they had sent me the wrong fan, and was about to call for a return authorization when I rechecked the New Egg Web site, which had a picture of all the plugs with labels telling what they are (of course the manufacturer in some nameless Asian country couldn't put this useful picture in the package!).  The picture showed that plug as 'Main Power Connector: 20+4 pin.

20+4?

I flicked the side of the plug that had the four extra pins with my finger, and it fell off.  I mean it literally separated, leaving me with a 20 pin plug and a four pin plug.  That was more like it!

Aside from a silly moment when it didn't look like there was enough room to slide my new power supply into the space that was miserly allotted for it, the installation went smoothly.  And that guy on New Egg must have had a different configuration than I did, because all the wires reached just fine.

The great thing is that after a year or more of listening to the old fan that sounded like a weed whacker smacking rocks, this new one is very quiet, and the computer case doesn't heat up any more.  That gives me confidence that I won't be replacing my new hard drive any time soon.

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