Power Supply Fan Operates Intermittently

[fsevier]

My PC is essentially new and overall it has been working OK. I happened to look behind the PC last night and noticed the power supply fan would spin, stop, spin, stop over and over. Later I checked it again and the fan was not spinning at all. I have been involved in PC support for many years and when it comes to power supplies I am used to seeing at least a slow minimum spin, increasing with temperature. If anyone else with the same PC (or power supply) reads this post, please confirm how your fan is operating. Perhaps it's normal for the fan to completely stop if the temperature is low enough, but I want to know for sure. I could not find it documented anywhere how the fan is supposed to operate. The power supply part number is L20529-001 and it's made by Lite-On.

[Grzwacz]

Greetings,

Welcome to the forum.

I am not a HP employee.

Many newer power supplies have a passive fan mode. The fan does not kick in until the unit hits a certain temp.

Regards

[fsevier]

Thanks for the welcome.

Yes, I have read of this possibility... however, ideally I would like to confirm it is definitely the case with my power supply. It seems like HP should have provided documentation somewhere explaining that the PSU featured semi-passive cooling to avoid owners being concerned about whether the fan is good or not. Hopefully someone with the same model power supply/ PC can verify their PSU fan stops running at times also. I don't want to guess that it's OK and then have overheating problems down the road once summer gets here. Thanks.

[Grzwacz]

Hi Fsevier,

You're very welcome.

Contact HP Support for a definitive answer to this question.

Regards

[fsevier · Accepted solution]

I chatted with HP support just now and they said that intermittent power supply fan operation is normal for my computer.