After lubing up the video card fan, I power on the system quickly to check progress. Ureka!! The tip definitely did the trick!! No more loud fan; now it's humming along like a kitten.
When the smoke cleared, the only fan left unlubricated was the fan sitting in my power supply (PowerMan 300W). I read the warning on the power supply's casing. Dangerous voltages inside!. "Ahh well, you only live once!" Naah, seriously folks, if you open up your power supply, be very careful.
Taking the top covering off was easy;
I simply unscrewed four phillips-head screws. I then loosen up the 4 rear
screws holding the exhaust fan in, and what did I see??
Click on the pic to get a better view. Sorry for the blurriness!!
Notice anything funny? Just in case you didn't get it: The power supply's fan is NOT ball bearing! At least, that's what the fan's label clearly indicates (which I had peeled back and lubricated anyway!). DC Brushless. Yet every listing I've ever seen for my particular power supply note a "ball bearing fan." Hell, even the little sticker on the outside of the casing says so. But what would you believe first? A cheap casing sticker or the sticker put on by the fan manufacturer? Needless to say, this sucks.
I was almost content to leave things be, but then I did a little test. I unplugged everything in my case except the CPU fan, power supply and one of my Antec case fans. Guess which one was the loudest? You guessed it, the DC Brushless piece of crap. Ah well, time to break out the old tools.
