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Considering the state of the fan, you might tell you friend to clean the computer out too.

„We fix the actual problem, we didn‘t replace it.“
That‘s what it‘s all about. 👍🏻👍🏻

Paul definately knows how to keep his fans quiet.

I know this wasn't much of a challenge, probably even boring for you, but I'd love to see some ATX PSU repair guidelines from you in the future. On almost every forum, everytime someone asks about a failure or problem on an ATX PSU,  the rest says «just toss it, it's too dangerous», «don't touch it», «it's not worth it», and so on. Thank you, as always.

Mr. Carlson, to us “Sorry about the de-focusing there”
AvE, at the camera “Focus, you f#@&!”

So many things are unnecessarily thrown away, in this "disposable" age we live in. To me, it's very gratifying to repair something that otherwise would just be trashed. It's even satisfying to watch videos of other people repairing, restoring, even repurposing items.
Thanks for sharing, Paul.

This is a pet peeve of mine: all of the devices that get scrapped simply because a fan is whining.

"a bit of a current hog huh?" - i work on computer electronics and this quote belongs on my wall.

"And when they ask how many videos should we post, they only answer more, more, more!"  --Fortunate Lab by Carlson Clearwater Revival

The outer casing from a cheap plastic ballpoint pen works well for installing those split washers, just pull the ballpoint and ink-tube assembly out of the pen with pliers.  You can even reassemble the pen when you're done.

This is one of my favourite videos on this channel because it shows something I can actually be doing myself, especially fixing fans. I'd like to watch the whole thing including cut parts like cleaning and lubricating.

I've done this hundreds of times on customer sites around the world.  Some 1980s mainframes I worked on had up to 12 power supplies in each cabinet and there were two full sized boxer fans in each supply.  Since I was usually on some remote base with no spare parts within a thousand miles I got used to repairing stopped fans by cleaning out the bushings and lubing them with a bit of shredder oil.  That little bit of maintenance can make those machines run 24/7 for years past their MTBF dates.

Tally 1 for our environment!  Every bit counts!

"Never short a power supply" ...RIP the 8-bit Guy.

Thanks, I thought my PSU was broken, but when you said in the video that without a load it doesn't stay on you enlightened me :) I was going crazy checking the circuit, thanks again.

Having relubricated many a fan myself, I have two comments to make:
Usually, when a fan starts growling like this, the cheap sleeve bearing has worn enough that relubricating will only be a temporary fix. Typically I have gotten another few months to a year or two out of a fan by lubricating it, but they never last as long as the original (already too short) pre-service life. If it's easy to get to this can be worth it to prolong the life and minimize waste as noted here, but if the fan is a real pain to get out of whatever equipment it's in, it can still be worth it to replace it. When you replace the fan, use a high-quality unit with proper bearings in it; while this still means you have to junk the original cheap fan, from that point on it should be a "lifetime" part and you'll never have to replace it again, keeping the cooled device (and your new quality fan) in operation for a long time. A small amount of waste to make up for the manufacturer's shortcomings, but you can at least keep everything else in operation as long as you need.

Secondly, the fan shown here was more serviceable than most; it included the rubber face seal (often omitted on the cheapest fans which just rely on the sticker, invariably resulting in all the lubricant leaking out even faster) as well as having a reusable plastic split ring for retaining the shaft. Many of the ones I've disassembled instead use a toothed "one way" ring to retain the fan, and they're effectively impossible to remove without bending/breaking the ring, making proper servicing a lost cause. In those cases either just put some lube on from the outside and move the fan along its shaft to work it in (which will probably work for a while, but not forever if the fan was cheap in the first place), or just replace the fan (once) with a quality unit and never worry about it again.

I’ve been following your videos for a few years Mr Carlson. They’re always fantastic and I have learned so much from you, but this goes well beyond most people’s expectations. Repairing a power supply fan down to the bearing instead of simply replacing the fan, or the entire power supply as most people would do, is the mark of a genuine electronics technician. Well done sir. We need more people like you in our profession.

Mr. C, thanks for taking the initiative to actually repair this fan and keep it out of the landfill! You are so right, many people just replace them when they could be repaired.

Trait of a perfectionist, the same amount of care and thought given to a simple project as it if was as very complex one