Power supply heat problem?

"-" wrote in message ...

My friends' PC has MBM5 installed and the power supply thermometer
is showing peaks of 70-76C from time to time lasting for around a
minute, which is classed as a warning in the program. Is this
really "dangerous" or just problematic in the short / medium /
long term ie being symptomatic of wear and tear etc. The PSU is
unknown for now and is about 2 years old. The fan is spinning
freely, but is blowing out some not overly warm air. I know its
best to keep cool, but with peaks of these temperatures,

How hot is this "overly warm" air, and what makes you think it's
overly warm?
Never rely on feel alone because people differ greatly in temperature
perception, and I've known of people refer to even 120F as "scorching
hot."
How hot is the top of the power supply? If often reaches 110-120F
(about 45-50C) under normal operation with a fast CPU and video card.

Power supplies don't vary quickly in temperature, except once, just
before the protection circuitry shuts them down or they fail. I
suspect that MBM5 isn't configured right for the monitoring hardware,
but the temperature sensor inside the supply could be touching one of
the large heatsinks or semiconductors (transistors, diodes), which
often reach 70C during normal operation. But do NOT try to measure
the heatsinks because many internal components have high voltage
riding on them, including the heatsinks in some designs. Actually
it's fairly safe if you unplug the power cord (don't merely turn off
the switch on any power strip -- pull the plug), wait 30 seconds, and
measure the heatsinks.

"Timothy Daniels" wrote in message ...

One easy way to increase ventilation is to remove the grills
that cover the exhaust fans. The wire grills can be removed
with just the removal of a few screws, and the ones that are
part of the case can be snipped away with a pair of electricians'
wire cutters. The air resistance that they impose can be felt
quite easily, and their removal allows greater airflow.
Don't worry about losing finger tips in them because the angle
of the blades of the fans push fingers out instead of snipping
them off.

This is dumb, unhelpful, and unnecessary.

The most important purpose of the grills is to prevent electric shock,
and there's usually exposed high voltage almost immediately on the
other side of the fan. I doubt that power supplies could receive UL,
CSA, or TUV safety certification without those grills.

Many people worry far too much about heat where it doesn't matter and
not enough about it where it does matter.