My parents have a Gateway PC that is about 4 years old. The fan is
quite noisy and the monitor displays somewhat faint wavy gray lines
that can get annoying. I tried the monitor and cable with my laptop and
there were no wavy lines on the screen. So apparently the cause is on
the Gateway PC motherboard (mini case has no graphics card).
Just to confirm, you did try wiggling the video cable and
had also seen the lines after plugging into your laptop and
then replugging into the GW motherboard?
I am
wondering if the bad fan could be causing electromagnetic interference
that could cause the way lines problem.
I doubt it, but as W_Tom wrote, you can stick something in
there to find out, though I'd choose something softer and
completely non-conductive like a plastic drinking straw.
However, it may be quite a feat to access this fan, I have
one type of miniATX Gateway case that has the fan oriented
behind the PSU as it's mounted mid-case and points the fan
towards the CPU/heatsink, and it has relatively short cables
so it might be necessary to get a box about 12" tall to prop
the PSU up while it's twisted around (ever so gently) for
access to the fan.
The fan should be relatively standard, I don't recall if
Newton's et al on GW systems are direct wired to the PSU
circuit board but thought they used a 0.1" pin spaced dual
pin connector, similar to that found on a motherboard fan
header but only two pins. "IF" that is the situation, you
could probably manage to get a fan meant for a motherboard
header to work, whether it be with the last pin-position in
the socket hanging past the header on the PSU or taking a
shart knife and chopping off this extra position carefully.
Of course it's possible to find a fan that comes with
correct pin-socket connector, given enough time, but quicker
and easier to just cut the plug on one instead.
I suspect the fan is rather crucial in flow rate, be sure
you get a replacement with same or very similar specs... the
label on the original should provide a good clue, probably a
dual ball bearing 80 x 25mm at about 3000 RPM.
The fan noise by itself doesnt
really warrant the replacement of the power supply (about $60).
True, so long as it's replaced before the RPM drastically
drops or complete failure (causing the PSU to bake itself) a
fan replacement should be a reasonable fix, though you can
get replacement PSU that should fit... if it mounts on the
short side, probably a mATX-S. If it mounts on long-side,
mATX-L.
http://www.newegg.com and other various places
should have something for about $25, and newegg in
particular has some pretty good pictures so you can confirm
the features on the mounting-face of the psu to be sure it's
what you need.
If you were to get a replacement just be sure it's of the
right type, as earlier ATX 1.x designs were optimized for
mostly 5V amps and later moved to 12V amp bias. The specs
on the original PSU would be a strong clue or consider the
specifics of the system- if it uses a 4-pin plug for the
motherboard you'd want a psu with at least 9A 12V power,
really more than that but 9A should be a sufficient
break-piont to differentiate between an older design
incapable for that in mATX size, and a newer that was. At
the 4 year old mark the system could take either type.
Choose name-brand, like Antec or Sparkle, as the generics
likely have even worse fans than the one you've had fail.
