FW Desktop PSU Fan not running at all?

Power capacitors are not on the fan

I asume you do need to open the psu to get at said fan though which does expose metal connected to power capacitors.

The risk is present when you replace the fan without disconnecting power. If you disconnect power and let the psu to cool down naturally then you can safely replace the fan.

Only when it out of warranty to save cost. Always prefer PSU replacement if any part of it goes wrong under warranty obviously

It’s getting off topic I’ll probably shut up now XD

You need to discharge the capacitors, cooling down will not help with that, you want a load on the outputs to drain them. And those 400V on the high side capacitors are no joke.

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How long do they discharge “naturally” a day or a week?

I don’t know, it depends on the capacitors used and the parasitic load inside the supply that will discharge them over time. I estimate that the total energy stored is at most 400W * 50ms, so an external 1W load would drain it in a minute. On the other hand, an isolated capacitor can hold a charge for several days.

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In addition to what @KiloMike said, you can also use a screwdriver to short the capacitor (not recommended for non-professionals obviously). Once you see the sparks you will want to thank @KiloMike

It’s unlikely to be a problem since the PSU is powering the computer. If you deliberately power on the PSU without any load it may take a while for the capacitor to discharge. However in most if not all cases, the PSU is already discharged by the mainboard after unplugging even before you unscrew the case