Panasonic Q drop-in fan replacement? [F76 error]

I recently purchased a Panasonic Q, and it works perfectly, but the fan is a little loud. I tried replacing it with a stock Gamecube fan, and later a Fractal Design FD-FAN-50-SSR2 (12v) silent fan, but in either case the system shuts down with an F76 error a few seconds after startup.

Putting the original fan back in place fixes the problem and it works perfectly.

Can anyone recommend a 12v silent fan that's a drop-in replacement on a Panasonic Q?

For reference, a standard Gamecube fan vs. the Panasonic Q fan:

https://imgur.com/a/lz0Lf

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1pcs-T-T-5010-MW-510M12S-Fan-DC12V-0-11A-5CM-50-50-10MM/162352022715
id try a new of the original

 

My Q has a noisy fan I've meant to replace for a long time. I'd be interested in knowing what you land on.

In the mean time, your question intrigued me so I dug a little. You probably already know this, but it looks like that error message is related to power failure as it's the same error displayed when capacitors in the PS go bad. Maybe the new fan is drawing too much current for the supply to keep up. There may be a way to reduce the current draw (maybe with resistors or an inline potentiometer). It's possible this could be "fixed" by replacing one of the capacitors on the power supply with one rated slightly higher. One guy got away with replacing a 150uf 400v cap with (essentially) a 200uf 400v cap. It was for some random Panasonic DVD player, but I'd bet the PS in the Q is pretty similar if not exactly the same thing.

Hopefully my amateur musings on the subject will inspire one of the engineers hanging around here to hop on and set the record straight.

 

Yep that fan matches the Q fan in my parts console.. There is a Panasonic DVD Player I found that uses the same drive as the Q, I don't remember the model number I pulled the drive out and tossed it..Strange though you wouldn't think changing a 2 pin fan would cause an error, it has no tach wire..and unless the current is much higher than 0.11A on the replacements that is a strange situation. I just noticed the replacement fan in the pic say's 0.06A that's lower than the oem fan.

 

F76 error is a bad fan ?? i had this error on one i tryed to fix many moons ago.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1pcs-T-T-5010-MW-510M12S-Fan-DC12V-0-11A-5CM-50-50-10MM/162352022715 Here is the fan you need.. : )

 

could be a current sense issue

 

I now know the Panasonic Q very well because I had the opportunity to repair / modify several units.

Like all Panasonic devices, F76 error is a voltage problem. The reasons for this error are many for the Panasonic Q:
- bad contact when reassembling the device (a ground problem)
- one of the 4 fuses on the PSU board is dead
- or, a faulty fan that makes a short circuit (without affecting the fuses, but which causes this error).

@stalkaxe , you have to do a very simple manipulation on your Fractal. The original fan has two wires (one red and one black), and your Fractal has normally 3 wires (red, black and a yellow wire for regulation). Just bridging the red and yellow wires will normally work!

 

This fan thing with Q is pretty odd, I have been fixing recently one and the fan replacement does not make any sense.

The fan I try to get working at the moment is Gelid Silent 5 (I had one similarly named a year ago or so, but 2-pin model which worked just fine), 3-pin model. I took the original wire and connected gnd and +12V wires with the part of original wire -> installed to console and got F76. Took everything apart again and dug up few suitable resistors, selected one and measured about 20mA drop in need of current compared running without resistor, installed and still F76 (fan runs noticiably slower of course).

Now it gets odd: I decided to solder a wire to PCB in it's back that I can directly test without taking the machine apart every time. NOTE: the Gelid 5 with resistor in it's 12V wire is still connected and fan running during the following tests:

Applied the original fan (with the Gelid 5, so there is MORE load than normally): all works, I let it run for about a minute.

Applied current meter between the original fan and 12V: F76
Applied another Gelid 5 instead of original (in this case two Gelid 5 running, another lower speed): F76
Applied the original fan back + 470uF 16V capacitor over the gnd and 12V wires: F76

Every time the console boots up and both fans will run good before F76...

Does anyone have an idea what is happening here? There is some rev sense over only two wires in the original fan?

UPDATE: I thought I already once tried out bridging the yellow and red wires, but apparently not (might have mixed that with the tests I made with lab power supply about a week ago measuring the current needed with different configurations). Gave it a try and now it works.