Light fixture growling noise

[dnas17]

Back in october I bought a 48" deep blue T5 HO) light fixture from marinescape. Overall the thing has worked pretty well (except 2 of the bulbs shipped not working) anyway recently I whenever I set the lights to actinic or daylight mode I get a loud growling sound from the light fixture. Does anyone know if there is a quick fix to this or if I should just make the transition to LED at this point. I would send it back to the manufacturer but I lost the damn receipt for the thing!

[Greatwhite]

It sounds like it is either demanding a sacrifice, or your cooling fan is gummed up. I had that happen with my TEK elite, and found that the fan was actually a standard computer fan.

It'll take a little work to be sure that's the problem.  If it is, pop the fan out and go to a computer shop like Canada Computers and see if they have a replacement. They only had 1 fan for mine, and I needed 3. I ended up ordering from tiger direct.

[lucius]

I use to get cpu and case fans working by spraying WD-40 into them.  It worked most of the time.  Just peel of the sticker covering the center part and spray the center shaft.  For computers, I had to remove the fan completely before doing this  otherwise risk spraying the rest of the computer parts.

Maybe something to try.

[dnas17]

Well I have tons of experience with computer maintenance but not so much with light fixtures how would I find my way to the fans?

[Greatwhite]

Look for a vent of some sort... That's usually an indication that there is a fan nearby. Then remove as many screws as it takes to get to it.

I was fortunate that the TEK light has fans mounted on plates that screw to the light chassis directly. Very easy maintenance.