a16 - can I just cut the fan?

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 6:35 am

I have an a16 (first genration). Can I just cut the wire to the fan? Or is there a protection system, so it will not power up with the wire cut?
I will ofcoarse give it free air above, so it will not fry.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 7:11 am

just do it

it has been reported to work without fan if enough airflow is provided.

you'll probably find (there definetely is) a 5V powerline somewhere on the board and connect the fan to this instead - some soldering required, but no big deal

There are fans that don't start rotating with 5V, though.

cheers, Tom

wsippel · Post by **wsippel** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 9:22 am

You could also use a resistor to lower the voltage to 7V, or use a different fan (Papst, Verax, YS-Tech or Noiseblocker).

I did this with my very noisy amp (ECLER PAM 2000), it's really quiet now...

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 4:19 pm

yeah, that was my favourite method with old Macs to avoid tracable modifications (Apple has a lifetime exchange program for spare parts).
Just take care that it can take a load > 1 watt or whatever the fan specs suggest - greetings to the true ohmforce

cheers, Tom

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 4:13 pm

I cut it. It works fine. I have it standing free now. Before I had it behind a "wall" of rockwool on top of my PC. It is actually cooler now, because it is easyer for it to get rid of excessive heat. It is so nice to get rid of the extra noise - and to just have it on and ready without having to do strange manouvers to get to even just turn it on.

nprime · Post by **nprime** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 8:51 am

i'm surprised that you can get away with this. when the fan failed on my a16 it would get hot enough to cook things on, and i experienced problems with the a/d's and d/a's overheating and degrading he audio.

i had to run an external fan to keep it cool, since replacing the internal fan appeared to be a big hassle. i couldn't get one to match the internal fan's specs.

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 11:16 am

I have it standing free on a table. It has been of for days non-stop now. It is actually less hot now, than before when it was stacked with other stuff and had the fan running.