Orion ZyGarian

Not so much modding in the sense that its repairing.

As you can see, I know what to do, but am curious how things work. As I feared, the generic coaxial power cable and plug had one wire inside another instead of the much easier for humans two separate wire connection.

Because of prolonged use, the plug on the tiny tan colored board no longer worked and wiggled quite a bit. My mom bought a much quieter Antec to use when it was on sale, and gave me this Targus. Basically the same thing happened to both. They both use the same USB power source cable into the same round plug.

I took both apart, finding that the Antec had a nicer squirrel cage fan design (not pictured) but the same basic tiny control board.



Whereas the Targus had traditional bladed fans that just pushed air up, hoping itll find some heat and go somewhere else. In either case, the solder holding the pin for the plug got too hot and flowed enough to wiggle loose the power cable over time. I cant imagine this is uncommon for people like me who use their laptops and coolers for hours at a time as a "DTR" or desktop replacement.

Basically my plan here is to bypass the dumb little board with fan speed switch and splice them so as long as the USB is connected, the fans are always on.



With a quick google/wiki search, I find that the USB just uses 4 pins, which I find pretty cool for something so versatile. The outside 2 pins are 5v power and ground. A friend of mine is borrowing my wire for his 2JZ/S14a project, so when I get it back, I can finish.

All I need to do is solder some wire to the two USB pins (sorry, hard to see in the pic) and put the USB connector back together. I can even keep the OEM rubber I had to cut off with a razor to expose with a simple glue or tape job.

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'93 Miata with bolt-ons, '96 Miata, '88 Supra turbo w/T4E down for upgrades, all 5 speed. RIP JZ DeLorean and Tyler

"Unlimited technology from the whole universe, and you're using an MSi.....P.O.S."

Sig build--for less than $750 shipped!