I get this question along with “Do you do fan modifications?” and “How do you do fan modifications?”

Here is a little tip, this concept is not a new one since I have written about how other online sellers including Precision Division out of Florida otherwise known as ibuiltonline perform his modification some 8 months ago when I first registered my website and placed the website online. You can see a video of them checking a system for the voltage on the board, but guess what voltage does not equal heat. Second the concept does more damage to your system than any good. Copper shims are the rave since it does so much for your system, but users fail to realize the risk that the modification does long term. The same is true with the fan modification.

First lets describe how the fan modification works and how it is performed. No need in getting excited, but yes I am selling you a trade secret for nada. Your fan comes with four wires. As I look at one I see a yellow, black, white, and red wire that plugs in by a Molex connector to the motherboard. If you diagram the wire schematic, you will see that the white and red wire both provide a voltage line out from the motherboard to the fan. By trimming the white wire, you have placed a direct untapped 12v line to the fan causing it to run a full RPMs. So the trick here is to run your fan at full speed, expel heat, and have a running system for how long, perhaps 120 days?

In my opinion, I see from a engineering stand point that this may be genius, but the catch. The fans are poor HEAT displacing devices in the first place. The fans are created, modeled, and recycled from Pentium M systems. The fans do not have the heat displacing capability in any capacity for a Dual Core system. What you see is not a modern marvel of engineering inside your system, but a modern marvel of accounting. Someone somewhere said that a redesign of an existing fan was cheaper than building a new one.

Then what about the modification? If you mod the fan to run a full RPMS, then how long will it last? Tell me, how old is your system? Maybe 2 or 3 years old. Then what you have is a used fan with stressed bearings, dried bearings, broken blades, maybe a stressed motor. I see modding the fan to run stronger and harder to be a unwise choice. This will help to push the system into a failure. When your fan fails then your chipset will overheat in perhaps two to three minutes. The pictures you have seen of heat guns doing damage, yeah the chipset can do the same to itself. Then in the end you will at least need a reflow, a fan, and a laptop cooler. In the extreme, you will need a CPU because they do pop like the GPU chipsets, a fan, a motherboard, and a laptop cooler. All because you wanted to get your system repaired, and you were handed a fan modified system.

I see a better alternative is this. Change your user habits, and use an external fan. I personally have three Dell D820s and D830s that I have reflowed. I reflow them myself, and have had to perform this task about 5 times due to wireless issues, but no video issues yet. I leave my systems running for hours at a time, but I own and run a reflow shop and computer shop so I have countless resources at my disposal. As a common user, you will not have that luxury.

I suggest the following to all my clients and everyone that calls me including my mother:

1: Turn your computer off when you are not using it. If you do not, think of all the power the system uses, all the other parts failing like the inverter and battery, and the heat buildup. When your laptop overheats and dries the thermal compound, the thermal compound starts to act as a insulator, ie. heat builder, than a transfer, ie. heat displacer.

2: Get a laptop cooler. I use Zalman coolers that are three fanned systems and my systems do not have issues. If you get a cheap cooler, then you get a cheap heat displacer.

3: Update your drivers. I see Nvidia.com places updated drivers about every 30 to 90 days on certain products. If you only check the HP.com website you will never find these drivers.

4: Ask questions. If you ask questions and get educated you can decide better. I find nothing wrong with one question or 100 questions. When you ask a business a few questions and that business has no time for you to answer them, then you cannot make an informed decision. I do not mind if you email me, call me, or even walk up to me to ask a question.