One of the fan header on the laptop die, can fan splitter save it?

Jeff_92

Commendable
Aug 30, 2016
1
0
1,510
I have a asus k501lx laptop, for the pass few months, the fan seems to spin way more then before, so i opened it up few days ago and discovered one of the two fan is not spinning, and after some investigation, i found out it's actually the fan header thats dead, both of the fans are fine. The header not showing up in hwinfo, hardware monitor, msi afterburner as gpu fan(it used to show up there), and speedfan.
I found a place that i can buy laptop fan header and plug, so i can theoretically make a fan splitter. My question is does laptop fan header able to provide enough current to power up two fan? Will plugging in two fan on the same header damage it? Both of the fan are rated at 5v 0.5a.
 
Solution
Not only would it draw too much current, but it would only run at the speed it needs to run at if the CPU is hot. If you are doing something GPU intensive that does not put much demand on the CPU, you are going to have a very hot GPU that is not getting cooled and is likely going to burn up or severely throttle. Either way, it will not work. You need to replace the entire motherboard to effect an accurate fix unless the fan controls are on a daughterboard and can be replaced separately, which is usually not the case these days.
I doubt it would work, or not work correctly. If you could somehow 'force' it to run, in the end you would do more damage than you currently have to the components, and probably other components (not just the one fan). I would save yourself the headache and risk and replace it with the correct part.
 

jdog2pt0

Distinguished
May 28, 2009
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18,610
What he's saying is, replace the motherboard. Running both fans on a single header may draw too much current and burn out your only working header (1a is quite a bit).

However, if you are feeling adventurous, you could take an old USB cable cut one end off and solder it to the fan wires, maybe even attach an variable resistor for speed control, and drill a small hole through the case, and plug the USB into your laptop to power the fan, or even just extend the fan wires and solder them directly to the correct spots on the motherboard behind the USB port to power the fan (it will run at full speed all the time though, and you'll want to tape that port off so you don't accidentally plug something into it)

However, those are all, "I've got nothing to lose fixes". If what I said doesn't make any sense, then don't attempt it as you could fry your board completely if done incorrectly.
 
Not only would it draw too much current, but it would only run at the speed it needs to run at if the CPU is hot. If you are doing something GPU intensive that does not put much demand on the CPU, you are going to have a very hot GPU that is not getting cooled and is likely going to burn up or severely throttle. Either way, it will not work. You need to replace the entire motherboard to effect an accurate fix unless the fan controls are on a daughterboard and can be replaced separately, which is usually not the case these days.
 
Solution