Need some electrical advice with computer fan

[tbizzle]

Hi all, kind of a noob when it comes to electrical stuff, so bear with me. My receiver is in a bad spot in my TV stand and doesn't really have any room to breathe. I bought a blower fan for a computer and a molex to AC adapter and was going to plug it into the back of my receiver. But it doesn't work. The light on the adapter brick lights up, but the fan won't kick on. The fan definitely works, cuz I plugged it into my series of fans in my Tower.

Did I buy the wrong adapter?

Well if I bought the wrong one, can I just cut the molex connector off and splice the wire into a DC power plug like from a cell phone? Or something that will give me enough amps to run the fan? (Although I'm sure it doesn't take much)

Thanks in advance

[Rob71]

Do you know anyone with a multi-tester? If so, have them check molex cable coming from the transformer. Sounds like that is where your problem is.

[brettallica]

I'm trying to figure this out. It seems like that setup should work. The only thing I can think is that you're somehow not getting the voltage to kick the fan on; either that or it's too much voltage and you've blown the circuitry that runs the fan.

I did something similar for my home theater, but I used an actual transformer to go from ~110V down to 12V to power the fans, and not that thing you got. See below:

[tbizzle]

Originally Posted by brettallica

I'm trying to figure this out. It seems like that setup should work. The only thing I can think is that you're somehow not getting the voltage to kick the fan on; either that or it's too much voltage and you've blown the circuitry that runs the fan.

I just checked the fan again by plugging it in with my fans in my tower and it works fine. Not sure what to do

I'd prefer it if I didn't have to use this adapter anyways, because the picture on the website is actually false. I was kinda pissed when I noticed it, because you can clearly tell that they used Paint to blot over the "ground" on the plug, making it look like there's only the 2 prongs. Which obviously won't work, because the back of my receiver just has the 2 prongs socket.

You can see the altered pic right here. Is that horseshit or what?

[brettallica]

Originally Posted by tbizzle

I just checked the fan again by plugging it in with my fans in my tower and it works fine. Not sure what to do

I'd prefer it if I didn't have to use this adapter anyways, because the picture on the website is actually false. I was kinda pissed when I noticed it, because you can clearly tell that they used Paint to blot over the "ground" on the plug, making it look like there's only the 2 prongs. Which obviously won't work, because the back of my receiver just has the 2 prongs socket.

You can see the altered pic right here. Is that horseshit or what?

Total horse$hit, and beautiful application of the word!

Hey try this. Get a 9V battery, two wires, strip the shielding of said wires back 1/2" or so, and see if you can finagle a connection between the battery terminals and the various pins on the fan's harness. You should be able to get the fan to spin with a 9V battery (I think). Don't leave it connected for too long, though, just in case there's some sort of AC/DC thing to worry about that could blow the fan.

[tbizzle]

Originally Posted by brettallica

Total horse$hit, and beautiful application of the word!

Hey try this. Get a 9V battery, two wires, strip the shielding of said wires back 1/2" or so, and see if you can finagle a connection between the battery terminals and the various pins on the fan's harness. You should be able to get the fan to spin with a 9V battery (I think). Don't leave it connected for too long, though, just in case there's some sort of AC/DC thing to worry about that could blow the fan.

Lol thanks. I tried the 9v, but couldn't get it to work. I was probably doing something wrong, since it was difficult trying different combos of connecting the 2 wires to the 4 molex pins.

So after messing with the wires, I was in a pretty good DIY mood. I went and found a DC charger for an old appliance or something and I tried connecting it to an old 80mm LED fan I had layin around and it worked! So I just connected the blower to it and got it plugged into the back of my receiver, now everytime the receiver is on it stays nice and cool. I'm so happy, I had a small 8" house fan on the side of my TV stand blowing air at the receiver, now I can rid of that damn thing!

Thanks for your help man