Fixed fan headers

purrkur · Post by **purrkur** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 10:55 am

Hi all!

Sorry for the sporadic posts of late. I am unable to log onto bp6.com from home for some mysterious reason so I am writing this from work!

Anyhow, I just wanted to write a quick note telling you that I wrote to Abit Techsupport the other day and asked them for specifications for the transistors that run the CPU fan headers. I must say that I didn't get the specification but Abit actually sent me four new transistors!

They are surface mount of course so removing the old ones and getting the new ones in place was pretty hard, but the end result is that I have working fan headers again!

I took some pics while doing the modification and I hope to write up on it, as soon as I get access to bp6.com from home again!

24seven · Post by **24seven** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 3:47 pm

Would it be possible to use some higher spec ones allowing bigger fans to be run on the headers?

purrkur · Post by **purrkur** » Thu Sep 09, 2004 4:03 am

24seven wrote:Would it be possible to use some higher spec ones allowing bigger fans to be run on the headers?

Yeah sure. However, I never got the specs from Abit so I am not sure exactly what type of transistors they are and what they can be replaced with. That means that you have to use trial and error to see if you can get it working. I don't want to do that because:

1. Soldering and resoldering on sensitive surface mount areas is not recommended.
2. I don't have schematics and size & specs of surrounding components.

I can send a question to Abit once again to see if they can give me the transistor specifications. If you want to use trial and error, see this post here and look for the posts by Finetune where he mentions what the transistors could possibly be. He could very well be right but I don't want to mess with my BP6 since I only got one

purrkur · Post by **purrkur** » Thu Sep 09, 2004 8:10 am

Here is a picture of the transistors in question! More to come....

24seven · Post by **24seven** » Thu Sep 09, 2004 6:13 pm

eek rather small.

Couldnt you just solder three wires on to do the trial and error, that way you only solder the board two times max. Once to put the wires on, then once to put the final transistor on.
Then just attach each transistor to the wires and try it.

If I ever manage to break my fan headers ill give it a try.

Cheers for the info purrkur.

davd_bob · Post by **davd_bob** » Fri Sep 10, 2004 12:12 am

24seven wrote: If I ever manage to break my fan headers...

A goal we should ALL strive for......

Cheers for the info purrkur and 24seven.

purrkur · Post by **purrkur** » Fri Sep 10, 2004 2:17 am

24seven wrote:eek rather small.

Yeah! I got this one picture showing the four transistors in a plastic casing next to my thumb. That really shows how small they are! I will get those up ASAP..

24seven wrote:Couldnt you just solder three wires on to do the trial and error, that way you only solder the board two times max. Once to put the wires on, then once to put the final transistor on.
Then just attach each transistor to the wires and try it.

Yes, of course. However, there are still some things you need to consider. I have done a lot of soldering in my days and I have seen some things that others might not think of. Example: If you reheat a soldering point a few times, especially if it is a thin copper thread, then you run the risk of it becoming detached from the mainboard. This will almost always end up with the piece of copper coming off.

Soldering for someone who isn't in on the details looks pretty easy but there is a whole lot of technique involved and a whole list of do's and dont's, what type of solder and iron to use, etc.

Hmm. Maybe I should write up a "soldering 101" or something??

hyperspace · Post by **hyperspace** » Fri Sep 10, 2004 8:36 am

Xcellent!

Another BP6 issue resolved! Great work, purrkur!

This mainboard has a life of its own!

purrkur · Post by **purrkur** » Mon Sep 13, 2004 4:57 am

hyperspace wrote:purrkur, I will send you the initial draft. Would like your input.

This mainboard has a life of its own!

Thanks! Send me the draft and I will gladly add some information. I am still waiting to see if Abit wants to give me the transistor specifications!

Cheers,

purrkur · Post by **purrkur** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 5:11 am

I got more pics from my cpu fan header transistor swap that I did earlier. The quality isn't that good I am afraid but they will give you an idea what I had to do.

This first pic shows a bit the tools that I used along with the packaging I received the transistors in from Abit in the Netherlands. I used an 18W soldering iron, solder sucker, a surgical knife and of course some solder. I also used a few other tools such as a magnifying glass to see what I was doing.

The second picture shows the small container that contains two transistors. You can see how large those two are compared to my thumb! In other words, they are impossible to grip and hold in place with your fingers when soldering them to the board.

Third picture shows what tool I used to grab the transistor in order to hold it in place. Anything else would have made this an impossible task.

The final pic shows the new transistors in place. I can't say I am proud of the way it looks but it was the best I could do with the tools that I had. Things are working just fine as well so I am not too bothered about it either

purrkur · Post by **purrkur** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 3:16 am

Bad news guys....

I heard back from Abit on what transistors they use for the fan headers. This was my question to them:

I was wondering if it was possible for you to let me know the type/specification of these transistors if I ever need to do this again in the future? I know of other BP6 owners who would also be very grateful for this knowledge.

This is how they replied:

I'm glad that BP6 is working, but I'm afraid we can't give you any information of that.

So, in short they don't want to tell us. I didn't get much of an explanation why but I guess it is because they are still using these components.

So if you have fan header trouble, get in touch with their techsupport and ask them to send transistors to you like I did. I think it is actually pretty cool that they went through the trouble of sending them to me. The second thing you could do is like we have mentioned in this post, to try out different transistors to see if they work out.

davd_bob · Post by **davd_bob** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 12:50 am

WOW,
Way cool.
I am not brave enough to tackle surface mount soldering. Good job and excelent presentation.

David.

btw, my older brother uses that tool for holding other things then tiny transistors. He is, generally speaking, pretty useless to society.

hyperspace · Post by **hyperspace** » Wed Sep 22, 2004 1:43 am

Things happen for a reason...

Sorry about not getting back to you sooner, purrkur.

Great, pix! Now, we can come up with a great FAQ!