Re: OT: How to disable the lights on modern case fans

On Fri, 2023-05-19 at 06:41 -0700, vagabond wrote:
> Never tried this, but ...
> Might drilling out the lights work?  You'd have to actually destroy the
> led, or at least break one of the wires / contacts.
> Kind of drastic compared to nailpolish, but more permanent...

I like this idea! If the OP has got a drill with a flexible shaft I
second your idea, _but_ there is a risk of a short circuit/leakage
current which cannot be detected with a multimeter, as the motor should
still be connected. Even worse would be an unlikely series connection of
RGB LEDs and motor or a chip expecting both LED and motor intact.

On Fri, 2023-05-19 at 15:32 +0200, Tomek CEDRO wrote:
> These "RGB" fancy pancy devices usually have some sort of "RGB
> CONTROLLER" that is a separate device somewhere where cables come in

Related to the word "usually" Google proves you wrong. Aryeh Friedman
seemingly suffers from the worst case + 1 "since the led's are built
into the center cylinder of the fan and thus" the OP "would need to find
some way to snake the tape through the blades", this wouldn't result in
good vibrations, but much likely just vibrations. There is probably a
controller inside of the fans housing, but there's nothing outside of
the fan's housing. The fans are just connected by the 3 or 4 pin power
cables.

I guess the situation is like this, Aryeh Friedman decided, before he
starts crying, since he already is aware about his worst case + 1
situation, as a last resort to send a request to this list.

The workarounds are drastic and risky. The less risky bet is probably
nail polish or replacing the fans.

I'm crying too because of my new hardware :D. We cannot rule out odd
issues when buying new hardware. It's a PITA.