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milhaus · Mar 15, 2002, 06:20 AM

. . . disable it . . . Yes, even you a technological pipsqueak can do it, and only with one screwdriver!!

My HD finally ran out of warranty, so I went in, opened the case, and disabled the fan, and man it's nice to have it running all the time, and connected all the time.

The whol procedure involves removing 3 screws from the bottom, removing the sticker (voids warranty), removing the bottom flat piece, removing one screw from the metal bottom where the sticker was (no screw on external casing here) - there are four screws in the centre of the drive which don't need to be removed), removing the top, finding and pulling out the fan. That's it, super easy . . .

Just waiting for my CDRW to go out of warranty. . .

dav · Mar 15, 2002, 06:24 AM

yep, that thing is noisy. fortunately my cdrw is firewire, so there's no need to leave it on.

ChaChi Boy · Mar 15, 2002, 08:40 AM

So did LaCie put it in there just for fun and to piss you off?

Aussie John · Mar 18, 2002, 03:08 PM

that fan was part of the reason i turfed my Lacie and replaced it with something else. It wasnt just noisy it sent a vibration through my desk

Paul S · Mar 18, 2002, 04:02 PM

My company sells LaCie and our rep told me that the next revision of their drives will be fanless and smaller. The case will be metal and act as a big heat sick. Prices will also drop too.

milhaus · Mar 18, 2002, 10:27 PM

Originally posted by Paul S:
<STRONG>My company sells LaCie and our rep told me that the next revision of their drives will be fanless and smaller. The case will be metal and act as a big heat sick. Prices will also drop too.</STRONG>

If you look in the newest MacWarehouse catalogue, there may be a hint at these new drives. I though it was an error, but if this is a hint, I'll definitely be picking one up. But the fan fix is really nice - the drive sleeps if it's not being used in X, so it's largely quiet, and no adverse effects.
M.

G4ME · Mar 18, 2002, 11:10 PM

When I reoganized my desk, I moved my LaCie 12X4X32 Firewire burner to a self not to far away. Anyway when moving the drive I grabed it and tilted it, I heard a litle rattel and said what the frig. So, I shook it some more and there was definitly something in there. Seeing that my warnty went up a couple months ago I decided that what ever was in there shouldn't so I cracked open the case. Looked in side, very simple design, basicly a large firewire to IDE converter with a fan. I found nothing loose so I shook the actual drive and what ever it was was in there. So being the bold crazy man I am, I opened up the actual drive it self and took the meatal casing off, along with the controller card or what ever it was, by removing these ever so small ribbon cables that connected the drive unit to the controller card. I pulled back the controler card and there it was a small plastic seporator that came with my 50 pack of CDRs. And some how it got into my drive. Anyway I put it all back together and still works like a charm. BTW I only turn it on when riping or Buning. so I don't have to listen to that fan compeat with the one in my G4.

yukon · Mar 20, 2002, 12:21 AM

um, maybe you shouldn't have taken the fan out

.

Same problem here. I opened it up (its a simple external drive), angled the fan better, and bent the little grille inside (you can remove it). Now, it's much quieter, but not yet silent. I might get a better (not sharp) case for it anyway.

I guess it would be the same temperature without the fan, as long as you don't burn any CDs with it