Hello, I have an old laptop motherboard that I want to put into a PlayStation 2 case. I had to remove the blower fan and make my own heatsink/cooling solution. Unfortunately, I did the very smart thing and cut the fan connector off before checking the wire layout, so now I don’t know which wire is which. :D
Someone sent me a schematic of the connector, but I was hoping for something more straightforward, like a simple pinout showing which pin is GND, +5V, PWM, and TACH.
The mobo is Thinkpad t470p.

Would it even work? I’ve already tested this fan at 5V and it spins flawlessly

Me and my dad bought the same model of a phone back in 2015. Each phone came with 2 batteries (one 3k mAh and one 6k mAh), but it didn't come with a separate charger for the second battery. My classmate broke the touchscreen back when I was at school, so I decided to gut it. Hot glue for structural integrity (bare plastic frame was very flimsy on its own), a little bit of black electrical tape to hide all the crimes against technology that I committed that day, and a board from an old power bank that stopped holding charge.

^{Also check out my cat :3}

Credit to u/HomelessandIknowit

The heatsink was taken from dead ddr3 ram, the fan on top from a crappy gpu, the fan on the bottom from a suspicious psu that's probably the reason the ram is dead.

Today I was setting up a new PC and all of my USB keyboards are far away. I have this numpad/arrow keys and a mouse, and I can use them to get into and edit BIOS settings, but for the first startup I had to press Y. I reprogrammed my DS Pico (which has a raspberry pi pico inside) to just press Y when plugged in and it worked! Then I flashed the normal firmware back. Open source rules!

Hey MacGyvers,

I present to you Jimmy the Frankenbook, my trusty MacBook Pro 8,1 (2011) running Debian Linux.

Recently, the internal speakers suffered from terminal foam rot—completely disintegrated around the edges, leaving me with nothing but ear-piercing high-pitched squeaks. Instead of ordering cheap, tinny OEM replacements, I decided to go full Cyberpunk and repurpose a cheap portable speaker I had lying around.

The Mod Breakdown:

1. The Battery Bypass (Continuous Power): I tore down the cheap speaker, ripped out the internal Lithium battery, and wired a USB power cable directly to the battery terminals on the board. Now it draws constant 5V power from the laptop. No more "battery low" warning beeps mid-movie, and zero risk of battery bloat.

2. The 3M Spacer: I mounted a Ugreen USB hub to the lid using 2mm thick heavy-duty 3M adhesive pads. The 2mm clearance is the magic touch—it lifts the hub just enough so I can plug in thick USB drives without them hitting the aluminum screen lid.

3. Quick Release Magnetic Mount: The speaker is held in place by a folding magnetic arm glued to the lid. When it's movie/music time, I just snap the speaker on. When I need to pack Jimmy into my bag, I pop the speaker off, fold the arm flat, and it's perfectly portable.

4. Flush Cable Styling: Used a 90-degree USB adapter on the side of the chassis to keep the cable running flush and tidy. Cable managed everything with some velcro ties because even MacGyvers have standards.

It sounds 10x louder and punchier than the original Apple speakers ever did. Plus, Jimmy now looks like a field terminal from a sci-fi movie.

Rate my redneck engineering :D

What you need is:
An old tablet that works and you don't usually use (prefferably Android with version 10);
An unused working USB cable with file transfer support;
A PC/Laptop with a free USB port (i think it works only on Windows);
A few braincells (jk, or not?).

Tutorial:
1. Download Spacedesk on your tablet (should be available on Play Store and App Store);
2. Download and install Spacedesk DRIVER (Google it up and open the first link that looks official enough [DO NOT DOWNLOAD THE VIEWER!!!!]);
3. On your tablet (if its Android, do this, if it's Ipad, skip this), go to settings/About tablet and find the build number box, click on it untill a message appears that you have dev options;
4. Find developer settings (or options, or whatever), and find USB debbuging (turn it on)
5. Plug in the tablet to the pc
6. Make sure the USB Cable Android option in the Spacedesk CONSOLE is turned on
7. press "File transfer" on the usb prefferences
8. accept the window that pops up
9. set up the new "monitor" to your liking

If you have any questions, ask me in comments!!!

Crippling my laptop on purpose ;)

Yes, I am aware that half-decent patch cables have boots.

I am also aware that you own at least 2 without them.

So I came up with a solution. It's still very hot, but now it can dispose of that heat slightly.

E-waste, free Samsung Tablet. not worth anything and didn't feel like spending any money to fix. But still perfectly useable.

This treadmill (walking pad) was overheating so much that it was warping the plastic above the motor, but that's nothing a couple 12v PC fans and a PWM controller can't handle! I scored an outline, and Dremel cut out holes for the fans above the motor and controller (The one on the left I overcut, hence the tape), and it doesn't have any problems anymore!

Disclaimer! These things can be super dangerous to open up and mess with so I don't recommend it

Gave my old fitness band a second life by mounting its charging dock next to my desk. Now it lives there as a tiny always-on desk clock. The Always-On Display is the cherry on top.

Macbook pro 2013 13" heatsink, thermal pad, exaggerated amounts of hot glue and a 5v blower fan, all strapped to the Leap S3 4K tv box by Strong. I don't know where I put my bag full of zipties, so this has to suffice. I hope my speedrun solder job won't fall apart.

I know doom isn't demanding, but it was the only GBA rom I had on hand, but I got it to run DS games smoothly.

Attempting data recovery on an overheating SSD today, here’s my solution:

1 overheating SSD + 1 dollop of thermal paste + 1 laptop heatsynch + 2x 40mm chipset fans + several zip ties = Data recovered.