How To: de-pin 4pin male fan connectors...

aphasia

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 15, 2011
Messages
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doing a little afternoon case modding today and i got stuck on trying to sleeve a couple of fans specifically a 'Arctic Cooling F PWM' fan(s). they've got this weird triple connector that allows you piggy-back the 4pin CPU PWM header on motherboard.
ArcticF12Pro_PWM_cable1.jpg


i wanted to sleeve sections between the 4pin female and 4pin male connectors (the 2 connectors on far right of pic above) + the wires between the fan itself & 4pin female connector. i chopped the 3pin connector with just the tach wire & re-crimped it to 4pin female plug.

anyway after de-pinning both the 3pin & 4pin female connectors i realised i wouldn't be able to sleeve all the wires without cutting all the pins off, sleeve, then re-crimp with new pins on. i don't mind crimping new pins when i have to but i've got several other fans to do, bugger that.

de-pinning your standard 3/4pin female fan is fairly straight-forward and there is a variety to tools (and guides) on the market that allow you do it quickly & cleanly. however i haven't seen any guides on how to do the 4pin male connectors commonly found on fan extension cables. this has always bugged me. my google-fu may be failing me in this regard, so just in case there are other inept googlers out there looking to de-pin these suckers, thought i'd knock one up myself. you'll have to excuse the pics, i don't have a DSLR to take proper macro shots.

your standard 3/4pin fan extension cable, the weird fan tail on the arctic cooling fan plus a de-pinned 4pin male connector at the bottom.
depin4pinfan_001.jpg


close-up of empty 4pin male plug. notice the 4 holes aren't a perfect square. the small indent above each of the larger holes is where the pin protrudes. the 'indented' section is where the tab on the pin locks to the plug.
depin4pinfan_002.jpg


after some trial & error, the only tool really needed was a standard size paper-clip. i did use a small flat head screw driver from a jewelers set as well tho i'll get to that later. you could use other tools like a needle tho all i had on hand was a paper-clip. i tried a bobby-pin however it proved too wide to fit the indent, even after snipping the 'bulb' on the 'straight side'.
depin4pinfan_003.jpg


like when using a MOLEX tool to remove ATX/PCIe power plugs, there is a 'click' when the paper-clip is inserted far enough to depress the locking tab.
depin4pinfan_005.jpg

depin4pinfan_004.jpg


all 4 pins freed from plug.
depin4pinfan_006.jpg


i did notice when inserting the paper-clip to free pin, the tabs aren't as resistant to bending inwards as your standard ATX/PCIe pin are with a proper MOLEX tool. can see in pic below the tab has 'flattened'.
depin4pinfan_007.jpg


this is where the small flat-head jewelers screwdriver comes in. used it to bend the tab back outwards.
depin4pinfan_008.jpg


that's it. de-pinning a 4pin male plug is almost as straight-forward as doing a female one. if there are guides on how to do this already, don't shoot me. like i said, my googling skills are feeble at best...:D
 
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