Power cords

I cut open a power cord to see what was inside and i saw three wires... First question...which one is the ground? Second, could you cut one of these cords and cut the cord on say...a small house fan... and wire them together?

Demont said:

I cut open a power cord to see what was inside and i saw three wires... First question...which one is the ground? Second, could you cut one of these cords and cut the cord on say...a small house fan... and wire them together?

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The ground wire may be colored green. It depends upon the manufacturer, I suppose, but green is the common color in other applications. If they're all the same color, you can use a continuity tester to see which one is hooked to the ground prong of the plug.

As for using a house fan plug, it would probably be better not to do that, unless you're going to power your fan with it. I would imagine that the wires coming from the the fan plug are of a smaller guage than the power cable. But you can get a male plug from any hardware or even WalMart if you want to "refurbish" the cable.

i did intend to hook the cable up to power the fan...you say that should work?

First of all I am not an electrician, but I have done my share of wiring.
Second of all, if you aren't sure of what you are doing....AT least be very careful---because you are probably going to do it anyway!

Most grounded cords are green=ground, black and white are the hot leads.

What I don't quite understand is why you need to use a pc power cord to run a house fan ?

If the fan's cord is messed up, you should replace it all the way to the switch housing. Cheaper and BETTER sized cords can be had at any hardware store.

You should verify the wires with a circuit tester as well: the flat prongs are the hot wires and the round one is the ground

well i guess i can explain my idea...i have a small house fan that pumps a lotta air...and it would be just small enuff to get in my case, instead of messing with the p/s i figured i could just run two cords out the back of my comp, one would be one of those power cords where you can plug in a second cord on top, usually used for monitor. the fan cords too short, and for the sake of being uniform/having fun i wanted to see if i could rig up a computer power cord to the fan....ok?
I do have a multimeter, so i should be able to use that figure out what goes where...

also roger, you have any tips for unlocking the xp and also cooling when done?

umm guys....green is ground. That's established. but white is also ground or neutral....black is power.

white and green are essentially the same thing.

ground will always be (in the united states) the round (third leg) on your power cord, as well as that "peak of the triangle" on the PSU side. If your house is wired correctly, the hot/black/power wire will be the left slot on your wall receptacle and the right one is neutral/ground.

Demont said:

also roger, you have any tips for unlocking the xp and also cooling when done?

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My tip for unlocking the XP? Don't bother! I get my best OC with default multi and 150 fsb! For real!

Also, I cheated (which I do NOT suggest ) when I unlocked mine: I did not fill the pits with anything, I just used the defogger kit- I did a VERY careful inspection first and could see none of the metal traces in the pits that others had talked about.

I really don't recommend that though : if the traces are there you can wreck the chip.

As for the cooling: again, I am following bad practices here: I have mine in a $20 case- although I put a decent 300 watt psu in it- that has little room for cooling fans. My current setup has an 80mm intake low front, 80 mm exhaust high rear (under psu) and a 7000 rpm delta on a $20 Thermoengine heatsink(lapped quite thoroughly).

I don't entirely trust the MSI boards sensors, but temps are 35c mobo, 35c cpu! The mobo has always run hot- I've tried everything, but the sensor seems to just be in a dead air pocket!

And the thing runs stable as a rock for weeks now: only crash was when a household circuit was overloaded.

I don't suggest following my bad building practices on that rig: I do more of my systems right than wrong--- but I am cheap!!! So if I can get results that meet the need, I don't spend more $$$$$.

Follow Shadow's wiring but a point: I have heard people state that an ac fan motor may cause problems too close to a case; opinions vary though. If you do it and have frequent data coruption afterwards, it might be a problem.

on unlocking XP s i read- note not expireince- from somwher i would have link buti did it on a comp at a freinds that you can take some non conductive epoxy-like stuff - ie somthing like epoxy- and put it inbetween the contacts where the cut is and thenjsut do a defogger thing or somthing- the pencil trick dosnt work- although iv heard ppl say it has on theirs

Demont said:

well i guess i can explain my idea...i have a small house fan that pumps a lotta air...and it would be just small enuff to get in my case, instead of messing with the p/s i figured i could just run two cords out the back of my comp, one would be one of those power cords where you can plug in a second cord on top, usually used for monitor. the fan cords too short, and for the sake of being uniform/having fun i wanted to see if i could rig up a computer power cord to the fan....ok?
I do have a multimeter, so i should be able to use that figure out what goes where...

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Just remember that the fan is not shielded, and will create a large electro-magnetic field. This may permantely damage your HDDs if it's too close to them.

CrystalMethod said:

Just remember that the fan is not shielded, and will create a large electro-magnetic field. This may permantely damage your HDDs if it's too close to them.

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how large and how dangerous? And is there a way to shield it?