DVD Player Blowhole

Cool that drive! – Niklas Roble

Blowhole

We have all thought about case cooling for our computers, but what about other electronics?

I recently overclocked my video card and learned a lot about heat and stability and how they are related. My Coby DVD player usually glitches a few times while I’m watching movies. The top of the DVD player gets quite warm. There are a few vents on the bottom and none on the top or sides to allow for heat to escape.

DVD

I decided this needed a blowhole, but first I needed to know how hot it got under the cover. I removed the screws from the side to take a look inside:

Open

It was quite simple. Then I put a small thermometer inside, closed the case, and sat down to watch Italian Job. About an hour later as Lyle declared he wouldn’t answer to anything but “the Napster,” I decided to check the temp. I opened the top and “wow!” it was 95ºF with 68ºF room temperature. I thought that was pretty hot! I was surprised to see the drive with an IDE cable and a Molex power connector:

Back

I thought to myself, “This is going to be easier than I thought”.

I checked to make sure the voltages were the same, and the power leads were labeled on the power supply part of the unit. I found a low RPM fan, plugged it into the Molex, and the other end into the drive. The drive and fan both ramped up.

Now for the cutting. I decided to position the fan over the processing circuits, which got quite hot. I took some time to line up the fan to make sure it would fit and I marked out the hole. I used my Dremel tool to make the cut and then a sanding wheel to make it good and round.

Holes

I fit a chrome grill on the cover and mounted the fan to exhaust the air out. The temperature dropped to 72ºF. It worked! The final product looks great too:

Blowhole

I don’t know if this was at all necessary and I can’t overclock it higher now (would like to see that), but maybe it won’t glitch anymore.

Niklas Roble

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