Chosen Solution
Someone came to me with a Wacom Companion 2 Graphics tablet with a number of issues and I’ve been able to repair all but one. The tablet has an overheating issue (boots, runs for about an hour and then just shuts off), and I’ve noticed one of the fans doesn’t turn for more than a couple seconds after boot. I would like to replace this fan, but it seems parts for this device are rarer than finding a Yeti riding a Unicorn at the North Pole. If possible I would like to find an exact match, but if there’s anyone who can come up with another idea to make this work I’m open to alternatives. The fan I’m looking to replace is a DFS170005040T and runs with 5v , 0.5 Amps. Image attached below.
Hi @millionthvector , Noticed that the fan has a 4 wire connector. Have you checked that there is a connection to all the 4 wires from the fan cable’s connector plug back into the fan? I’m assuming that besides battery and ground for the fan motor the other two wires might be connected to a temp sensor (thermistor?) and to a Hall effect sensor or suchlike to detect the rpm of the fan. Since the fan operates, even briefly, presumably the motor must be OK just wondering about the other two wires. Not sure whether they would connect via the associated sensor through to the earth lead or the battery lead in the fan though. Assume testing the other fan may help determine what the connections might be. If either wire is open circuit or non responsive when the fan operates you may be able to “fool” the BIOS into thinking it was OK and therefore it would maintain power to the fan, assuming that the power was stopped by the BIOS that is and not that it is a fan motor problem. Example: If the temp lead was faulty, connect another thermistor (value the same as the other fan perhaps) externally to the lead from either earth or battery depending on what it is normally connected to. Just as a test to see if the fan stays on and the device stays on for more than an hour anyway. If it works attach the thermistor to the top of the fan somehow Tongue in cheek, ;-) you could always purchase a faulty unit and then you would be in possession of all the parts (some are missing or broken) which may be useful in the future, given the cost of repairs quoted by Wacom this may be a reasonable purchase. Also the price might not be that outrageous given that the model fan that you wanted sold for EUR 89.99 just 12 months ago, you may be able to sell off the other parts from the unit to regain some of the cost of buying it
Have you considered replacing the power adapter, (19v 4.74amps) had same issue powering. fans spining and running for a few minutes then shutting off. I had wrong replacement adapter and tablet wasn’t getting enough power.
I have a similar issue recently with my wacom. The wacom will seemingly overheat and auto shutdown, both while in Windows or just at the BIOS screen. I opened the unit and found the lower fan will spin for a second when powering on, and not seem to spin anytime afterwards. To test I switched the placement of the lower and upper fans. The lower fan when connected to the upper fan socket, spun without issues. The upper fan, when connected to the lower fan socket, spun for a second and stopped. So the fans seem to be ok. Switching the proper fans back, I happen to connect the lower fan loosely to its power connector and it was spinning (loudly) at full speed! It seems that if the red, white and possibly black pins are connected, the fan spins at full speed. If I try to loosely connect the opposite side (yellow, black), the fan does not spin. Unfortunately I do not have a lot of tools to properly test connections. As noted above, it might be related to a thermistor issue. I ran Core Temp and SpeedFan utilities, both indicated a temperature from the cpu cores, but I’m note sure how reliable those two utilities are. Also another post mentioned that it seems like only one fan will spin depending on the tablet rotation. I just tested this now and it does seems to be the case. I still think the issue is overheating, I can use the unit without shutdowns when a strong desk fan is pointed at the side of the wacom.
These art tablets are overpowered for drawing. I use high processor power when say. loading Photoshop, then lower processor to 5% power when drawing and thinking, battery life goes from 1 hour and a half to more like 7 hours. No heat, no noise! Here’s how!: In Control Panel Power go to Create a Power Plan, create and name one, ‘Light Work’, then in addition to the usual stuff there, see the Go to Advanced Settings (lower left). In there you will find many drop downs for optimizations. The most useful the Processor ones, where you can choose Active (Fan) or PASSIVE Cooling! With passive cooling, it lowers the processor cycles to keep everything cool (like an Android does) rather than brute force cooling a too hot proc. 95% of the time we are doing stuff where the computer could be at 1% power and we would not know the difference,. . THIS Technique, makes that a transparent reality! Each preset can has ‘plugged in’ or ‘on battery’ variations so you can tell it to go: Only as HIGH as 50% when on battery. (But 100% when plugged in). And go as LOW as 1% when on Battery and 25% when plugged in), when getting hot. This all happens transparently, keeps the machine cool, and silent, and gives you total control over everything as a Named Preset! (If you change your screen brightness when you make or save a power preset, it will remember! I have presets like ‘Ultra Bright/Ultra Low’ Preset for reading, drawing, and Super Performance for my Character Animation work etc.. (people usually only rely on the Balanced Preset, it is just ok, but not the same as this at all, it does NOT turn off the fan, to go to passive cooling, nor does it bring the proc down to as low as 1% power like advanced custom presets can! (although you can change and save over the Balanced preset if you choose.) This way, up to 100% power is still there when you need it, but is not there when you’re just typing an email, or drawing in Photoshop ‘Cool’ huh? Buy me a Cuppa if this helps you! PayPal.me/SchoolHomeVR Me: youtube.com/NextWorldVR Come subscribe for cool, unique random stuff, kittens, puppies, Art, Music and Virtual Reality related CGI and a new upcoming show about VR Game Development in Unreal engine!
