4-Pin Molex Upsidedown?(Case Fan)

[mystery323x]

If you plugged a 4pin molex in upsidedown and left it that way could it mess things up? (Case Fan)

 

[RetiredChief]

Pluging in a molex "Upside down" would revearse the +5V and +12V lines. For HDD and CD/DVD drives this could be fatal to the drive and the posility of reflecting back into the PSU / Motherboard.

For a case fan - The fan is designed to run on +10V -> approx 12.6V. Appling +5 V may cause the fan to run very slow and to draw excessive current Possibley damaging the Fan Do to I squared R. NOT recommented.

 

[Kari]

fans can easily run at 5 volts, all those manual fan controller units adjust the voltage between 5-12V or very close anyways. no harm done.

though I wonder how the molex could fit upsidedown...

 

[RetiredChief]

Kari -
I stand corrected, You are correct, the fan should work at reduced speed- tried a fan on a variable PS, Fan started spinning at approx 4 Volts. Got My DC motors crossed with AC motors. In AC motors if the RPMs drops to low the counter EMF is to low and the windings will overheat.

If the fan has LEDs they would be dim to not on.

Ref how to connect - any gorrilla can do it easy. - this is not the first, one poster wipped out his HDD.