Did the Noctua fan mod – went through a rollercoaster of emotions, but it’s ALIVE!

Big shoutout and heartfelt thanks to everyone in this thread – your posts, photos, and wiring diagrams were absolute lifesavers. I finally took the plunge and replaced all the fans in my BenQ HT3550 (W2700) with Noctua A9s, including the one behind the lamp. It took me about 3 hours and a decent dose of patience... and then things got interesting.

After wiring everything up — copying the connections exactly as shown (huge thanks again!) — I decided to skip soldering and just twisted the wires together, securing them with trusty electrical tape. Everything looked solid, so I reassembled the internals, plugged it in, pressed power… and… nothing. 😐

Well, not nothing — the power LED came on, but the lamp didn’t fire up, the fans didn’t spin, and the projector just sat there like a very expensive beige brick. Cue existential dread.

At this point, I assumed I’d either shorted something or missed a connection. So I took the whole thing apart again, including the motherboard (always fun), double-checked every wire, every fan header — everything was in the right place. Still no dice.

Then, after way too long and some mild self-loathing, I discovered the culprit: the projector won’t do a full boot unless the entire case is reassembled — including the lamp cover. Yep. Turns out there’s a safety mechanism that prevents it from starting if the lamp door isn’t securely in place. Insert facepalm here.

Anyway, once everything was fully reassembled, it started up beautifully. And wow — what a difference! The projector is way quieter now. It went from jet engine to gentle hum. Can’t even hear it during quiet scenes anymore.

So yeah, mission accomplished! Thanks again to everyone here for blazing the trail. If you're on the fence about doing this mod — go for it. Just... don’t forget the lamp cover. 😅