Hello all! I am new to this forum, just as I am new to circuitry. I recently bought a simple adapter to seat an additional hard drive where an optical (DVD/CD) drive would go in a laptop. The adapter connects the hard drive to the laptop with a small circuit board. Soldered to the circuit board are two wires that connect a small LED. This LED will not be visible from the outside, so it is just a waste of battery power in my laptop. Will desoldering this, or simply cutting the cords, have any negative effects? Is this generally considered a safe modification without implications?

Thanks in advance!

 

The led draws soo little current that it's not worth the effort to take it out of the circuit. If it did affect your battery life your battery isn't very good.
And if the wire were to short out against anything, you would really regret the modification.

 

Makes sense. The battery is great, but with the addition of a second hard drive, I'd anticipated a noticeable decrease in battery life. It sounds from your post that with what little current is drawn by the LED, it's simply not worth the risk. I will leave it as is.

Thanks for your prompt reply!

 

Hard drives typically draw between 3-7 amps. If you actually have two hard drives (which I suspect not) then there is the issue.

But even between hard drives there is a lot of variation. You would be better to look for a new hard drive with more modest current specs.

 

No, I am adding a second storage drive (actually a solid state drive), for a total of two. This is a common need when using solid state drives as they are low capacity, costly, and still an emerging technology. It is, however, an uncommon configuration for a MacBook Pro.

 

No, I am adding a second storage drive (actually a solid state drive), for a total of two.

Because solid state drives don't actually have any moving parts that require motors and/or solenoids, I expect the current requirements to be quite low. And I don't think both drives will be active at the same time, so my guess is that two solid state drives won't draw significantly more current than one.