The need to modify/rewire

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Well, ever since I was a kid, I always loved taking things apart. Almost everything I have is modified or rewired in some way. Every company fears me and their warranties, lol.

I assume this is part of my Aspergers? Examples of what I done are below:

1. My 27" HDTV. I removed the CPU and soldered on a faster CPU, and reprogrammed the ROM by replacing it with an EEPROM. Result? On screen menus render faster, and I customized the icons and colors for the on-screen menu.
2. Mac mini. I took it apart, removed two resistors from the motherboard, and now the CPU runs faster. (overclock)
3. My laptop, the one I'm on now. This thing has had it bad. I took a wifi laptop card, took the circuit out of the case, and wired it internally into my laptop, via test points, so now my laptop has built in wifi, without using a card slot. The CPU was also replaced in this laptop too.
4. Rewired my iPod's dock connector, so now it has SPDIF output for excelent audio quality on my stereo system.

If I don't modify something, I still take it apart, and just examine the parts, and see how it works. It's an urge I can't get rid of or control.

And whats worse, people look at me and think I'm crazy. They say I can't buy something and just let it be.

So, is that my aspergers kicking in? If so, do I bother to control it?

Why would you want to leave it as it is if you can make it so much better? Granted, overclocking can be harmful if done without care, but you seem to know what you're doing. At the very least, I say there's no harm in finding out how things work.

I'd really like to screw with some of my electronic gizmos, but I absolutely hate to see anything I own get broken. I'm certain I'd break some thing here and there because I'm a little klutzy with stuff like that. Though, I do have a Guitar Hero controller with a busted whammy bar that I'd like to open and try to fix. I guess I'm too worried about breaking stuff to try messing with anything not already at least a little broken. :P

Couldn't tell you if it has anything to do with Asperger's. Just seems like the workings of curiosity to me.

I have a sudden compulsion to punch you in the face.

Hakeman I think what you do is really cool and you could be getting paid by some company to make their stuff work better, so maybe it's your calling in life, and yes it sounds like an aspie trait, one that can work in your favor!

hakemon - I am you in this respect! I love to disassemble things....sometimes I have parts left over though. I am quite mechanically inclined but sometimes scary. I seem to 'know' lab instrumentation and intuitively understand how things work &/or are put together. Except human behavior - different story entirely.

I do not read instruction manuals....heh heh. I bypass circuits. I sonicated an Eppendorf pipette's inner mechanism.
Simon Baron-Cohen says Aspies/HFA children have 'folk knowledge' of mechanical objects. By this he means, it's intuitive for us. Conversely, we lack 'folk knowledge' to social interaction. No kidding.

czechguardsman: Why? I doubt I/we do anything wrong. In fact, for me, I want to help and fix things, even if I don't always do this conventionally. This behavior is innocuous.

I would love to get paid for these things, but it seems no company here care for this sort of stuff, and I'm alone on this as far as jobs goes.