DockII Fan Problems

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BOHICA · #1 Post by **BOHICA** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 12:37 am

I posted this on the General Hardware board but haven't received any responses...

After a little over a year of ownership, the fan in my DockII (with a T42 docked) is making much more noise than it did initially. It's quite distracting and it sounds as if t won't even function much longer.

My first thought was to disassemble the unit to clean the fan myself, but I'm rather surprised at the ackward placement of the screws and am afraid I'll just do further damage. (I've frankly never seen a computer device so weirdly engineered...)

Two questions for the board:

1) Are there any board secrets concerning how to deal with a sudden increase in the DockII fan noise?
2) Anybody have luck sending their DockIIs back to either IBM or Lenovo for repair?

Thank you for any response.

gunston · #2 Post by **gunston** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 8:07 am

wow, i have never thought that dockII has got an individual fan inside.
besides, what about other IBM docking station which has its built in fan as well?
any pic of it???

JHEM · #3 Post by **JHEM** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 9:49 am

Dock II HMM.

Regards,

James

JHaislet · #4 Post by **JHaislet** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 7:58 am

The DockII has the fan due to the PCI slot and HDD/CDROM space. My Dock II fan also was rather loud...louder than the T43, and I ultimately picked up a mini-dock, which is completely silent. The mini-dock has all the neat features of the Dock II, minus the PCI slot & HDD/CDROM slot. It includes DVI, VGA, & 4 USB ports, (plus all the other normal ports). DVI & 4 USB ports were WELL worth the slight price increase over the standard port replicator which just has 2-usb ports and is missing a couple other items.

gunston · #5 Post by **gunston** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 9:19 am

so you mean that all docking station has built in fan??

BOHICA · #6 Post by **BOHICA** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 4:36 pm

JHaislet and others,

I'm tempted to dump the Dock II as the fan problem seems likely to recur, but the backup function of the HDD slot is critical. Space is also somewhat of a premium.

Any creative solutions amongst the group re: implementation of a HDD for backup without the Dock II (i.e. other brands of reliable port replicators with the capacity for HDD use)?

mpcook · #7 Post by **mpcook** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 5:05 pm

I disconnected the fan, which made it significantly quieter

I don't seem to have a heat problem, but then I don't have a card in the slot.

JHaislet · #8 Post by **JHaislet** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 5:09 pm

Just get some external USB 2.0 HDD enclosures. I've got a couple that use regular 3.5" SATA drives and they work great. They also make them for 2.5" IDE & SATA drives as well.

I mainly use them for backup and media when I'm working on projects, so I turn them on & off quit frequently.

Also, if your not picky about how they look, I've seen decent enclosures for around $15-20.

I like the AMS "Venus DS3" USB 2.0 to SATA enclosures myself. Also have a Venus 5" for a standard size DVD-RW.

DockII Fan Problems

DockII Fan Problems

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