how many fan failures is too many?

[bl0tt0]

It's been a while since I've been on this forum, but I have a question on which I would value some people's opinions. Back in November of 2005 I bought a restocked t42p from thinkpadworld.com expecting it to be a good deal. This was the top of the line model with the 2.1 Ghz processor and all of the extras. I also decided to buy the warranty upgrade from ibm so that I would be covered if anything went pop. That was a good decision on my part, as the fan was failing by March of 2006. This was before knew that the IBM repair depot had been taken over by Solectron, but I discovered just how bad their warranty service was pretty quickly.

The first time I send in my machine, and after saying on the phone that I'm pretty sure it's the fan failing, they return it to me with a return slip that said the logic board was replaced. I use the laptop for another week before I notice that it is once again shutting down from overheating. I send it in again, and this time they replace the fan, and return the computer to me. By late May the fan was failing again. I send it in once again, and they "fix" it and return it to me, this time with some very large dust bunnies in the lcd screen. I mean, actually inside the lcd screen. I call them up and send it back, etc. etc. etc. and things seemed to be ok, and I hoped and prayed I would never have to go through this whole ordeal again. The year goes on, November rolls around, and the service warranty runs out. This June, the machine started overheating again, and last week the fan is dead once again.

Now, I certainly don't abuse this machine in any way. I'm rigorous about keeping up on hardware maintenance. I keep it in a very clean area, and I never throw it around. I even use a screen protector to keep trackpoint marks off of the screen. Without thinking, I hurriedly bought another warranty agreement from Lenovo, but now I'm beginning to wonder whether I shouldn't be calling up Customer Service and demanding a replacement model. I've read a few reports from other people having the same fan issues, and the consensus seems to be that it's a design flaw where the fan is underpowered to handle the heat put off by both the cpu and gpu, and so it wears out easily. I can't find any details about my state specifically, but I know that most lemon laws state that having the same faulty part replaced three times entitles the owner to a replacement. The only thing I'm not sure of is the fact that since it was bought through a reseller, and the regular warranty voided, am I entitled to ask for such a thing. Can someone give me their opinion on the matter?

Thanks

[jdhurst]

I have not seen a fan wear out on any of my Thinkpads or on any client Thinkpad for that matter. String of bad luck for you? Or a circuit board malfunction that is blowing up fans? I don't know.
... JDH

[sethstorm]

I can confirm this as well on my T42p as well - I've had it replaced 4 separate times, in under 2 years - and things still go ~80-89C at full load on graphics. 4 fans, 3 system boards, and it's finally getting over 3months of time between service calls.

[sugo]

After 3 years, my T42 is still with its stock fan and motherboard.

[FTC]

Well, my T40 ran since Jan/2004 to Oct/206 with the original fan, Then I replaced it after it became noisy. That makes for 2 years, 9 months but you should notice that this TP is running at 100%CPU 24x7 (since Dec/2004) in a grid, so I am pretty satisfied with the longevity of that fan.

My T42 ran from June/2005 to April/2007 with the original fan also folding 24x7, besides being my work machine... A little less longevity, but I think it's OK also given the amount of work...

All in all, these results are quite consistent. You can expect a T4x fan to last for as much as 15000 hours running. Of course this requires some specific care :

- 1.Your machine should not overheat.. use undervolting, fan cleaning, thermal paste or whatever, but if your machine with correctly working fan overheats when at load (i.e CPU temp>85C and/or GPU temp > 95C), then this will also reduce the life of the fan, because it will be forced to run faster (more wear) and at higher temps.

- 2. Keep it clean. The heatsink collects a fair amount of dust, specially if you have it powered on many hours... It is *very easy* to remove the keyboard and clean up the dust. Do it ocnce every
3000 hours running or so... (more frequently if the ambient is not very clean). Note that dust will make your machine overheat (see point 1) or even worst, can clog the fan itself.

[Chris001]

Just my .02,

The company I work for has 500+ T42 (2373 series) laptops deployed to Iraq with the Army.

The main problem we are having with these laptops are the fans.

Granted the operating environment has something to do with the fan failure rate but we are seeing defective fans in systems that have stayed in the US and are used in an office setting.

Chris

[Bgradid]

fan on my 2373 t42p failed in just over a year, had to wait a week for it to be replaced

[agarza]

I'd say is not very common, I used a T30 since September 2002 and sold it last April with still the same stock fan, though I cleaned it, oiled it and put new thermal paste. I should say a normal fan life would be about 3-4 years depending on the usage, dust, etc.

fan on my 2373 t42p failed in just over a year, had to wait a week for it to be replaced

No problem for my 1 year old T42p fan still functioning

[Nick Y]

Just a small point; If you are losing several fans, then perhaps it is not the fan but the fan controller or related circuitry.

Nick