Replacing My Fan

Message

DNLee86 · #1 Post by **DNLee86** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 4:43 pm

Hello, just registered on the forums here (although I've been lurking for the past week).

My fan (long) on my 2373-KXU died on me so I bought a new one, which came today. I have a couple of questions I'd like to ask.

The FRU number for my current fan is 13R2657. I did some research here and bought a fan with the FRU number 41W5204. However, when I received the fan, the part number was 91P9252. I asked the seller if the parts were interchangeable, and he said yes. I'd just like to confirm that here with everyone else.

Now I am attempting remove my broken fan. Unfortunately, I can't seem separate the part from the GPU. The black thermal pad seems to have melted above it and now I can't get it to budge. I tried using a razor blade, but to no avail. Any practical suggestions?

Finally, I have a question regarding thermal grease for the area that goes over the CPU. There seems to small specks of white stuff over that area. I was wondering if that was it. Or do I have to go out and buy it separately?

Sorry for bombarding you guys with questions. New to working with laptop hardware and I obviously don't want to mess up. I also need this thing up and running as soon as possible.

Anyway, thanks again for your time.

#2 Post by **Harryc** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 5:48 pm

Go to Radioshack and buy a tube of Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound. IIRC it is @ $10. Call then first to confirm availability. Use that for the CPU and ...

Follow the instructions here for a small Intel core

As far as separating the GPU from the heatsink, pry it apart with a plastic tool so as not to scratch the systemboard. See page 103 of the maintenance manual - http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 46464.html

Note- protect the surface of the system board at all costs. Lay down a piece of wood or plastic over a cloth or foam if you need something to pry against to remove the GPU heatsink. Go slowly, patience is key here.

dash7540 · #3 Post by **dash7540** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 6:21 pm

I'm having this exact problem at the moment. See my thread a few posts down.

Try using dental floss between the GPU and heatsink.

I think those who say the heatsink pops off easily have the pink thermal pad on the GPU. Those of us without it have to scrape that black gunk off at a snails pace.

DNLee86 · #4 Post by **DNLee86** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 7:55 pm

Still no success with the removal of the thermal pad. It's not budging. I'm trying to remove the stuff bit by bit, but that doesn't seem to help. I can't seem to find the space to fit in anything between the thermal pad and the white top of the GPU.

More suggestions please.

*Edit*
Well, after some time, I removed the thermal padding gunk from the outer edges. It seems the padding was squished out over time, because the heat sink is almost in direct contact with the GPU. Because of this, I can't seem to fit anything in between.

Tim M · #5 Post by **Tim M** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 4:00 am

^^ The metal heat spreader touching the black goop can be separated from the GPU with a razor blade inserted almost horizontally (this is what I did). The black goop on my machine was pretty darned solid.

DNLee86 · #6 Post by **DNLee86** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 10:27 pm

Tim M wrote:^^ The metal heat spreader touching the black goop can be separated from the GPU with a razor blade inserted almost horizontally (this is what I did). The black goop on my machine was pretty darned solid.

Wait, are you saying the white plate is supposed to come off? I saw a few screenshots posted by some people here after removing their fan, and it seemed the the white plate was left on. If it does come off, can I put it back on?

#7 Post by **richk** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 10:50 pm

White cover??? If you are talking about what I think you're talking about (the plate on the GPU that says ATi), that is part of the manufactured unit and is NEVER supposed to come off.

Tim M · #8 Post by **Tim M** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 11:55 pm

richk wrote:White cover??? If you are talking about what I think you're talking about (the plate on the GPU that says ATi), that is part of the manufactured unit and is NEVER supposed to come off.

Yes, it's the square plate/heat spreader/whatever it is. It came off without too much effort, actually, and the GPU is still intact, though perhaps the higher temperatures I observe (idle ~53*C, heavy load briefly observed above 100*C!) are a result of the removal (if it wasn't meant to be removed).

Interestingly, it was held onto the GPU case by what looked like white thermal compound that didn't seem particularly permanent. Should I be using something other than simple thermal compound to re-attach it to the GPU and atone for this sin?

The HMM regarding heat sink removal in the GPU area seems to have been a little inadequate.

DNLee86 · #9 Post by **DNLee86** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 10:30 am

HOORAY!

The fan finally came off. I bent up the small metal piece on the part of the fan that covers the fan, and slowly shoved a small screwdriver almost horizontally in.

Now to do second half of this whole thing - installing the new fan.

Robbyrobot · #10 Post by **Robbyrobot** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 11:09 am

I think I would have suggested to simply turn the computer on and let it run for maybe 5 minutes to warm up the CPU, then remove the fan. That should be much easier than trying to get the fan off when everything is cold.

DNLee86 · #11 Post by **DNLee86** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 11:51 am

Yay! I'm typing this post on my laptop now. Fixed my fan and set everything up. Thanks to everyone that helped me with this problem. Hopefully, everything remain fine.

*Edit*
Now I'm having a different problem... Seems to be more severe than the original problem of a dead fan.

When I turn the computer on, I get a blank screen. There is also one long beep and two short ones. Just checked another site with beep codes, and it seems to be either a video adapter failure or a system board failure.

I was reading a bit on the forums, and many seem to say it is a motherboard problem. Hoping that's not it, but I can't see any other reason for this.

My warranty's expired too, so not sure on what's going to happen...

velvetsteele · #12 Post by **velvetsteele** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 10:45 pm

Hate to say it friend, but sounds like the mobo is fried. Could be something is still touching or shorting, so take apart and reassemble -CAREFULLY. Did you use an antistatic strap or pad when working?

#13 Post by **richk** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 11:22 pm

The easiest way to "cook" a motherboard is to work on the machine when it's plugged in or the main battery is still attached. Assuming you didn't do that, if you disconnected the video cable, make sure it is reattached well. Reseat the memory chip(s). If I had to guess, I would say the most likely thing is that you broke a solder connection under the GPU when you were trying to get the fan off.

rbena · #14 Post by **rbena** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 3:10 pm

DNLee86 wrote:The FRU number for my current fan is 13R2657. I did some research here and bought a fan with the FRU number 41W5204. However, when I received the fan, the part number was 91P9252. I asked the seller if the parts were interchangeable, and he said yes. I'd just like to confirm that here with everyone else.

The 91P9252 fan is interchangeable, but this model ran slightly louder in my T42. I found the 13R2657 runs more quiet, though it is now harder to find. I've not used the 41W5204, so it may be worth researching further. Fan noise is very subjective, and the 91P9252 may be fine in your machine.

PaulB · #15 Post by **PaulB** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 3:46 pm

As someone else said, you have most likely broke some solder connections under the GPU. This is a common problem that can happen by lightly flexing the motherboard (such as holding the laptop by one hand). Prying the fan off the GPU would certainly exert more stress...

Two solutions have been proposed:
(1) inserting something between the GPU and keyboard (such as a stack of postit notes or other material),
(2) re-soldering the GPU

You can find more details about this at these links:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... ed09db21ab
http://www.technotaste.com/blog/thinkpa ... mment-2903

I don't think solution (1) is applicable to you because you have the "long" fan which covers the GPU. Those that have the short fan can manually press on the GPU and see if it helps any (they power up the laptop while applying pressure on the GPU). I have the long fan and tried manually pressing on the fan enclosure to exert pressure on the GPU but, as I expected, it did not help. Maybe you can insert something between the fan enclosure and the GPU such that it pushes down on the GPU to secure the contacts. One or more steel razor blades could possibly do the trick. Whatever you use would, of course, have to be heat conducting...

PaulB · #16 Post by **PaulB** » Thu Dec 20, 2007 8:10 am

Forget what I said in the previous post about the "post-it fix" not being applicable to T4x Thinkpads that have the long fan (which I think are only the Thinkpads with the Radeon 9600 or FireGL GPUs). Anyways, I just fixed my T42 by inserting a 2.5mm thick piece of balsa wood (from a tangerine crate) between the top of the fan enclosure and the keyboard. You can't see the GPU chip itself, but it is under the part of the fan enclosure that is farthest from the fan itself. When you later put keyboard back, it lines up right under the buttons that are beneath the space bar.

As already mentioned, you can also test the fix by simply removing the keyboard, manually pressing on that end of the fan enclosure, powering up your Thinkpad to see if it boots correctly.

DNLee86 · #17 Post by **DNLee86** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 10:56 am

Thank you for advice. Actually, I have already skimmed through those links.

I've tried pressing on the GPU-covering part of the fan, and the IBM startup screen does show. But, either I'm not pressing it hard enough or something else is wrong, but it doesn't go past it.

nielluin · #18 Post by **nielluin** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 4:10 am

Yes, it's the square plate/heat spreader/whatever it is. It came off without too much effort, actually, and the GPU is still intact, though perhaps the higher temperatures I observe (idle ~53*C, heavy load briefly observed above 100*C!) are a result of the removal (if it wasn't meant to be removed).

Hi,

I recently change my system board and thus had to remove my long fan assembly on my T42 (with a mobility radeon 9600)
Now when i replaced the fan i removed the pink sheet and replaced the fan with the black thermal pad on top of the gpu. However i'm gessing that there is some space left between the gpu and the thermal pad (bacause of the pink sheet removal).

Now i'm observing similar temperature range over the GPU (idle :52°C full load ~100°C) :
- can somedoby give us what are the normal temperature range (for a T42 with 9600 or specify your system if different)
- What are my option to get the best thermal transfer between gpu and fan assembly ? (new thermal pad, thermal paste between gpu and thermal pad, copper plate...)

I think many of us are facing this issue after replacing some part, so some target temp values would be a great added value.

Thanks

Nick Y · #19 Post by **Nick Y** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 6:01 am

>>Now when i replaced the fan i removed the pink sheet and replaced the fan with the black thermal pad on top of the gpu.

I think the instructions in the h/w manual are a bit confusing. I don't think that the pink sheet should be removed as I think that it is a thermal pad and therefore doesn't stick to the GPU but conveys heat to the heatsink. (When the T41p motherboard was replaced a few months ago, IBM did not remove the pink sheet as I found out when I had to replace the fan. My concerns about lifting the heatsink away from the GPU turned out to be simple.)

The h/w manual mentions removing a plastic sheet ... Page 105:
' Only in the case of Fan assembly, long, you need to peel
the plastic sheet b off on the thermal rubber before you
place it on the system board. Fan assembly, long M10
DOES NOT have the plastic sheet. '

I did check the GPU temp after replacing the fan and using Spybot - Search & Destroy and scanning AVG I managed to get the temp up to about 63 deg.C -when FanControl brought the fan in at level 3. Normally the GPU sits at around 53/55 deg. C I think. (The T41 is back with daughter, so cannot confirm.

I would be interested to know what others think about the pink sheet.

madboyv1 · #20 Post by **madboyv1** » Sat May 03, 2008 8:10 am

I'm glad that this thread has been made between the last time I was here and now, and I am sorry if this might be considered necroposting.

I am working on university finals and my fan bearing has seized up (for the most part), failing to stay spinning during start up and causing a fan error 80ish % of the time, is incredibly loud, and vibrates violently. While replacing the fan was an inconvenience and not 100% necessary when I first came here, now its essential that I attempt to replace it tonight. I just hope my Artic Silver is with me, else this is going to be a long weekend for me.

I'll post notes and results, as well as questions and concerns this weekend.

madboyv1 · #21 Post by **madboyv1** » Sat May 03, 2008 7:06 pm

edited for option of new topic.

Replacing My Fan

Replacing My Fan

Who is online