diagnosing noise, replacing parts

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Paul Johnston · #1 Post by **Paul Johnston** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 3:37 pm

Hi- we just purchased 3 2nd-hand Thinkpads for our family and now I have to learn how to take care of them. This site looks like a great resource. I hope this post is appropriate here.

Our T40 (2373) has started making a fairly loud grinding, virating noise. It starts immediately with power on. I do not know if this is the fan or hard drive. Interestingly the noise will vanish when I tilt the laptop back and forth... I am afraid to turn it on much to listen more closely to it because I fear it means the hard drive is about to fail. Is there a good way to distinguish between fan noise & hard drive noise?

And assuming it is the fan, I see that fans are an issue for Thinkpads. Is there a fan folks would recommend?

Also, is there a good site that will walk me through disassembling a Thinkpad to replace parts? I'm used to doing that on our desktops but this is a whole nother thing...

thanks-

Paul in Santa Cruz

Paul Johnston · #2 Post by **Paul Johnston** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 3:41 pm

I see that one question (what fan to get) was already answered in response bretsinger's post just above, while I was writing.

that's what I call support!

#3 Post by **rkawakami** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 4:10 pm

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

Most of the general questions (and answers) appear in the site's FAQ:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=1689

#8 will help with your disassembly question.

To discern the source of the noise you can pull out the hard drive (and Ultrabay too, in case the spin-up is making some noise) and power on the laptop. The only thing that will/should be moving inside the system is the fan.

Paul Johnston · #4 Post by **Paul Johnston** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 4:34 pm

thanks Ray