Thinkpads Forum

I just replaced my fan on a t61 and now it wont power up every now and then. I cant figure out whats causing it, I unplugged the fan and plugged it back in and it started up again, bu tthat could be a coincidence. I didnt have any issues before the fan replacement.

Thanks for any advise.

I would check all wire connectors and reseat your ram sodimms. Also, I hope you cleaned the cpu and gpu and applied just a tiny coating of thermal paste to them. Applying to much can cause problems, even shorting out your system board in some extreme cases.

Also, what exactly happens when it fails to power on?

Thanks for the reply, what happens is nothing, no lights or anything, I have investigate this further. Once I took it apart and back, it started again but shortly after a shut down it wouldnt power up again. The new fan came with its own tiny paste already placed on the base of the heatsink. Ill mess around with it when I can, thanks for your help, I thought it was a common problem.

Try a different power supply if you have one, and also try removing the battery.

Next I'd try plugging the old fan into the system board and see if it boots, but don't run it for more then a couple minutes, because your cooling system would be compromised. If it runs with the old fan, but not with the new one, then your new fan could be defective (either shorted or drawing to many amps).

Also, not saying you would do this, but one cause of units that fail after servicing is careless conditions like not protecting the unit from static discharge. You should never work in a carpeted room, and make sure you've grounded yourself before touching any of the internal components. A static electric discharge can fry your system board.

It also sounds like you installed an entire heatsink assembly, not just the fan. If this was new, make sure you removed the plastic film from the pad that covers the boards chipset. On the heatsink there are probably three "pads", two of which use thermal paste, and one has a "gel" pad that is relatively solid at room temp, but will "gel" when heated. New heatsinks have a protective plastic film covering them, and I've seen them installed without removing the film more then once, so that's something you can check.

Well today while taking the laptop apart after the startup failure, the laptop started simply by plugging the keyboard in the port. I thought it was strange since I had just pressed the power button and it wouldlnt power up, so I replaced the keyboard and sure enough no more power issues. Will keep testing but for now it seems to have been the keyboard. Thanks for all your input.

Are there known issues as to why the power button wont work on these keyboards? If I let it sit for a day or so it will work again. Very strange behavior but its for sure the keyboard/power button. With the new keyboard salvaged from another machine theres no power issues at all, but I would like ot try to figure out why the old one is doing this and if its repairable. Thanks

bass1175 wrote:Are there known issues as to why the power button wont work on these keyboards? If I let it sit for a day or so it will work again.

I guess if you would have tried the old trick of removing the power supply and battery from the machine, then pressing every second the power button for about two or three dozen times, and then pressing and holding the button for another 30 seconds, than the issue would have been resolved the same. I had similar situations a few times myself on different machines, and this trick reliably made the machine recover from its temporary loss of consciousness.

Yea I tried that and didnt work, I figured if that was the problem, then after the first power up it wouldnt do it again, but it did. I just ordered a new keyboard.