Thinkpads Forum

Well my laptop was getting very warm and I finally got a fan error on boot. Is there a high quality ball bearing replacement fan for the t60. Would prefer replacing the fan and then using a high quality thermal paste. Ive heard that the quality on the lenovo fans aren't great.

So you are looking into taking the fan out of the original heatsink, replacing it with a compatible but better fan, and reusing the heatsink? I too would be interesting to know where one might procure such a compatible fan.

Although, personally, I wouldn't bother and just get a new heatsink/fan combo. Not expensive, simpler to replace, and my experience with Lenovo fans has been overall positive. I've had two die on me after about 3.5 years of use, which is a fair lifetime for a fan IMO.

The fan-only part does exist. I purchased this fan and installed it in my T60. It takes about as much work to replace the fan as to lubricate it. If you have the right lubricant on hand, might as well lubricate it instead of replacement. There are more information in the fan lubrication thread.

The fan part is considerably less expensive than the whole thermal device. Fan with shipping comes to $15, whereas a refurbished thermal device is $40 and new thermal device is $80.

A new T60 HSF from IBM/Lenovo directly was quoted to me at about $40+tax, far from $80. But of course just the fan would be cheaper.