Thinkpads Forum

I replaced my dead fan using a fan I bought off ebay from a reputable seller. That worked for almost a year without issue. But the last month or two, it's been making a lot of noise. It still seems to spin fine, but the noise is disconcerting, not to mention annoying. Any suggestions on what I can do to quiet things down?

Also, if the fan fails when I'm not near the laptop, will the laptop automatically power itself down when it detects zero fan speed or an unsafe temperature?

The only real repair is replacing the fan. And don't worry, these machines do not commit suicide for lack of cooling -- they just shut down or "freeze".

EOMtp wrote:The only real repair is replacing the fan. And don't worry, these machines do not commit suicide for lack of cooling -- they just shut down or "freeze".

Thanks.

The original fan lasted 4 years before it died. The replacement lasted less than a year before it became unbearably noisy. Bummer. And at this point, fan replacement cost is a significant % of the laptop's value.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-CPU-FAN-IBM ... 1e639aa4b8

There is a new one for less than $10 shipped. You may be experiencing bearing failure in your fan, you can try reoiling the fan bearing to see if the noise will go down. Read this and see if you think it would be worth a shot http://www.dansdata.com/fanmaint.htm.

j.harris wrote:http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-CPU-FAN-IBM ... 1e639aa4b8
There is a new one for less than $10 shipped.

Great find, thanks! Just ordered one. Before I saw your post, I was going to pay $50 for a fan from ThermalFX.

j.harris wrote:You may be experiencing bearing failure in your fan, you can try reoiling the fan bearing to see if the noise will go down. Read this and see if you think it would be worth a shot http://www.dansdata.com/fanmaint.htm.

Thanks for the link, once I get the new fan, I'll give this a shot with the old fan, and if I screw it up, no loss.