Thinkpads Forum

I am looking for a solution for a noisy Thinkpad x201 that occasionally overheats to the point of shutting itself down. I have thought of replacing this machine but put in an SSD at the start of the year and it is adequately fast for my primary machine (i5-M520 2.4GHz). I have not yet opened the computer to assess the dust buildup. I would like to ask first if this machine is known to be notoriously noisy? I have one other machine, an x200s that is extremely quiet but also about half the speed.

OpenHardwareMonitor shows temps hovering around 55 +/-10 degC with a specified max of 70 (not sure if it reads this max from the BIOS). I just watched a video about TPFanControl from sourceforge which enables the ability to throttle the fan or maybe I can the fan from the x200s would fit before monitoring the temps closely, but the fan in the x201 is probably larger (noisier) for a reason. Any recommendations on a quiet replacement processor fan? Maybe this and some fancy thermal paste would go a long way .. then I could go on content for another half a decade. Still should probably take a look first, any leads on a solid disassembly guide?

You'll find the X200/X201 manual on the HMM link at the top of this page.
Most likely that fan just needs a good cleaning and fresh thermal paste.
Because of dust-bunnies, fans have been known to get sluggish and start making noise.
They can be fixed with some sewing-machine oil or similar.

Problems like yours have been discussed/solved many times all over this forum.

jdfnnl wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 30, 2020 7:26 pm

I am looking for a solution for a noisy Thinkpad x201 that occasionally overheats to the point of shutting itself down. Any recommendations on a quiet replacement processor fan? Maybe this and some fancy thermal paste would go a long way .. then I could go on content for another half a decade. Still should probably take a look first, any leads on a solid disassembly guide?

The solid disassembly guide is called the X201 Hardware Maintenance Manual (HMM), the official documentation straight from Lenovo. At the top of this forum page, just below the site banner, is a link labeled "HMM" with the PDF file icon beside it. Open the link to a new tab, then search that page for "X201", make sure you get the HMM for the non-Tablet version.

I don't have an X201, but I've read a number of forum posts describing it as hot-running, so it does seem to have a propensity to overheat. If you've never opened up your X201 for maintenance and cleaning since the time you bought it, I recommend that you do so. These-are decade-old machines and it's highly likely that the thermal paste has dried out. Also, if the HMM has any mention of "rubber" when installing a new CPU heatsink, then you also need to buy a thermal pad for the chipset.

As for the thermal paste, I'd defer to fellow forum member RealBlackStuff's suggestion: viewtopic.php?f=80&t=128721#p846629.