T500 fan error on booting up

[shanick]

Hi all,

My thinkpad fan has been struggling a little bit for a while, just in that it was getting annoyingly loud. I hadn't got around to cleaning it which is bad I know.

I used it fine last night but when I woke up this morning and opened it it wouldn't boot up. When I try to turn it on the fan starts, but VERY loudly, like with a grinding noise rather than just a fast whirry noise. The hard drive starts going and the Thinkpad logo comes up, then the fan just stops and I get just the words 'fan error' on the screen and two beeps. I've tried several times today and got the same thing.

I've opened it up to take off the keyboard and expose the fan a little and use some compressed air on it. It hasn't made a difference. I can get the fan to spin with the air I'm squirting in no problem but it makes that same noise.

Any advice about what I should try next?

[Colonel O'Neill]

Try taking off the heatsink and pressing inwards from the underside on the fan.

[shanick]

Okay, what should that do?

Edit: Actually, I tried booting it up this morning and IT WORKED! The fan made that horrible noise for a couple of seconds then quietened back down. I assume I should still be doing something about this? That was really worrying...

[Colonel O'Neill]

Sometimes works if the fan is out of position. Knocking on the back of the laptop behind the fan sometimes works too.

From what happened this time, it sounds like the fan found it's proper position again.

[shanick]

Hmm so. It's now running happily (I'm typing on it now), but last time I tried to turn it on it gave me the same 'fan error' thing as before, and I still occasionally hear that grinding sound when the fan goes on high. I guess I should take it apart again as you advised originally

I probably won't have time to do that until Thursday. Will report back then. Hope this can be solved without buying a new fan...

[Colonel O'Neill]

Could also consider lubricating the fan too...

[shanick]

Yeah, that's what my original Googling suggested. I guess I'll do that if I can't get it to run smoothly when blowing air into it when I have it out.

That sounds like more a job for Saturday though. Which will also give me time to get hold of some suitable lubricant. Whee.

Thanks for all your help. I'm glad Thinkpads are so amenable to me poking about!

[shanick]

Update, some months later:

It kept doing the thing I described in this post, where it would shut down with a fan error then a bit later
boot up happily. This happened maybe once a month. Yesterday evening though it did that and then wouldn't revive - I left it an entire day, checking several times.

Also the fan was extremely loud even when it was on low speeds.

What with it not booting up this evening I took the plunge and took it all apart, and lubed the fan as described here http://www.msb0b.com/home/thinkpadt60fanrepair. The instructions applied pretty much exactly to my t500 fan, there was just a little bit more tape.

And hooray! It booted up just fine, and is now so silent that for a moment I thought it hadn't worked when I turned it on - I'm so used to it making a serious grinding noise on startup. It's beautiful.

Thanks everyone on this forum for your help.