Fan a bit noisy - should I care? Replacement?

[flamenco]

Hi Fellow Thinkers!
My R61i has been a real workhorse, despite the paces I've put it through.

I'm gradually noticing more fan noise now, even as I speak. Of course, the fan will go on and off, presumably when the heat level changes.

Should I be concerned about the fan noise? Does this mean it's dying, or is it normal. My machine is about 3 years old and has daily use. I even went so far as to blow into the unit, causing some dust to come out.

How does one replace it? I've been able to replace desktop fans myself, but never tried with a laptop.

Lastly, is there any way to tell how well the fan is working?

Thanks!
Dave

[RealBlackStuff]

About time to swap out the fan.
You really should clean out the fan every 6 months or so, to stop dust collecting in there.

You need to take off the keyboard, and palmrest.
Then a few screws to remove the CPU-cooler.
You'll further need some isopropyl-alcohol or similar, to clean the old thermal paste from the CPU.
Finally you need some Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste (in Radio Shack et al) to put between CPU and new fan.

Get the correct HMM (Hardware Maintenance Manual) from here:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... chineind=0

[dr_st]

Fan noise is usually an indication that its end of life is approaching.

If the machine is in warranty - get it replaced.

If not, and if the noise itself does not bother you, and if the cooling performance is adequate (TPFanControl can be used as an indication - it will show you all the temperatures), then you might as well wait until it dies completely and replace it then.

Assuming, of course, you are not doing anything mission-critical with the machine, and will be able to live without it during the time it will take you to procure a new fan.

[flamenco]

Wow,
Thank you both! Highly informative, excellent thoughts. I used to readily go spelunking in my desktop, as it was pretty spacious and easy to get into. Not to mention the fact that I knew what stuff was in there.

I'm a laptop repair virgin, though. But with these good ideas, I feel ready to try it. It's way out of warrantee. This is good news, in a way - so far the only trouble I've had has been with software, and that's what I do best anyhow.

I do back up stuff regularly, so if I had complete meltdown it would not be catastrophic. But I've been happy enough that I would definitely consider another Thinkpad when the day comes. I safely avoided Vista, and I'd be willing to do Windows 7. I'll have to look around and see what people are saying about the latest new units.

Thanks so much!
Dave

[mediasponge]

Of all the things you can replace inside a laptop, the fan is not too daunting. It's only one step beyond a keyboard replacement. There is a thread here on recommended tools for working on Thinkpads. Basically, the right size Phillips screwdriver, and a plastic pry tool or a guitar pick will get you past a fan job. By all means get the HMM for your model from the Lenovo site. I consider replacing a noisy fan as preventive maintenance. Your computer is trying to tell you something. Your computer is saying, "Pay attention to me now, when it is convenient, or pay attention to me later when it is not convenient."

[flamenco]

Of all the things you can replace inside a laptop, the fan is not too daunting. It's only one step beyond a keyboard replacement. There is a thread here on recommended tools for working on Thinkpads. Basically, the right size Phillips screwdriver, and a plastic pry tool or a guitar pick will get you past a fan job. By all means get the HMM for your model from the Lenovo site. I consider replacing a noisy fan as preventive maintenance. Your computer is trying to tell you something. Your computer is saying, "Pay attention to me now, when it is convenient, or pay attention to me later when it is not convenient."

Yeah, thanks,
I'm up for that. I like getting my hands dirty, just gotta move 'em a little more precisely in this baby. Indeed, I did cop the nice PDF hardware manual. Guess I might have to print a page! How 20th century!

Now I've just gotta figure out where to get the part. I might even be able to score it near me. I'll peek around here, or look at Tom's Hardware or something.

I'm convinced!
Thanks, Dave

[flamenco]

Hi Folks,
I thought I'd give a post-mortem on this. I'm actually writing this on the Thinkpad I just fixed, so it was a success. The new fan is quietly whirring away, just like I'd hoped.

I ordered the part (the whole fan assembly) from born-2-vin on Ebay. His feedback was very high, with lots of sales. I often like to ask a question, partially for info, and also to see how the customer service is. He was great, and actually steered me off the wrong part to the right one. Awesome! I opted for a refurb. btw, he sent a SASE to send back the old unit with. Though I know he can make a buck refurbing that one, I was impressed with this touch, as why not recycle rather than trashing it. I'll get a few bucks creit, too, in case I buy something else. I actually hope not to.

I printed pages from the hardward manual to guide me through this. They have you remove the battery as well, presumably to avoid any power surges(?). All started fine. But I had some dicey moments. When you haven't done this, sometimes you don't know exactly how to pull off connectors. Left, right, up? I had some trouble getting the keyboard connector off, but finally it popped off, luckily without ripping the cable.

I also accidentally disconnected one lead from the wireless antenna, which I almost overlooked - I was taking off the keyboard bezel at the time. I thought I broke the lead, but it re-connected OK. The bezel was really a pain - the manual left out lots of screws I had to remove, so if I had been just a little more ham-handed, I would have broken it off. I kept trying more of them until it gave way. As with any manual, sometimes the instructions were vague or weird. Diagrams were mostly good. I found that I didn't have to disconnect the speaker cables, I just laid down the part to the side, and I could get at the fan.

All the screws were on very tight, and I fried one tiny Phillips screwdriver. Luckily I had another one. My hands are not big, but they are strong. btw, if you have very big fingers, this job would be tougher... very tight spaces for screws, and you'll be dropping them, just like I did with my regular size hands.

Another "scary" thing was figuring out how much thermal paste to put on. I guessed, using the old paste as a sort of guide, and I think it's fine.

I was very organized with my screws, putting them in dishes in order of removal. This was quite helpful, although I did end up with one extra tiny screw at the end. That's traditional, if I'm not mistaken.

Now that I've been in there, I could possibly do it again. But wow, it's not for the nervous. I was getting really ticked off, as it was considerably harder than I expected. You guys are experienced. I guess now I am, sort of. It helps to have really good eyesight, and really good lighting, too. Otherwise, throw your experienced repair man a few bucks instead.

And thanks again for the good tips.

Best, Dave

[dr_st]

Congratulations on your successful repair!

I had to replace the fan on my T42 once, and was nervous before it just like you. The hardest part was carefully removing the old fan, but after some persistence it worked.

Now I'm confident that I can do it again if need be.

[flamenco]

Congratulations on your successful repair!

I had to replace the fan on my T42 once, and was nervous before it just like you. The hardest part was carefully removing the old fan, but after some persistence it worked.

Now I'm confident that I can do it again if need be.

Thanks! Glad to hear it. Having done it once, I definitely know much more. I did my own repair partially to save some shekels, and partially to do something new and unknown. It's a good confidence-builder if you pull it off. I still don't know if I'll be in there fan-cleaning and such as much as RealBlack, but I'll be in there more often.

I'm a bit of a dinosaur with this old-ish unit with WinXP. The original battery (knocks on wood) is still going fine after all this time, even with daily use - I exercise it a lot.

I'm preaching to the choir here, but I've been happy enough with this unit that I will seriously consider another Thinkpad when the time comes. It's been a great workhorse - I'm a web developer, so I put this thing through its paces, big time, and I no longer have a desktop, so meltdown would not have been fun, even with my backups.

The meanest software thing I did to it recently was to have several browser tabs open, a time-tracker, Evernote, probably my code editor, and then I borked it by opening a 25MB PSD in GIMP. I didn't notice how big it was before I opened it. Froze everything up impressively even with much RAM!

Thinkpads ain't too sexy, but they work! I'll have to poll people on that sometime, what other brands they've tried. I hope my little tale above helps someone else do this type of repair.

Ciao, Dave

[minidan]

I've just rescued my dead laptop from it's "fan error"

noise has certainly been significantly reduced from what it was becoming but it's still not box-fresh on the volume front... plus, it wasn't as dirty as I might have imagined inside for a constantly used for 2 years+ work & home machine.

One question though, I keep reading about oiling something on the fan up, but when I finally got it in my hand and disassembled I couldn't work out what I was supposed to be lubricating? Sure I'd been led to expect small bearings but the spindle & clasp actually looked electromagnetic. Other parts beyond the (microscopic) final screws on the fan casing were pretty much totally sealed.

for now I've put it back together (noting the FRU part number), happy to have investigated, practised, know that it's rescuable and that I didn't break anything along the way....

but aware that I've cracked the thermal paste, so probably want to open up & remedy that again soon.

Really, I don't want to do this too often. One or two screws got a bit too worn for my liking.

I'm really better off still getting a new fan here aren't I?

[RealBlackStuff]

You should definitely remove the old -and apply new- thermal paste, best using "Arctic Silver 5".

[minidan]

well that was a false dawn. today it's back to non-booting

definitely new fan time.... I'll have another wonder what i was supposed to oil in 2 years time

[Tõnis]

Congrats on your successful fan install. When I got the fan error, the job went almost the same way as it went for you, except I had the extra stress of doing the nerve wracking job twice. I finished the install and started the machine only to receive the fan error again. The first replacement fan was no good! At the time, that added stress, because I wasn't sure if the fan was the problem after all. But I went ahead, ordered another fan, did the job again, and it worked. So, it's worth keeping in mind that replacement parts might not always be any good right out of the box.

Anyway, I have another fan to do soon -- it's getting noisy -- in a Lenovo 3000N100. Hopefully that repair is just as easy.

[mediasponge]

With most brushless DC fan motors, there is one side of the fan (the rotor part) that is solid. The other side typically has a label. Peel the label back, and you can get in there with a micro-oiler and apply one or two small drops of oil in the center. Mostly not worth doing if replacements are available at a reasonable price. It's actually less work to replace the unit than to oil it, but not by much. It's obvious which way a service center would go.

Always reapply thermal compound after removing a fan. I have been using Arctic Silver Ceramique lately.