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What is this little extra fan for on my X61 ?

X60/X61 and X60t/X61t Series
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fri_night_in_ninsei
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What is this little extra fan for on my X61 ?

#1 Post by fri_night_in_ninsei » Mon Jan 14, 2019 6:23 pm

Hi. I have to X61 laptops and one of them has a small fan (in addition to the CPU fan assembly) just to the left of the modem. The X61 with the extra fan is a T7300. The one without the extra fan is a T8100.

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Re: What is this little extra fan for on my X61 ?

#2 Post by TPFanatic » Mon Jan 14, 2019 6:31 pm

X60 became notorious for palmrest heat on the right side, from the stock WLAN and WWAN cards. A second fan and ventilation are added under the X61 palmrest to try and cool that part of the laptop.

Many people flash a whitelist-removed BIOS and then install a newer, cooler, half size WLAN card.

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Re: What is this little extra fan for on my X61 ?

#3 Post by madicetea » Fri Jan 25, 2019 4:30 am

fri_night_in_ninsei wrote:
Mon Jan 14, 2019 6:23 pm
Hi. I have to X61 laptops and one of them has a small fan (in addition to the CPU fan assembly) just to the left of the modem. The X61 with the extra fan is a T7300. The one without the extra fan is a T8100.
While the palm rest heat thing is very famous, I wonder if that is the only reason. I also have a second fan on my T9300 board X61 in that same position and trying to unplug it (even after upgrading to Middleton's BIOS and making the WiFi card much smaller), will result in a BIOS panic. It doesn't turn on too often in my case, and I count that as a good thing.
MadIceTea, Thinkpad Enthusiast

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Past: 701Cs German, 535/X, 760E/XL, i-series 12/14xx, piano s30, R60e, X60, X61, T60, T61, X200 P8700, X121e

That chicken sure looks funny.

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Re: What is this little extra fan for on my X61 ?

#4 Post by Jake.Werecat » Thu Jul 11, 2019 6:01 pm

This is awesome. Any idea where could I possibly order the 2nd fan for my X61s, as mine unfortunately came without the fan installed.
T470

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Re: What is this little extra fan for on my X61 ?

#5 Post by RealBlackStuff » Fri Jul 12, 2019 12:35 am

This ONLY applies to X61/X61s with WWAN option.
Check the HMM for the Second fan, (low profile only for X61s).
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
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Re: What is this little extra fan for on my X61 ?

#6 Post by axur-delmeria » Fri Jul 12, 2019 3:42 am

Jake.Werecat wrote:
Thu Jul 11, 2019 6:01 pm
This is awesome. Any idea where could I possibly order the 2nd fan for my X61s, as mine unfortunately came without the fan installed.
Models without the 2nd fan do not have the fan header for it, so even if you buy the fan there's nowhere to plug it into.
Planned Purchase: T480s i5-8350 FHD Touch
Impulse Buy: Thinkpad not named for safety reasons :lol:
RIP: X220 4291-C91 X61 7676-A24 760XD-U9E :cry:

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Re: What is this little extra fan for on my X61 ?

#7 Post by Jake.Werecat » Fri Jul 12, 2019 8:38 pm

axur-delmeria wrote:
Fri Jul 12, 2019 3:42 am
Jake.Werecat wrote:
Thu Jul 11, 2019 6:01 pm
This is awesome. Any idea where could I possibly order the 2nd fan for my X61s, as mine unfortunately came without the fan installed.
Models without the 2nd fan do not have the fan header for it, so even if you buy the fan there's nowhere to plug it into.
Yes, I've just noticed it today when disassembling one of my X61. The fan connector is just not soldered there :(
Interesting why my X61 had SIM card and 2nd mPCIe slot, but not the fun. The WWAN antenna also wasn't in place, but i used the screen cover with WWAN antenna from X60 and it worked like a charm.
T470

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Re: What is this little extra fan for on my X61 ?

#8 Post by axur-delmeria » Fri Mar 18, 2022 7:59 pm

AFAIK all X61's had the WWAN slot because of the Turbo Memory card.
Planned Purchase: T480s i5-8350 FHD Touch
Impulse Buy: Thinkpad not named for safety reasons :lol:
RIP: X220 4291-C91 X61 7676-A24 760XD-U9E :cry:

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Re: What is this little extra fan for on my X61 ?

#9 Post by Jake.Werecat » Fri Mar 18, 2022 10:58 pm

Interesting! And pretty neat as well. I did not know about existence of those. However I suppose today in the era of ubiquitous SSD's those turbo memory cards are totally obsolete.
T470

axur-delmeria
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Re: What is this little extra fan for on my X61 ?

#10 Post by axur-delmeria » Sat Mar 19, 2022 1:39 am

Jake.Werecat wrote:
Fri Mar 18, 2022 10:58 pm
Interesting! And pretty neat as well. I did not know about existence of those. However I suppose today in the era of ubiquitous SSD's those turbo memory cards are totally obsolete.
They were obsolete the moment they came out-- they required a driver in order to work, and tech websites benchmarked them and found no advantage. IIRC someone in this forum mentioned that their workplace laptops experienced BSODs which were fixed by removing the Turbo Memory card.
Planned Purchase: T480s i5-8350 FHD Touch
Impulse Buy: Thinkpad not named for safety reasons :lol:
RIP: X220 4291-C91 X61 7676-A24 760XD-U9E :cry:

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Re: What is this little extra fan for on my X61 ?

#11 Post by Jake.Werecat » Sat Mar 19, 2022 7:01 am

Oh, so nice idea, but in the end solution far from success.
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axur-delmeria
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Re: What is this little extra fan for on my X61 ?

#12 Post by axur-delmeria » Sat Mar 19, 2022 7:58 am

Jake.Werecat wrote:
Sat Mar 19, 2022 7:01 am
Oh, so nice idea, but in the end solution far from success.
Poor implementation of a good idea.

Intel hasn't given up on the idea though-- Optane memory is similar, but a much better implementation. Not sure how popular/unpopular it is though.
Planned Purchase: T480s i5-8350 FHD Touch
Impulse Buy: Thinkpad not named for safety reasons :lol:
RIP: X220 4291-C91 X61 7676-A24 760XD-U9E :cry:

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