X220i Fan Error

[Tooniis]

I have an old X220i that throws a Fan Error every time I try to boot it.

The fan wouldn't move when connected to the motherboard. To make sure the fan is broken, I tested it with a 5V supply and it just twitches slightly, so it was indeed broken.

I bought a new fan, tested it with a 5V supply to make sure it works, and replaced the old one, then found out that this one wouldn't spin either when connected to the motherboard.

I tested the fan socket on the motherboard, and found no voltage. I found that fuse F15 on the motherboard was blown, so I desoldered it and jumped the connection with solder. Now the fan does spin when I power up the laptop, but the Fan Error is still there.

The laptop doesn't allow anything to be done. BIOS setup can't be opened (it does start opening it, but the error is thrown quickly and it powers off). I tried to bypass the error with ESC, ESC+F1, and ESC+Delete, but it just ignores those and powers off.

I'm guessing some fan sensor is shot?

Can anything be done for this other than a new motherboard?

[RealBlackStuff]

I would dump its motherboard, regardless, since the X220i has an i3 CPU, the lowest of the low.
Replace it with a common i5-2520M or i5-2540M version.
Or if you fancy it, all i7 versions include one USB3.00 port.

[Tooniis]

I would dump its motherboard, regardless, since the X220i has an i3 CPU, the lowest of the low.
Replace it with a common i5-2520M or i5-2540M version.
Or if you fancy it, all i7 versions include one USB3.00 port.

It's been sitting like that for months now. I haven't been really interested getting it fixed; I just thought if I could find a simple fix for it then I might find a purpose for it. I don't think I would use it much anyway because of its size.

I might still consider just upgrading it later on...

[axur-delmeria]

Can you check if the new fan outputs an RPM sense pulse? You could connect the 3rd wire (or 4th, I don't know which pin is the RPM and the PWM drive signal on this fan) to an oscilloscope and then give it 3v, then 5v.

[Tooniis]

Can you check if the new fan outputs an RPM sense pulse? You could connect the 3rd wire (or 4th, I don't know which pin is the RPM and the PWM drive signal on this fan) to an oscilloscope and then give it 3v, then 5v.

New fan doesn't give a pulse. I tried with the old fan by blowing on it and it does give a pulse.

Looks like I got the wrong fan. It is not the exact model, but the seller advertised it as compatible. I got it only because for some reason I didn't find the exact same model of the old fan at that time.

I'll order a new matching fan and see how that goes.

[axur-delmeria]

New fan doesn't give a pulse. I tried with the old fan by blowing on it and it does give a pulse.

No pulse on the 3rd and 4th wires? I was thinking it could be wired incorrectly (the PWM drive and RPM sense wires were mistakenly switched on the connector). But if there's no pulse on either wire then the fan you bought was defective. Maybe you can ask for a replacement?

[Tooniis]

New fan doesn't give a pulse. I tried with the old fan by blowing on it and it does give a pulse.

No pulse on the 3rd and 4th wires? I was thinking it could be wired incorrectly (the PWM drive and RPM sense wires were mistakenly switched on the connector). But if there's no pulse on either wire then the fan you bought was defective. Maybe you can ask for a replacement?

3rd wire is close to VCC, 4th wire is close to GND, and both are constant. Either I probed it wrong, its PWM frequency is too high for my oscilloscope (which is just an Arduino UNO, so really low resolution), or it is indeed broken.

In any case, I doubt I'd be able to get a free replacement since it's been like more than half a year since I bought it. Thanks for the tip anyway.