W520: Fan Error!

[MSKFAHIM]

Hello,

My laptop's fan stopped working so I took it to a technician. The technician connected the fan directly to the motherboard/usb whatever. The fan started working again. The only problem is that it gives me a fan error and doesn't let me load windows. I tried pressing and holding ESC, repeatedly pressing ESC, ESC+F1,F1,Ctrl+alt+del, nothing helped. Everything turns on, the fan turns on too, after the Thinkpad logo screen is shown, it goes directly to Fan Error and the laptop shuts down.

The technician is currently trying to somehow bypass that. Anyone knows anything about that? The technician also said that normally the fan has 3 cables but mine has 4. He is now looking for a way to send a signal to the motherboard that my fan is actually running. Can anyone help? I am in Bangladesh and I have to deal with these technicians as they try to fix this.

[brchan]

Have you tried unplugging the CMOS battery and rear battery, and then pressing the power button a few times? That should reset the bios and hopefully get rid of the error.

[MSKFAHIM]

Have you tried unplugging the CMOS battery and rear battery, and then pressing the power button a few times? That should reset the bios and hopefully get rid of the error.

Thanks for the response.

No, I have not tried that. My laptop is with the technician now. I am hoping to go see him tomorrow. I will ask him that and try it myself if he already didn't try that. This is so annoying! I wish I at least had access to thinkpad service centres here. I am hoping to get as many ideas from this thread as possible. I will try them out tomorrow when I go see the technician.

[axur-delmeria]

The technician connected the fan directly to the motherboard/usb whatever. The fan started working again.

So it means that if the fan is plugged normally, it doesn't spin? Did the technician check the voltages on the fan connector?

How about checking the PWM signals? Since it has 4 wires, then it probably works like the 4-wire PWM fans found in desktop CPU coolers. He probably needs an oscilloscope for that though...

He is now looking for a way to send a signal to the motherboard that my fan is actually running. Can anyone help?

How about this? http://forum.effizienzgurus.de/showpost ... ostcount=8