Thinkpad X61S fan question

[pgoelz]

I just bought a nice looking 1.8GHz TP61S on Ebay for 30 bucks. My current machine is the usual 1.6GHz and I've been looking for a 1.8GHz machine. The seller says it boots to BIOS (it has no hard drive) but he also says the fan spins up and then stops and that sometimes it throws a fan error. I have done some reading and it looks like the small palmrest fan is often the culprit. My current X61S doesn't have the second fan. On this "new" laptop, I don't plan on using a WLAN card and I'm wondering if the fan is present and bad but I don't need it.... can I just remove it? Or is the presence of the second fan mandatory on some machines (like the 1.8GHz variant) with its presence hard coded?

Just a preemptive question... the machine is in transit. I like to think things through ahead of time

Paul

[85101]

The second fan comes with machines with WWAN card. I believe you can replace it with a resistor if you don't want it and want to avoid the fan error on boot.

[pgoelz]

OK, thanks. Not sure if it has the WWAN card / fan. I'll know in a couple days.

What is the most common fan failure mode? He says it starts to spin up and then stops. I'm hping it is just dirty.

Paul

[Saucey]

It sounds like it gets bent.
I have an X61 that has the same problem, after I couldn't just hammer it, I gave up.

After six months or so, I've been booting it up a few times.
Surprisingly it stopped with its fan error, well at least when I have been booting it.
I am unsure if it needs oil, it does make the machine vibrate a bit.

[pgoelz]

If it throws a fan error, can the error be bypassed (like with ESC) or will it refuse to boot? Again, just thinking ahead for when it arrives.

Paul

[axur-delmeria]

After displaying a "Fan Error" message, Thinkpads generally shut down to prevent damage from overheating. Saw this recently while servicing the X61 I sold a few months back-- somehow the new owner got the heatsink badly clogged with dust within a year. :O

[pgoelz]

Well, Paul's a happy camper right now. My $30 Ebay 1.8GHz X61S arrived this morning. The fan was obviously noisy.... sounded like a dry bearing.... and it threw fan errors but booted after hitting ESC. Since I had very little to lose, I pulled the MB (never done that before), removed the fan shroud, pulled the impeller off and discovered the bearing was fine.... the oil was just dried up and sticky. Cleaned, re-lubed, reassembled and it runs like silk. Cooler than my 1.6GHz X61s actually.

I did have a scare though.... it beeped some error codes and refused to boot after I reassembled it. The error code indicated the MB could not communicate with the RAM. Took both sticks out, wiped off the contacts and re-seated and all is fine. So far, anyway.

Once I make sure all is well, I'll drop my Win7 SSD in and have a nice 1.8GHz X61s that should really scoot. For now, I'm using a spare HD with Win8.1 on it.

Paul