fan/heatsink replacement

[zygomorph]

I have an old R61i that has had fan issues for a long time due to, um, being dropped/jostled/handled too roughly.

When this first happened (YEARS ago) I looked into replacing the fan, and if I recall correctly, I read that it is tricky to replace just the fan - that it's easier to replace both the fan and the heatsink at the same time. But buying a fan+heatsink was more than I wanted to put into the machine at the time, so I didn't.

Now that the machine is so old, I see that one can buy the fan+heatsink assembly on ebay for not that much money.

My question: how complicated is it to swap that out? When I was thinking of replacing just the fan, I remember reading about needing thermal glue and needing to apply it carefully in the right amounts. If I'm swapping out the fan+heatsink, will I even need thermal glue? Is that just to connect the fan to the heatsink?

(This isn't a computer I'm using anymore so it's not the end of the world if something breaks. I've opened it up and replaced various other parts (keyboard, RAM) so I'm reasonably comfortable with that aspect of things, and I think it might be fun to try this--and then I'd have a backup laptop around.)

[ajkula66]

Now that the machine is so old, I see that one can buy the fan+heatsink assembly on ebay for not that much money.

Personally, that would be my preferred choice.

My question: how complicated is it to swap that out? When I was thinking of replacing just the fan, I remember reading about needing thermal glue and needing to apply it carefully in the right amounts. If I'm swapping out the fan+heatsink, will I even need thermal glue? Is that just to connect the fan to the heatsink?

With a little help from HMM, it shouldn't take you more than 15 minutes. You'll need thermal paste to apply between the CPU and heatsink. The old paste must be cleaned with alcohol first.

http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... 549_04.pdf

Good luck.

[zygomorph]

Thanks! This seems like it will be a neat project (and to be honest I kind of miss using my R61. It has a different feel from my T420.)