T41p fan won't spin unless nudged...

[none]

Hi everyone,

I have a T41p 2373-GEU and last night during a reboot the system said "Fan Error" and turned itself off. I tried turning it on a few more times and the same thing occurred.

Being sort of familiar with my laptop's internal layout I promptly unscrewed and moved away the keyboard. With the fan in good view I pushed the power button again.

There was indeed a problem. The fan looked like it getting stuck on something, trying to move about an eighth of an inch forward and then bouncing that eighth of an inch back repeatedly.

At this point I thought obstruction. However, when the laptop turned itself off a few seconds later I gave the fan a slight push with my finger and it spun smoothly (and slowed down to a stop smoothly).

Figuring that perhaps my spin loosened whatever was in the way, I tried turning the laptop on again. But again, the fan seemed stuck. And again, it spun fine when the system was off.

My next step was a good shot of compressed air but nothing flew out of the fan, and naturally the problem wasn't fixed.

Finally, I tried nudging the fan with my finger as I started up the system. That worked. The fan quickly spun up to the point where it couldn't easily be stopped with my finger and everything booted fine.

So, can anyone suggest why my fan spins fine but won't get going without help?

[richk]

Not being able to see it, it is difficult to say, but my guess is a bad spot on the motor's armature. In English, that means the fan is busted.

[agarza]

Maybe disasembling the fan assembly and oiling the bearings would help