what fan for t41? must be same FRU?

[stm]

My trusty t41, after sputtering and wheezing for a few weeks and showing the occasional "fan error," finally refused to start up. So I'm replacing the fan.

The FRU of the fan inside my t41 is 13n5442 (it is the "long fan"). This FRU is pricey online and there seem to be many other t41 fans available considerably cheaper.

Can I use any fan for the t41? Or does it have to be the long fan (and there seem to be other long fan FRUs, such as 91P8392)? Or do I need the exact same FRU?

I'll probably be putting Ubuntu on the laptop once I have it fixed, if that makes any difference for the answer.

Any help here would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[sktn77a]

What GPU do you have? I'm guessing its a Radeon 9000 with the long fan. The T41 Radeon 7500 doesn't need the long fan, while the T41p GPU definitely needs it. The 9000 is somewhere between the two and I suspect you could get away with the short fan. However, you should be able to pick up the long fan new for about $30 and used for about $10 so that doesn't seem outrageous to me.

[stm]

Thanks for your response. I'm not sure what the GPU is. But I called up the IBM parts store and asked what FRU I could use and they said the 91P9252. I just found that on ebay for a pretty reasonable price, so I'll see if that works. Thanks again.

[rbena]

Just a comment that the 91P9252 long fan can run a bit noisy. You may want to look for the 13R2657 or 41W5204 long fans, which both run extremely quiet.

[stm]

Thanks. I should have waited. I already bought the 91P9252. Hopefully it doesn't run too nosily.