T40 Shuts down spontaneously after fan replacement

[bimalc]

The fan on my girlfriend's T40 bit the dust a couple of weeks ago and a ordered a replacement (the long model) and installed it myself. The fan works fine, but now it just shuts down spontaneously at random times.

I have two theories/concerns, but don't know if I'm onto something or if there is a more reasonable explanation.

1) When I first ordered a replacement fan, I accidentally ordered the short instead of the long and while waiting for the right part, left her laptop open on a desk in a side room. By the time I came back with the right fan a week later, I had forgotten which screws went into which hole on the base and which screw was used internally (I ended up unnecessarily undoing one screw by the PCMCIA slot).

Is it possible that one of the screws is in the wrong position and this is somehow causing the thing to turn off at random times (even just sitting on a table, not moving)?

2) When I got the replacement long fan, it came with an extra little piece of silver metal sticking off the bit that covers the ATI GPU. I had no idea what this was, but in order to get the keyboard and wrist rest back on, I had to sort of smoosh this metal thing down.

Is it possible this metal thing is coming in contact with some circuit and shorting the whole thing out?

Does anyone know what this extra metal attachment is for/if it is safe to clip it off?

thanks

[Harryc]

Remove the keyboard and check this little 'metal thing' that you smooshed down. It will be easy to see if it is shorting to a nearby component. Post a pic if you want us to identify it. A more likely scenario over the screws or the metal thing is heat related, or that you've disturbed the GPU and it needs reballing or systemboard replacement to fix it. I'd want to see system temps first though. Install mobile meter to check.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Sys ... eter.shtml

[bimalc]

Remove the keyboard and check this little 'metal thing' that you smooshed down. It will be easy to see if it is shorting to a nearby component. Post a pic if you want us to identify it. A more likely scenario over the screws or the metal thing is heat related, or that you've disturbed the GPU and it needs reballing or systemboard replacement to fix it. I'd want to see system temps first though. Install mobile meter to check.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Sys ... eter.shtml

thanks ... Haven't really worked with the innards of a computer in a few years .... what's an acceptable temperature? So far it's mostly been in the 30-50C range, spiking up at around 70 .....

[Harryc]

Run CPUBurn and loop it. Tell me what the temperature goes up to after about 5 minutes.
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/redelm/cpuburn4.zip

[bimalc]

Run CPUBurn and loop it. Tell me what the temperature goes up to after about 5 minutes.
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/redelm/cpuburn4.zip

It doesn't last 5 minutes. I tried running burn6 and it died before i even had time i look at the temperature. I rebooted and ran burn5 and it cycled a few times, getting as high as 91C and then cooling off. but maybe 3-4 minutes in it spiked again to 86C and then shut down.

I assume this means the new fan isn't cooling the way I assumed it was ....

[bimalc]

oh yeah, added info - don't know if it helps, but .... when i removed the old fan there was essentially no (visible) thermal paste left on the cpu, so i didn't clean it off before putting new (3rd party) thermal paste on.

[Harryc]

You need to remove the fan and redo the thermal paste. You absolutely must clean off the old paste prior to applying the new. Isoproply alcohol on a lint free cloth is best. Here are some good application instructions.

http://www.arcticsilver.com/ins_route_s ... elas5.html

Note: You want the instructions for a large exposed single core Intel CPU.

[poshgeordie]

I haven't tried this software, but to reach 90+ in less than 5 mins seems to indicate a fundamental problem with the seating of the heatsink.

Clean off any old heatsink compound from the CPU and the heatsink assembly; spread a new THIN layer over the metal part of the CPU only. There are plenty of posts about what compound is best.

I would suggest you check that the heatsink is seated properly over the CPU / GPU.
Apply the heatsink compound, fit the heatsink assy in place and secure with the 3 screws.
Remove the h/s assembly and check there's a uniform rectangle of h/s compound on the cpu and a corresponding one on the heatsink. If not, you've got a seating problem.

I would suggest you don't run the TP until you've sorted this since you are in danger of damaging the CPU.

HTH and good luck!

[bimalc]

Thanks for all the help .... I'd never done this before and just sort of assumed that if I got all three screws in that the heat sink was seated properly.

I'll let you guys know how it goes after get some time to take the T40 apart again.

Thanks again!

[richk]

The little metal thing has a hole in it that one of the keyboard screw goes through. The screw holds that end of the GPU heatsink down.