T43 Dreaded Fan Error.

[mathmatech]

I'll start by saying that I'm stressed at this error, and I want to fix it.

I've so far found tons of information about the error and some information about changing the fan. I've seen at one point that the fan can't be purchased unless by an authorized repair center, but then also found an IBM page where it can be ordered. I'm in Canada and its possible things are different than US.

What I haven’t seen during my research is what the fan in my ThinkPad is doing before the error and that's spin then stop (repeating this process a few times before no longer spinning). I'm able to boot into the OS if I use a can of compressed air sprayed into the vent, as a troubleshooting step that I found during research.

It was recommended by an old co-worker that the gears for the fan might be seizing up and a tiny drop of oil could free them up. I don't know if that's something I want to try for a few reasons.


Any tips from the forum?

[ajkula66]

Welcome to the forum!

I don't know how IBM functions in Canada, but refurbished fans are available on this forum's Marketplace, as well as on eBay. Replacing the fan is really quite simple if you follow the HMM and are somewhat patient because the part that goes over the GPU tends to stick on T43/p machines. A very thin blade (a steady hand is required) or dental floss will separate the two without any harm, it just takes a bit of concentration and minding one's environment - i.e. the rest of the motherboard.

Do bear in mind that even if you were to buy the fan directly from IBM, you'd likely receive a "serviceable used part" with a 90-day warranty. Not worth the premium in my not-so-modest opinion.

Never have I put any lubricating oil in the fan, nor will I ever. But that's me. Many people hold an opposing view.

Hope this helps.

[mathmatech]

I read somewhere that when purchasing from IBM that the fan unit will come with thermal paste already on the plate, and since I don't have thermal paste just lying around I figured it would only be a good thing to purchase from IBM. I'm going to be calling the service number I found for Canadian parts tomorrow because it's a mon-fri business hour number to find out if the thermal paste will come installed. My last job I assembled over 30 IBM x3500's and 3650's, most had dual quad processors and the heat sink came with the paste already applied. If I have to purchase a thermal solution then it will be a first

Thanks for the Welcome, I'll be posting in sevral area's of the site as I own and use different ThinkPad models for different purposes.

___EDIT

This is really weird, I first seen the fan error 3-4 weeks ago, but was so busy I couldnt work on it. Now, out of curiosity, I connect the keyboard and power and turn it on. Fan moves for aropund 10 seconds, then turns off, no fan error, boot into the OS and fan starts up again... with noise...

No error > a bit of fan noise.

[RealBlackStuff]

You can be sure that your fan is well and truly shot by now.
Blowing compressed air into it, makes the fan spin at RPMs that are WAY over what it is built for.
It's only a matter of time before it will seize up.
You can buy the fan+casing by itself (ca. $15.-), which will be a fiddly job, or buy the whole unit (ca. $30.-).
You'll need the long fan M24 26R9074.
And some Arctic Silver 5 from e.g. RadioShack.

[tim S]

Don't get too stressed about what IBM/Lenovo recommends! So long as you are comfortable working inside your laptop it's very easy to replace a fan. Personally I've had sucess with machine oil but you still have to remove the fan in order to it get into the bearings.
There are many fans available on ebay and once you have removed the keyboard you'll see which version you need. With the keypoard is off you might want to try manually moving the fan blades to see if they move freely. The blades should rotate for about 3 seconds then come to an easy stop.
To remove the fan requires only the keyboard, palmrest and top bezel to be removed, easy stuff! You'll need some arctic silver paste for the CPU.

Good luck

Tim S

[mathmatech]

I wanted to report back, I took the easy route first to see if it would work and it did. I spent $4 on a 3-IN-ONE bottle of special blend for 1/4 HP motors or larger (SAE 20) as recommended by the store after I told them the size of the fan and said the type of bearings I read wear in the fan. I had to cut the spout to fit between the blades and held the ThinkPad in the air, sort of at an 80 degree angle and dripped some oil in, turned it on and there was not much noise. I did get the error back, so I left it for a few days and added more oil, only this time I added more and left the laptop closed and upside down for a few more days before turning it back on.

Running smooth for a few hours, no noise at all and no error..