Fan error - T61 - Intel gma

[eyeland]

Hi
I just got the "fan error" on my T61.
The machine is roughly 3 years old and has taking quite the beating over the years. It has however, been running TPfancontrol for most of its life so the wear on the fan should have been slightly limited from this. For the past few months the fan periodically (happened 3-5 times I think) started making a horrible grinding sound which would completely disappear upon reboot.
Yesterday I had the TP with me on the plane and upon arrival it was still working normally. Later in the evening the TP took a small bumb (one side of the TP fell 10cm while I was holding on to the opposite side) and this morning, for the first time I saw the "fan error" in the bios.
If I press ESC, the TP starts, but the fan never comes alive. I blew some dust out from the fan and it sounds like fan might be trying to start but I am not sure, since I never stuck my ear down to the fan before, I don't know if this vague "clicking sound" was there before. What should I do? Do I need to take it apart all the way to "base" level to diagnose it? (I know that replacing the fan requires this, but I have been waiting for an excuse for upgrading the PCMCIA to Expresscard which requires quite the general disassembly as well.)
I just wanted to enquire into the general possibilities that I face. Are there any giveaways as to whether this is a fan- or a boardissue?
Should I just take the thing appart and see if anything looks/smells fried?

[RealBlackStuff]

That's purely a 'bad fan' issue.
You need to take off keyboard and palmrest/KB bezel, then remove/replace the fan.
Don't forget to buy new thermal paste for between CPU and cooler!

[kaede]

3 years with a bad cpu fan its quite normal though.

[eyeland]

Took it appart and cleaned it and now its back to working normally albeit with a periodic groaning sound.
Guess the fan is on its last days