T42 Fan replacement

[ranchmom5]

Hi Everyone!

My son's T42 showed "fan error" when he tried to boot today and I always know where to go when I have a thinkpad problems! I found a thread from a few years ago that said the best replacement fan is FRU 41W5204. Just wanted to check and see if that was still the recommended replacement. Found one on Ebay for $35 and already have the old fan out.

Blessings,
Sharie

[Orclas]

It should be that one, but just to be sure you should probably go to hereto double check the FRU based on your product number, which you find on a sticker at the bottom of the TP (written as machine type - model, in my own case 2373-22g).

I am just now and myself looking to buy exactly the same fan and I also just myself realized how relatively cheap original service parts are. I just checked the US price and oh well, it's a bit more expensive at $94 with shipping, but still alright considering some other brand's prices for replacements and the fact that one then knows for sure it's a good part with a quality fan and a well working heatpipe. On the other hand, if the T42 is an "as long as it lasts" computer then $94 may feel a bit stiff.

Just to double check - have you done what you can to see if you can fix the fan, most importantly by using some canned pressured air in the fan duct? Please note that if you choose to try, then you should hold the fan blades with a finger, since the high speed of the pressured air may spin the fan blades at a higher than safe speed.

Good luck with whichever path you choose.

[ranchmom5]

Thanks for the link...yep, that's the right number! I did do a bit of "cleaning" with canned air, but didn't know if I could reconnect it and try booting without having to reassemble the entire laptop. Also, the fan has been making a fair amount of noise for some time, so figured it wouldn't hurt to just replace it for $35.

[Orclas]

You probably could if you keep your fingers away from the motherboard, but if it's been making noise for some time, particularly in the direction of grinding bearing-about-to-die noise, then a proper fan replacement is most likely the way to go.

As for installation instructions, I'll quote member Johan who wrote the below to me just today:

See e.g. T42p fan long m10 installation : pink sheet or not...? and/or the links in this post.

[ranchmom5]

Thanks again for the info. Johan is a good friend and so knowledgeable about these thinkpads! I saw that he recommended you buy a new fan, but the link was to someplace in Sweden. Probably not the best choice for a girl from Wyoming! I found a refurb on Ebay for $38 shipped. Haven't found anything new that looks better.

Johan...are you out there? Any suggestions for me?

[Orclas]

He posted a link to Sweden since I'm Swedish.

Wyoming girls may click the link I put in my earlier post to reach IBM USA, which for convenience is repeated below (now with larger font to make sure I get a proper "duh!" from you ):

I just checked the US price and oh well, it's a bit more expensive at $94 with shipping

You'll have to tap in the FRU to actually see the price ($80.65 plus shipping) - I couldn't make a direct link since the price is shown as a shopping cart, which is session unique.

[RealBlackStuff]

That IBM price is a bit over the top.
I think Wyoming girls can do much better in New York: $33.- shipped, new long fan! (@Orclas: and only $36.- shipped to Sweden!)
http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-Thinkpad-T40-Lo ... 0624641225

PS: don't forget to put new thermal compound (like Arctic Silver 5) on the CPU.

[Orclas]

Agree and disagree

It's not unlikely that the ebay item is "original" rather than original, which may matter since the assembly includes both a mechanical component (the fan) and from what I can see also heatpiping, which I'm sure can be performed and manufactured in better or worse ways.

So, in short, is it as good as an original? I have no clue to be honest, nor if it's worth $55 extra to be safe and sure.

[RealBlackStuff]

Whichever way you look at it, all these fans are made in China, and that's also where IBM/Lenovo gets/got them from.
Don't think the market for these fans is anywhere big enough to make a cheap "clone".
I'd buy from them in a heartbeat if I were in the market for one.

[ranchmom5]

Orclas - proper "DUH" achieved!! Thanks for providing the extra link in large print!! This is why I have always liked TPforum - not only are there caring, knowledgeable members who are always willing to help a girl in distress, there is also wit and humor!

My problem is that I am usually trying to do too many things at once. Yesterday I was dismantling a T42 fan, looking for replacement fans, checking in here, talking to my daughter about her lambs, ordering spur rowels for a son and checking on my online classes - all at the same time.

Sharie

[RealBlackStuff]

And you were also helped by a friend from Denmark, who was looking for someone to do the dirty work for you.
And he found you one as well!
I think it's much more interesting to be a Ranchmom than a Soccermom!

[richramo]

Thanks for the thread guys I have the same issue with my T42. Lots of helpful information.

[Johan]

Thanks for the thread guys I have the same issue with my T42. Lots of helpful information.

Rich; just another quick piece of (potential useful) information: There are original, genuine IBM fan's, and there are copies. As discussed in this post you'll see the difference between what is surely a genuine IBM/Lenovo part (the one with the pre-applied thermal compound) and one with no pre-applied thermal compound which might be an unoriginal copy. Given that the seller of the original IBM-part (in the mentioned post) is fairly near you (he/she is in Hong Kong), I'd personally order that part from that seller... unless of course if you're in a big hurry, and are willing to pay more and get it fast; then go to IBM/Australia parts sale.

When you get to replacing the fan (if you don't already know how?), there's plenty of information on this forum (search!); see e.g. the thread Problems with replacing the infamous T43p fan and the posts/threads linked to therein. You may also want to download the Hardware Maintenance Manual - ThinkPad T40, T40p, T41, T41p, T42, T42p where you will find information about how to dissamble your T42.

Good luck!

Johan

[ranchmom5]

Fan and Arctic 5 have arrived and I am ready to give this a try. Only one question....the fan that came has a gray, rubbery (kind of squishy) pad on the top surface. Right now it also has a clear plastic piece on it - this looks to be some kind of protection that obviously comes off, but do I leave the gray pad on? The old fan does not have this.

And indeed it is much more fun to be a ranchmom than a soccermom!!

[RealBlackStuff]

The grey (thermal) pad goes on top of the graphics processor/GPU after you have removed the protective foil.
Clean the old gunk from the CPU with isopropyl alcohol (91% or 99% from a pharmacy).
Then apply about the size of a rice corn of AS5 on the CPU. Use an old credit card to spread it out evenly, you only need the thinnest of layer.
Then put the new fan on and tighten the 3 screws. Don't forget to plug the small power connector in.
Connect the keyboard, hold it at an angle and press the power button to check that the fan works.
Switch off, and complete reassembly of laptop.

[ranchmom5]

I have been too busy to stop and do this for the last 2 days, but hope to install fan today. I thought it might help to post a picture of the two fans so you all could actually see the gray pad I am talking about...and then verify exactly what I am supposed to do with it. My only other question is the bottom of the new fan, where it would seat onto the cpu, has multiple tiny dots of what I would say are also thermal paste. Do I just leave those alone, apply the Arctic 5 to just the cpu and they will seat to each other once running? Also RBS, you said the "thermal pad goes on top of the GPU after removing the protective foil" I do not see any protective foil, although there is the "pink sheet" -which from what I have read is not supposed to be removed. With the old fan assembly, there was not a gray thermal pad.

[Johan]

My only other question is the bottom of the new fan (shown in leftmost above image posted by ranchmom5), where it would seat onto the CPU, has multiple tiny dots of what I would say are also thermal paste. Do I just leave those alone, apply the Arctic 5 to just the CPU and they will seat to each other once running?

Sharon: These "multiple tiny dots" (like shown on the left image here - use "Enlarge" to better see it) is pre-applied thermal paste by IBM, so leave them as-is, and don't touch them. Clean off the old thermal paste from the CPU (as explained by RBS above), mount the new fan whereby the pre-applied thermal paste will create the thermal contact between CPU and fan/heatsink. Assuming that this is a genuine IBM-part, the quality of the thermal paste is likely OK, so just store your Arctic Silver 5 for future projects!

Also RBS, you said the "thermal pad goes on top of the GPU after removing the protective foil" I do not see any protective foil, although there is the "pink sheet" - which from what I have read is not supposed to be removed. With the old fan (shown in rightmost above image posted by ranchmom5) assembly, there was not a gray thermal pad.

The protective foil mentioned by RBS would (if present) be on the thermal-rubber-pad side facing towards the GPU. Your fan does not appear to have been delivered with such a protective foil. No problem.

The grey (thermal?) rubber-like pad, shown on the leftmost image you link to, is on the heatpipe side of the fan/heatpipe assembly, facing away from the CPU/GPU. This grey (thermal?) pad will therefore be positioned between the heatpipe and the keyboard. I have seen these grey upper-side (thermal?) pads on T43/p fans, but I don't recall having seen them on T42/p fans, so I well leave it to some more experienced ThinkPad'ers to comment whether to remove or keep this upper-side pad. Provided however that there is sufficient space between the fan/heatpipe assembly and the keyboard, I'd leave it in place... I guess it may/will sort of "engage" the metallic part of the keyboard in the cooling process, which is good!

PS: By a close inspection the two fan assemblies are not identical; notice that the innermost heatpipe "bends longer" around the fan itself on the new fan. As we know the old fan is indeed a true T42 long fan, so is the new fan perhaps a newer version of a T42/p long fan, or is it perhaps a T43/ long fan? I am unsure of the specific heatpipe-look of T42/p "long fans" against the same on T43/p "long fans". Not of any great importance, though, it just caught my eye!

Good luck, young lady!

Johan

[ranchmom5]

Thought I should add a photo of the underside of the fan. I can't thank you all enough for the wisdom and support. I love learning new things and find this adventure exciting. This morning, two of my children told me they thought I was not 'geeky' enough to accomplish this! HA! We'll show them!

[ranchmom5]

Thank you all for the support, help and humor on this T42 fan journey. I got sidetracked yesterday with lambs - my 2 youngest children own 50 head of sheep and they are currently lambing. Anyway, this morning, I took the leap, installed the fan as directed and I know have a super quiet, working T42!!! With the help of my TP forum friends, I proved to be "geeky" enough! LOL

The only disgruntled party is my 12yo son, the owner of this T42. As it booted up, he groaned, "Noooooo! Now I have to finish my math!"

Thanks again!
Sharie

[ranchmom5]

Another quick question. I downloaded NHC so i could check temps but wasn't sure what a good temp is. What is the correct temp for a T42? It is currently running at 39*C...after 45 min running.

[goofyGAguy]

That sounds fine to me. My T42 with the 1.8 Dothan is usually in the mid 40's.

[db130]

the ebay seller that RBS mentioned, "ny-citi-com" also sells just the fan portion of the cpu fan+heatsink for $12.77 shipped

pop off old fan out of the heatsink, pop in new fan and voila!

[fschwep]

Again this forum helps. The fan on my trusty old T42 suddenly started making screeching noises and I got the Fan Error message and hiccups at boot. Found this thread (and others), which gave me enough confidence to identify the fan type (short), buy a new one on eBay, open up my laptop and do some surgery, which is something I would have left to professional repair people in the past. So now I have a working T42 again for just over 30 euros (the cost of the new fan plus some thermal paste), where a non-warranty repair by an authorized repair centre would have cost many hundreds. The actual surgery took about one hour, with a print of the maintenance manual to guide me through it. Once your TP is out of warranty it is really worth it to try and do this sort of repair yourself, using a few tenners worth of new parts bought over the internet. Thanks guys.

[Orclas]

Beyond the monetary savings I would add one more thing on the plus side - the pleasant feeling of having fixed something with your own good hands

[Prodeje79]

Our T42 started making funny fan noises, and started random reboots.
I think I want to replace a fan.
I DLed that manual, but I must be missing it. I cannot find a fan to match up to my model code, 2373-JTU .
Please help!
Thanks!

ThinkPad T42 (2373-JTU)
P M 735, 512MB RAM, 40GB 5400rpm HDD, 14.1 XGA(1024x768) TFT LCD, 32MB ATI Radeon 7500, 24x24x24x/8x CD-RW/DVD, IBM 802.11b/g wireless(MPCI), Modem(CDC), 1Gb Ethernet(LOM), UltraNav, Secure Chip, 6 cell Li-Ion battery, WinXP Pro


EDIT:
OK I think I found it lol
JTx instead of JTU
26R7860 Fan assembly (short) (14.1-in.)
Anything else I should replace?
We are going to give this to my mom in a couple months.

[Orclas]

Looks like you have the correct FRU number. From there on there are two ways to go about it:

1. Expensive: Buy a quality fan from directly from here. Will most likely net you about $80-90 including shipping.
2. Cheaper: Buy a most-likely-good-enough-quality from a well reputed seller on Ebay or similar, which shouldn't cost you more than $20-30 including shipping.

The IBM original fan will for sure arrive with preapplied thermal compount, an Ebay item most likely as well. In the case it doesn't you'll need to buy it separately.

Other tips (in case of value to you, don't know your general knowledge level):
- for disassembly, google the service manual for your computer and you'll find the correct order in which proceed
- make sure to properly remove the old thermal compound on the CPU before replacing the fan, start by wiping with cloth/paper, then clean it properly with rubbing alcohol and a lint free cloth/paper (coffee filters are great for the purpose, doesn't loose fibers)
- tighten the fan assembly screws little by little and in a cross pattern (or as close to cross pattern as you can get) in order for it to get as level as possible to the CPU surface
- considering the very low prices nowadays, I would take the opportunity to increase the RAM
- if you have 2x256Mb I'd toss both and put a 1Gb stick in the slot under the keyboard, possibly with another 1Gb in the secondary slot
- if you have 1x512Mb (in such case under the keyboard and with the bottom slot, under computer, empty) I'd keep it and add 512Mb or 1Gb
- SO-DIMMs are not dual channel and can be mixed and matched freely within specification

[Prodeje79]

Looks like you have the correct FRU number. From there on there are two ways to go about it:

1. Expensive: Buy a quality fan from directly from here. Will most likely net you about $80-90 including shipping.
2. Cheaper: Buy a most-likely-good-enough-quality from a well reputed seller on Ebay or similar, which shouldn't cost you more than $20-30 including shipping.

The IBM original fan will for sure arrive with preapplied thermal compount, an Ebay item most likely as well. In the case it doesn't you'll need to buy it separately.

Other tips (in case of value to you, don't know your general knowledge level):
- for disassembly, google the service manual for your computer and you'll find the correct order in which proceed
- make sure to properly remove the old thermal compound on the CPU before replacing the fan, start by wiping with cloth/paper, then clean it properly with rubbing alcohol and a lint free cloth/paper (coffee filters are great for the purpose, doesn't loose fibers)
- tighten the fan assembly screws little by little and in a cross pattern (or as close to cross pattern as you can get) in order for it to get as level as possible to the CPU surface
- considering the very low prices nowadays, I would take the opportunity to increase the RAM
- if you have 2x256Mb I'd toss both and put a 1Gb stick in the slot under the keyboard, possibly with another 1Gb in the secondary slot
- if you have 1x512Mb (in such case under the keyboard and with the bottom slot, under computer, empty) I'd keep it and add 512Mb or 1Gb
- SO-DIMMs are not dual channel and can be mixed and matched freely within specification

Thanks! I went with the ebay seller ny-citi-com for a fan. I also ordered one for my T61 with its proper part number.
I do have artic silver 5, I think I will use that perhaps if the stock stuff is missing.

The T42 does have 1.5GB of ram. I am tempted to go ahead and dump the 512mb and max it out to 2GB.

I think I will check craigslist for some RAM unless I see a killer deal for new.

[Orclas]

The T42 does have 1.5GB of ram. I am tempted to go ahead and dump the 512mb and max it out to 2GB.

I think I will check craigslist for some RAM unless I see a killer deal for new.

I wouldn't bother really with a RAM upgrade to be honest. Surfing and light office work rarely puts my T40 above even 1Gb (out of 1,5Gb). I doubt it would have any effect at all going above 1,5Gb, it's just not ever used (I assume we're talking XP as OS here).

If you go ahead upgrading the RAM you will most likely find that new ones are so cheap it's rarely worth going for second hand and that a 1Gb stick from a renowned brand will probably not cost you more than about $15-20. That being said, I still buy stuff off Ebay just for the convenience of having it shipped home (at low shipping cost).

[Prodeje79]

ThinkPad T42 (2373-JTU)
P M 735, 512MB RAM, 40GB 5400rpm HDD, 14.1 XGA(1024x768) TFT LCD, 32MB ATI Radeon 7500, 24x24x24x/8x CD-RW/DVD, IBM 802.11b/g wireless(MPCI), Modem(CDC), 1Gb Ethernet(LOM), UltraNav, Secure Chip, 6 cell Li-Ion battery, WinXP Pro

EDIT:
OK I think I found it lol
JTx instead of JTU
26R7860 Fan assembly (short) (14.1-in.)
Anything else I should replace?
We are going to give this to my mom in a couple months.

OK I decided to replace the fan on my T61 first. Went fine.
Just took apart my T42 tonight. The fan is rivoted onto the heatsink.
How do I install this replacement fan into the stock heatsink?!?!?!??!

In hindsight, wish I would have bought another heatsink/fan combo 26R7860 short....

[Orclas]

OK I decided to replace the fan on my T61 first. Went fine.
Just took apart my T42 tonight. The fan is rivoted onto the heatsink.
How do I install this replacement fan into the stock heatsink?!?!?!??!

In hindsight, wish I would have bought another heatsink/fan combo 26R7860 short....

Meh, sorry to hear. I hate those moments when you're ready to go and get that thing fixed, only to realize some part is missing or wrong...

Beyond that, you're quite correct and to the best of my knowledge it is not possible to exchange just the fan itself, it's always the heatsink+fan assembly (hence my mentioning of thermal compound). Since you wrote that you were going to buy a 26R7860, I just used "fan" as short for "fan assembly" and "FRU #26R7860".

If someone has sold you a "fan for a T42" which is a fan-unit-only-no-heatsink, you have clearly been mislead. It's of course possible that an ambitious enough tinkerer might be able to replace the fan by re-rivoting it to the heatsink, but it's hardly a very practical thing to do.