In this guide I explain how to replace the cooling fan assembly in an IBM  ThinkPad T43 laptop. This laptop was starting up with a “Fan error” message indicating the cooling fan failure. The fan is a part of the heat sink assembly and when the fan fails, the whole cooling assembly has to be replaced.

Also you can use this guide for removing and replacing the keyboard and hidden memory module.

Turn off the laptop, unplug the AC adapter and remove the battery.

STEP 1.

Remove three screws securing the keyboard on the bottom of the laptop.

The first memory module can be accessed through the door on the bottom.

It’ not necessary to remove the memory module in order to replace the cooling fan.

STEP 2.

Insert a sharp object between the bottom of the keyboard and palm rest and carefully lift up the keyboard.

Place the keyboard upside down on the palm rest.

STEP 3.

Disconnect the keyboard cable from the motherboard.

STEP 4.

Remove the keyboard.

If you are looking for a new keyboard for an IBM ThinkPad T43, you can find it here.

STEP 5.

The cooling fan assembly is hidden under the palm rest and cannot be removed until the palm rest is removed.

The second memory module is located under the keyboard.

STEP 6.

Now we are going to remove the palm rest.

Remove all marked screws from the bottom of the laptop.

STEP 7.

Disconnect the touchpad cable from the motherboard.

STEP 8.

Start separating the palm rest assembly from the laptop base.

STEP 9.

Remove the palm rest assembly.

STEP 10.

Remove three screws securing the cooling fan assembly.

Disconnect the cooling fan cable from the motherboard.

The cooling fan assembly part number is printed on the label.

STEP 11.

Lift up the right side of the cooling fan assembly.

STEP 12.

Remove the cooling fan assembly.

In order to find a new cooling fan assembly, I would suggest searching by the IBM FRU part number. In my case the part number is 26R7950.

You can buy a new cooling fan assembly here.

STEP 13.

Clean up the CPU and GPU chips with an alcohol swab.

Do not forget to apply fresh thermal grease on the CPU. You don’t have to apply thermal grease on the GPU because it will be covered with thermal pad located on the heat sink.

A new cooling fan assembly should come with thermal grease pre-applied on the heat sink. Also, it comes with thermal pad for the GPU.

In this post I explain how to replace a noisy or failed cooling fan in a Lenovo ThinkPad T61 laptop.

This guide might work for some other Lenovo ThinkPad models. If it works for you, please mention the laptop model number in the comments after the post.

The cooling fan is a part of the heat sink assembly. If the cooling fan fails, the whole heat sink assembly has to be replaced.

It’s possible that you can separate the fan from the heat sink and replace it separately, but in this guide I’m replacing the whole assembly.

Let’s remove the cooling fan assembly and replace it with a new one.

Turn off the laptop, unplug the AC adapter and remove the battery.

STEP 1.

Remove four (red) screws securing the palm rest.

Remove one screw (yellow) securing the keyboard.

STEP 2.

Lift up the palm rest.

STEP 3.

Place the palm rest upside down so you can access the touch pad cable underneath.

STEP 4.

Disconnect the touch pad cable from the motherboard.

By the way, both memory modules are located under the palm rest. If you are replacing or upgrading memory modules, you don’t have to follow the guide any further.

A Lenovo ThinkPad T61 laptop can take up to 4GB RAM total. You can install up to 2GB memory module into each slot. You should use DDR2 PC2-5300 or PC2-6400 memory modules.

STEP 5.

Lift up the keyboard and place it upside down.

STEP 6.

Disconnect the keyboard cable from the motherboard.

In order to disconnect the cable simply lift up the the connector, same way you disconnected the touch pad cable.

If you are replacing the keyboard, you don’t have to follow this guide any further.

You can find a new replacement keyboard by the Lenovo FRU part number printed on the label. In my case the keyboard part number is 42T3209.

Need a new keyboard for your Lenovo ThinkPad?  Search here.

STEP 7.

Remove three screws securing the speaker cover.

By the way, the CMOS battery is located under the keyboard.

STEP 8.

Remove two screws securing the speaker cover on the bottom of the laptop.

STEP 9.

Remove the speaker cover.

STEP 10.

Remove four screws securing the cooling fan assembly brackets. Remove both brackets.

I would recommend taking a close up picture of the lower bracket, so you know how the wires are routed. The picture will help you to rout wires correctly when you assemble the laptop back together.

STEP 11.

Remove two screws securing the left speaker.

Disconnect connectors shown by two arrows.

Move the left speaker with cables to the right side, so you can get to the cooling fan assembly.

STEP 12.

Disconnect the cooling fan cable from the motherboard.

Remove four screws securing the cooling fan assembly.

STEP 13.

Lift up the cooling fan assembly as it shown on the picture below.

STEP 14.

Remove the cooling fan assembly from the laptop.

If you are replacing the failed cooling fan assembly with a new one, most likely the heat sink already has thermal grease pre-applied.

On the other hand, if you are installing a refubished cooling fan assembly, you’ll have to apply thermal grease on both chips shown below.

You can search for a replacement cooling fan assembly by the Lenovo FRU number from the failed fan.

The FRU number is printed on the label. In my case, the FRU part number is 42W2460.

You can find a new or used cooling fan assembly here.

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In this guide I explain how to clean or replace the cooling fan assembly in a Dell XPS M1530 laptop. The cooling fan can be accessed from the door on the bottom of the laptop and replacing/cleaning procedure takes only about 10 minutes.

I’m taking this XPS M1530 laptop apart because the cooling fan started making noise and laptop shuts off on its own when hot. I will replace the fan, clean the heat sink and apply fresh thermal grease on the CPU and video chip.

If you need a new cooling fan, you can find it here. You can buy just the fan or entire heat sink assembly.

STEP 1.

Turn off the laptop, unplug the power adapter and remove the battery.

Unscrew five screws securing the memory/fan cover and remove the cover.

STEP 2.

Remove six screws securing the heat sink assembly to the motherboard.

Disconnect the cooling fan cable from the motherboard.

By the way, here’s how you can upgrade memory modules in this laptop.

STEP 3.

Remove the heat sink assembly.

STEP 4.

Remove four screws securing the cooling fan to the heat sink.

STEP 5.

Lift up and remove the cooling fan.

STEP 6.

The heat sink is clogged with dust and has to be cleaned. You can use canned air to blow off dust from the heat sink and fan.

STEP 7.

Before installing the heat sink assembly back into the laptop take a look at thermal grease on the processor and video chip.

If thermal grease dried out, it has to be replaced.

Remove old grease from the heat sink using a piece of paper towel soaked in 99% alcohol.

Do not remove thermal pad. It can be reused.

STEP 8.

Using same paper towel remove old thermal grease from the processor and video chip.

As you see, I cleaned only the top side of the NVIDIA chip. There are many very small chips buried under thermal grease and I was afraid to damage them.

STEP 9.

Apply a small drop of fresh thermal grease on the processor and NVIDIA chip before installing the heat sink assembly.

I’m using Shin-Etsu gray thermal grease.

In the next post I explain how to remove the LCD sceen and inverter board from a Dell XPS M1530 laptop.

In this guide I will help you to remove and replace the cooling fan in a Dell Latitude D600 laptop. The cooling fan in this model is buried deep inside the laptop under the top cover. Also you can use this guide for cleaning the cooling module and removing dust from the heat sink and fan.

If your laptops shuts down on its own without any warning, most likely it happens because of overheating. Make sure the cooling fan works and the heat sink is not clogged with dust. Replace the fan if it failed or clean the heat sink if it’s clogged.

Before you start, turn off the laptop, unplug the AC adapter and remove the battery.

When you are replacing the cooling fan, it is not necessary to remove memory, hard drive, wireless card or optical drive. I did that only because I was upgrading the laptop.

STEP 1.

Remove all marked screws from the bottom of the laptop.

STEP 2.

Lift up the switch cover with a small screwdriver. Continue removing the cover with your fingers.

STEP 3.

When the switch cover is removed you can access two screws securing the keyboard. Remove these screws.

STEP 4.

Lift up the keyboard and access the cable. Disconnect the keyboard cable from the motherboard.
Search for new keyboards here.

STEP 5.

Remove three (red) screws securing display hinges.
Remove one (yellow) screw securing the video cable ground.
Disconnect the video cable connector from the motherboard.

STEP 6.

Remove and replace the LCD assembly.
Take a look at this guide for the LCD screen removal instructions.

STEP 7.

Remove three screws securing the top cover.
Disconnect the touchpad cable from the motherboard.

STEP 8.

Start separating the top cover from the base with your fingers.

STEP 9.

Remove the top cover assembly.

STEP 10.

Now you can clean the cooling module (fan and heat sink) using compressed air. In order to replace the fan, continue laptop disassembly.

Loosen four screws securing the heat sink.
Lift up and remove the heat sink.

STEP 11.

Remove two screws securing the cooling fan.
Disconnect fan cable from the motherboard.

STEP 12.

Remove and replace the cooling fan with a new one. You can find a new replacement fan for Dell Latitude D600 laptop here.

In this guide I’ll be cleaning the cooling module in an Acer Aspire 3620 laptop. Most likely my instructions will work for some other Acer Aspire models. Fell free to leave a comment and mention the laptop model if it works for you.

This particular laptop was shutting down by itself while running some intensive applications. I found that the cooling module (heat sink and fan) is completely clogged with dust and needs a good cleaning. Unfortunately, in this model the cooling module is buried deep inside the laptop and it’s necessary to take the whole thing apart in order to access it. OK, let’s start.

If you need spare parts for your Aspire 3620 laptop (or any other laptops) try to search here.  If you search by the laptop model and part name, most likely you’ll find it. For example, if you need a new keyboard, search for Aspire 3620 keyboard.

Step1.

First of all turn off the laptop, unplug the power adapter and remove the battery. Remove the hard drive and memory covers from the bottom.

Step 2.

Remove four screws securing the hard drive assembly. After that slide the hard drive to the left and disconnect it from the motherboard. Now you can remove the hard drive assembly from the laptop.

If you are replacing the hard drive, you’ll have to remove the mounting bracket from the old one and install it on a new hard drive.

Step 3.

Remove both memory modules.
Disconnect two antenna wires from the wireless card (two yellow circles) and remove the wireless card same way you remove the memory module.

Step 4.

Remove one screw securing the CD/DVD drive. Push the drive from the laptop with a screwdriver. Pull the drive from the laptop.

Step 5.

Remove all screws from the bottom of the laptop. Disconnect the cooling fan cable from the motherboard.

Step 6.

Carefully start removing the keyboard bezel as it shown on the picture below. Be careful, the bezel has a circuit board which is connected to the motherboard.

Step 7.

Place the keyboard bezel so you can access the screw securing the keyboard. Remove that screw. Do not forget, the keyboard bezel is still attached to the motherboard.

Step 8.

Lift up the keyboard and place it upside down on the palm rest. Before you can remove the keyboard, you have to disconnect it from the motherboard.

On the picture below you see the keyboard cable connected to the motherboard. In order to unlock the connector, move the brown part about 2-3 millimeters towards the palm rest. Do not disconnect the brown locking tab from the connector, it must stay attached to the base.

On the picture below you can see the same connector in the unlocked state. Now you can pull the cable and remove the keyboard.

By the way, if you are only removing or replacing the keyboard, you can follow steps 6-8. You don’t have to remove anything from the bottom.

Step 9.

Now you can disconnect the cable connecting the keyboard bezel to the motherboard and remove the bezel. This cable belongs to the power button board which is attached to the bottom part of the bezel.

Step 10.

Pull the wireless antenna cables through the opening in the laptop. Disconnect the video cable from the motherboard. Remove two screws securing the display panel.

Step 11.

Now you can remove the display panel assembly. In the next post I will explain how to remove the LCD screen and inverter board.

Step 12.

Disconnect two white cables from the motherboard same way you disconnected the keyboard cable.

Step 13.

Start separating the top cover assembly from the laptop base.

and remove the top cover assembly.

Step 14.

Remove five screws securing the laptop motherboard. Disconnect the speaker cable from the motherboard.

Step 15.

Start removing the motherboard from the left side as it shown on the picture below.

The motherboard has been removed.

On the next picture you see the bottom part of the motherboard.

The cooling fan is attached to the base assembly and can be easily removed and replaced now.

Step 16.

Now I’m going to remove the heat sink.
Remove five screws securing the heat sink and carefully lift it up.

As you see, the heat sink is completely clogged with dust. I’m going to use compressed air to clean it.

You’ll find some gray (or other color) stuff on the top of the processor, it’s thermal grease which helps to conduct heat from the processor to heat sink. If thermal grease looks dry, you’ll have to replace it with new grease. Otherwise, you can reuse old grease, just spread it evenly on the top of the processor and install the heat sink back in place.

Here’s how you can replace the CPU cooling fan in a Toshiba Satellite A65/A60 laptop without taking the whole thing apart.

If the cooling fan has become very noisy and started making a grinding sound, apparently it’s time to replace the fan with a new one.

The cooling fan can be accessed if you remove the keyboard as it explained in the disassembly guide (steps 5-8).

Remove two screws (red circles). In order to unscrew the last screw (green circle) you’ll need a very small Phillips screwdriver. You will not be able to remove the last screw because it’s partially covered by the top cover assembly. Simply unscrew the last screw and leave it in the fan.

Unplug the fan cable from the motherboard. The connector is pointed with the green arrow. Unroute the fan cable so it’s not attached to the heat sink.

Carefully remove the cooling fan. As you can see on the picture below, the last screw is still seated in the fan.

The CPU fan has been removed. Now you can replace it with a new one.

The CPU fan comes as a part of the heat sink assembly and it’s possible you will not be able to buy this fan separately. Here’s what you can do. Find a new heat sink assembly (with fan) for Toshiba Satellite A60/A65 laptops here.

Remove fan from the new assembly and install it instead of your old defective fan.

If your Dell Latitude D820 laptop runs very hot and noisy, most likely it’s time to clean or even replace the cooling fan. Thanks to Bite my bytes for the picture and some instructions.

The cooling fan in this model is buried deep inside the laptop so be ready to take the whole thing apart. This is not for beginners.

Here are a few typical cooling module related problems:

1. The laptop fan runs louder than before, it comes on more often. If that’s the case, most likely you can clean the cooling fan and heat sink without taking the whole thing apart. You can get a limited access to the cooling fan if you remove the keyboard. Spray canned air inside the fan until all dust is gone.

2. The laptop runs very hot and shuts down on its own. The fan is loud and works most of the time. If that’s the case, most likely the heat sink is clogged with dust as it shown on the picture above. You’ll have to disassemble the laptop and remove the dust buildup.

3. When the cooling fan starts, it makes grinding noise. If that’s the case, most likely the fan is bad and has to be replaced. You can purchase a new fan here for less than $20. Again, you’ll have to disassemble the laptop.

You’ll find step-by-step disassembly instructions in the Service Manual for Dell Latitude D820 laptops (not in the user’s manual as it was mentioned on Bite my bytes).

While inside the laptop, you can replace thermal compound between the heat sink and processor.

With this tutorial you’ll be able to remove and replace the cooling fans in a HP Pavilion zd7000 laptop. In this model the heat sink has two cooling fans and it could be accessed from the bottom of the laptop.

In order to remove the heat sink you’ll have to unplug both cooling fan cables from the motherboard and loosen four screws on the heat sink.

Once you loosen the four screws you will gently pull up on the heat sink. Be careful as more often than not the processor gets stuck to the heat sink. Be extremely gentle as you do not want to pull it out at a weird angle and then bend all of the processor pins.

WARNING! If the processor came out with the heat sink do not install it back into the socket like that or you can damage the pins.
1. Separate the processor from the heat sink using a small flathead screwdriver.
2. Open the processor socket on the motherboard.
3. Install the processor back in place and lock the socket.

DO NOT INSTALL THE PROCESSOR WHILE IT’S STILL ATTACHED TO THE HEAT SINK!

Most likely the heat sink will be clogged with dust. You can blow it off with compressed air. When the heat sink assembly is removed you can replace it with a new one or replace individual fans witch could be found here.

Before you install the heat sink assembly back into the laptop, do not forget to apply thermal compound on the top of the processor.

In some laptops you can remove the heat sink without removing the CPU fan. In my case, I had to remove the fan first.

In most cases, the heat sink is secured above the processor by four screws. You’ll have to remove or loosen those screws.

Carefully lift up the heat sink.

In my example the heat sink covers two chips: CPU and ATI chip. It’s not very common. In many other laptops the heat sink covers only the processor.

The ATI chip thermal grease is different, it looks like a blue chewing gum. I’m not going to replace the ATI chip grease today because it appears to be soft and looks normal.

The CPU grease, on the other hand, looks dried out and feels very hard. The CPU thermal grease definitely has to be replaced.

Thermal grease was so dried out that I had to use a flathead screwdriver to remove it from the heatsink.

NOTE: I would suggest using something softer, maybe a piece of plastic because the screwdriver makes scratches.

Clean the heat sink and CPU with 99% alcohol and soft cloth.

Both, the heatsink and CPU are clean and ready for new thermal grease.

Apply a small drop of new thermal grease on the top of the processor. Apply just enough to cover the CPU chip (black square in the center).

Finally, install the heat sink and secure it by tightening screws in the order 1-2-3-4.

This guide will give you an insight on how to open a Fujitsu LifeBook T4200 Tablet PC case and replace the cooling fan.

This guide is applicable to the Fujitsu LifeBook T4210, T4215, and the T4220 as these models all use the same chassis

The main idea of the tutorial is getting an access to the cooling module – heatsink and cooling fan. The cooling module is hidden inside the laptop so you’ll have to take the whole thing apart.

Remove two screws securing the cooling fan, unplug fan cable from the motherboard and remove the fan. Now you can replace it with a new one.

While you are inside the laptop, it would be a good idea to apply new thermal grease on the processor.