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Let’s say you have an IBM ThinkPad laptop and when you turn it on all you get is a black screen with “Fan error” message. What could be wrong?
A few weeks ago, the fan in my trusty IBM T42 bought the farm. This resulted in the unit heating up considerably, as well as numerous “fan error” messages on bootup. It eventually became so bad that to boot up at all, I had to blow compressed air into the fan’s exhaust grill for 5-10 seconds, in order to fool the BIOS and make it believe the fan was actually spinning.
According to the IBM hardware maintenance guide (HMM) for ThinkPad T40, T40p, T41, T41p, T42, T42p this error message indicates a problem with the fan, you can find symptom-to-FRU index on the page58.
The symptom-to-FRU index in this section lists symptoms and errors and their possible causes.
Apparently it’s time to replace the fan assembly. The cooling fan comes together with the heat sink, that’s why you’ll have to replace the whole fan assembly.
You can easily replace the fan assembly after you remove the palm rest and keyboard.
1. Remove the battery and unplug the AC adapter.
2. Remove four screws marked with yellow circles. These screws securing the keyboard.
3. Remove eight screws marked with orange circles. These screws securing the palm rest.
4. Lift up the keyboard and upnlug the keyboard cable from the motherboard.
5. Lift up the palm rest and unplug the touchpad cable from the motherboard.
6. Remove three screws securing the fan assembly, unplug the fan cable from the motherboard. Lift up and replace the fan assembly.
You’ll find step-by-step laptop disassembly and fan replacement instructions in the HMM in the chapter “Removing and replacing a FRU” on the page 70.
You can find a new fan assembly using the FRU number located on your failed fan, it might look like 91P8393, 26R7860, 13R2919, 13N5442, or 13R2657. Just google the FRU number and find a place to buy it from. Different laptop types with different screen sizes use different fans, so you have to find the correct one witch fits your model. If for some reason your fan assembly doesn’t have the FRU number, you’ll have to refer to the HMM page 216-217. On these pages you’ll find witch fan belongs to your laptop. Here you can find new and used fans for ThinkPad laptops.
For example, if have a type 2378-FVU laptop with 15.0″ LCD screen, then you need a fan assembly with FRU: 13R2657
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January 31st, 2010 at 4:24 pm
Can I just mail you my T43 which is having fan issues so you can replace it for me? For some reason, taking apart my laptop is not something that I am inspired to do.
January 10th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Hi, I have a t42 15″ with the long fan. fan went out. Person using comp continued to run it at about 15-35 minute intervals. somewhere along the way the screen was cracked. Replaced the fan and screen. Computer shuts down while booting or after booting to desktop. I did apply new grease and fan and display work fine. Just cannot get to boot to desktop and stay. Suspect heat has damaged cpu and or mobo. Was hoping to fix it cheap. Can anybody give me some pointers?
January 5th, 2010 at 10:49 am
Leo,
Did you replace the entire cooling module (heat sink and fan)?
Did you apply thermal grease on the CPU?
Did you notice if your new cooling module had thermal pad for another chip?
It’s possible that your laptop shuts down because of overheating. Make sure that thermal grease is applied correctly.
January 5th, 2010 at 8:59 am
I replaced the fan in my T42, and it seems to be working (the fan), but now the computer shuts off after 10 seconds when I turn it on. This happens when I reconnect the old dysfunctional fan as well now (I pass the fan error by blowing air with my mouth and the fan spins for a few seconds). It doesn’t matter what I do at startup – within 10 seconds it will shut down. While playing around and changing fans back and forth, once it actually went into safe mode for a little while. Then suddenly it shut off (after about an hour). Then it didn’t go on at all (the power on button didn’t do anything). Next morning, I plugged in the new fan again and while the computer goes on, the problem is still there – within 10 seconds it shuts down. I think something else than the fan just moved around a little bit and screwing up the startup but all the wires seem to be connected and everything looks OK. Any advice?
THANKS!
January 3rd, 2010 at 2:22 pm
SME,
Here’s a list of manuals for IBM/Lenovo laptops: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-39298.html.
Find your model and look in the service manual. Maybe you can find help in there.
January 3rd, 2010 at 2:14 pm
delton,
You were able to bypass the PROBLEM or the ERROR MESSAGE?
January 3rd, 2010 at 1:03 pm
Anton,
Apparently thermal grease dried out and glued the heat sink. You’ll have to use some force but be very careful.
After removing the heat sink don’t forget to reseat the processor.