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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
August 18th, 2010 at 4:58 am
My wife’s T41 got the dreaded “Fan Error” message the other day…I wasn’t there but she said it started to make a buzzing sound so she rebooted it and it came up with the blue screen fan error message, so she shut it off.
I followed your directions to get to the fan (short fan in this case) and it was a bit dirty but spun ok when I physically moved it.
I wanted to see if it would boot at all, so with the keyboard and touch pad still plugged in to the board I put the battery in and started the computer.
The fan starting spinning immediately but had a buzzing sound which it hadn’t had before. The boot started and went to the “Welcome to Microsoft Windows XP” screen like a normal bootup, but it just hung on that screen and wouldn’t finish…the little slider window on that screen that shows the computer ‘thinking’ would move then stop, with no hard drive activity.
Is this normal for a dead fan (the bootup sequence stopping in mid stream)??
I want to make sure based on my description that it indeed sounds like the fan is bad before I invest in a new one only to find something else happened?
It never did get to the blue screen with the fan error message.
Thank you and great directions on how to get inside a T41.
Bob
August 16th, 2010 at 9:11 pm
Hi, anybody knows where to purchase the IBM laptop fan in Singapore? Thanks.
August 13th, 2010 at 6:43 am
Thanks Laptop Tech…. kind of thought so.
August 12th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
drew pompa,
Do not use the short heat sink. Send it back and order the correct one.
Using a wrong heat sink assembly will cause motherboard damage.
August 12th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
Greetings Laptop Tech,
I also received a “fan error” message. After reading through this forum, I decided that I would go ahead and order the fan part and fix the computer myself.
However, when I received my fan, I noticed it was not exactly the same as the original fan. The fan that I ordered didn’t consist of piece that covered my graphics cards. Therefore, my graphics cards in now exposed.
Take a look in these two pictures. Keep in mind, that in the fan assembly picture, the top fan displayed is the one that I ordered. The bottom one with pink tape is the original. Also, in the computer schematic picture, “X” marks the spot where my graphics card is now exposed.
Is this okay, or should I send back the fan and re-order another?
http://www.blankartists.com/images/fan_assembly.jpg
http://www.blankartists.com/images/computer_schematic.JPG
August 4th, 2010 at 9:08 am
Replacing THIRD Fan on ThinkPad T41 with your helpful article — Rebecca
July 28th, 2010 at 7:26 am
Thanks. Another successful fan replacement from info on this page. Much appreciated.
Mike
July 10th, 2010 at 11:38 pm
Terje’S
Does the fan spin on startup?
If not, there could be a problem with the motherboard.
July 6th, 2010 at 6:32 am
Hello! I have just replaced my old fan with a new one, and have the same problem problem “fan error” may it be something else, that is wrong??? Please help me! IBM ThinkPad T42.
June 13th, 2010 at 7:54 am
I was able to bypass the Fan Error message with a combination of F1/ESC which dropped me into the bios setup screen and then from there I was able to boot into windows. It did take a few attempts before this worked. I don’t know what the magic combination of key presses is, but I decided to give it a try based on an earlier comment that mentioned this technique.
Once in windows I did a full backup. While running I pointed a fan directly at laptop in hopes of keeping it cool while I was backing it up. But I’m not running it this way for daily use as I don’t want it to overheat. I’ll replace the fan as soon as I can find one.