Home
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
March 25th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Could someone kindly answer me? I can’t buy a fan on eBay until I get an answer and I can’t wait any longer. Thank you.
March 21st, 2009 at 5:18 am
i have a thinkpad r40, it started showing fan error EVERY time i started it up. Solution: 1.Get 1 Bobby Pin. 2.Put It Into Vent.(This Might Not Work On Any Model Other Than R Series) 3. Move Around, Trying To Spin Fan.(BEFORE Starting Up!) 4. Boot Your ThinkPad.
(*I Found This Out By Improvising*)
March 18th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
My T42p fan just went out. It sounded like a chainsaw revving up just before doing so. My question is, are there 3 parts needed here? The fan, the heatsink, and the thermal paste? Also, has anyone had any bad experiences with used fans?
One other thing I saw elsewhere online was that sometime you will get the FAN ERROR on startup if there’s an issue with the battery. Just a thought to try out if you happen to have an extra battery laying around. Great forum here!!!
March 7th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Monika,
I would recommend replacing it with the same FRU.
March 6th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
oh, and I have a T-40.
March 6th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
Greetings – took apart my laptop according to the above instructions – which are AWESOME = my fru # is 91P8393. will a fan/heatsink assembly with fru # 91P8253 work for me? Please let me know – thanks
March 1st, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Steve,
Sounds like a problem with the motherboard.
Did you accidentally spit on the motherboard? It could cause a short.
Do you know if the video card in your laptop is a discrete unit? If it is, carefully push on the video card. Maybe it’s not making good connection with the motherboard.
March 1st, 2009 at 3:09 pm
jhirsch123,
You must apply thermal paste on the CPU, it’s important.
March 1st, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Hey guys,
I had this same problem with my T60. I opened it up and blew air in the fan to clean it (man was it dusty!). I also blew some air in a few other places and blew with my mouth to clear out some dust.
Now my laptop won’t start in normal windows mode. When I turn it on there is a green bar along the right side of the screen and vertical lines behind the windows logo and any words. After a while the screen just goes black.
I can still boot up in Safe Mode and VGA mode. But as soon as I try to increase the resolution, the screen goes black and I can’t get anything to happen.
Anybody have any idea what I could have done to cause this?? Am I going to have to replace the motherboard??
Thanks,
Steve
February 23rd, 2009 at 6:54 pm
This just happened to me and the canned air trick doesn’t work. I am debating on wether to get one off Ebay or go new. New ones are around 75$, no tax or shipping and I can get a used one WITH THERMAL PASTE, shipped for less than $50.
My question is, how important is the thermal paste? Is it completely necessary because if so, I’ll probably just go with used….
Thanks,
Jon