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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
May 7th, 2009 at 1:33 am
Dear sir. In my IBM thinkpad laptop facing some problem. When it is on give an error massage, error code is 0189 invalied RFID configration information area.
and also an anather massage is press ibm blue button for nornal intrupt
April 19th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
James,
The Pink Sheet is the thermal pad which HELPS to transfer heat from one of the chips to the heat sink. Do not remove the pink sheet from the heat sink.
IBM do not do this kind of mistakes.
April 15th, 2009 at 10:29 am
Hi all…burning question…
What about the PINK SHEET that comes on the new assembly?? On my old fan, it was still stuck on, so I just left it on on my new one, like some others have done. But logically, it doesn’t make sense to have it on there, does it? It seems like it would interfere with heat transfer to the fan/heat sink. Perhaps many T42′s were assembled incorrectly, and they didn’t peel off the pink sheet when they were supposed to?
Has anyone taken apart a T42 that did NOT have the pink sheet? Any experienced computer hardware people here who can confirm or negate what I’m thinking?
April 12th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
thinkpad x40,
When you removed the heat sink, did you remove thermal grease? Did you apply new thermal grease before installing the heat sink?
If there is not thermal grease between the heat sink and processor, the CPU will overheat and the laptop will shut down. Maybe that’s your problem?
April 11th, 2009 at 12:05 am
Hi guys,
I opened up my t41 due to the fan error. I took out the whole heat sink, tested the fan and is in working condition. So I put everything back. Now the problem is that when you install a software and in the process of installation the fan kicks in for a couple of seconds and then the laptop completely shuts down. I turn it back on again and repeat the same process and same result. The laptop runs fine and the fan is fine when I dont try installing something, like surfing the web. Any advise? I’m thinking I might need to replace the whole heat sink and fan. Then I could be wrong so I need advice, please.
April 4th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Vineet,
Could be bad memory. Do you have two RAM modules installed into your laptop? Try removing them one by one. Test your laptop with each RAM modules separately. Find the faulty module.
If the laptop fails the same way with each module separately, apparently it’s not related to memory.
Can you hear the cooling fan working? Maybe the fan doesn’t work and the laptop shuts down because of overheating?
Could be bad motherboard.
April 4th, 2009 at 1:14 am
I have a refurbished IBM Thinkpad T40. Many a times it gets its screen shut apparently and then the CPU stops working in next 15 seconds. I have to manually shut it off and when try to restart sometimes it does but sometimes it does not. Then after 10 minutes (after shut) I am able to start it again. Some times i get stuck at boot time with black sreen but no error messages. Can this be problem with Fan Assembly? Should i try replacing the same?
March 31st, 2009 at 9:03 pm
LewlnMadrid,
I’ll try that technique tomorrow. I have a couple of laptops I cannot fix, maybe it will work.
March 30th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
The same problem just happened to a fellow worker. While I was reading the advice on this page, our boss came over, lifted it up and gave it a good smack and it now boots OK. He’s that sort of boss, spare the rod and spoil the laptop. I would guess that this is not a long term solution.
March 29th, 2009 at 10:54 am
William,
You should replace the whole assembly (fan and heatsink). I don’t know if you can find the fan separately.
If you search eBay for t42p fan, you’ll find it.
I would suggest buying a new assembly because it comes with thermal grease applied to the heatsink.
If you decide to buy a used heatsink assembly, make sure to buy thermal grease too.