I ended up doing this twice, though. The first time my replacement fan still made noise, though not as much as the old one. Out of the case, I tested my old fan by blowing compressed are through the fins. It spun nicely, without a sound. I tore down the laptop again and examined the new fan. In trying to lift the edges of the metal cover I accidently pulled it off. I figured that the cover was pressing down on the fan, thus causing all the noise. With the heat shield directly on top of the fan I thought that the cover was not really necessary so I decided to leave it off and see what happened. This worked. The fan is now quiet and temperatures, while not as cool as I like, are acceptable (60-70C, 80-90C under load). I also highly recommend redoing the thermal compound while you’re in there. I feel like I bought another couple of years life for this laptop. Thanks.

I have a Fujitsu t4210 that I’ve upgraded several times (RAM, WLAN card, HDD). After years of excellent performance, I’ve noticed some problems: the fan is constantly running (and loud), and my battery does not last very long (likely a result of the fan).
I’ve tried disabling programs, stopping processes, but can’t seem to fix it. I think MAYBE my fan might be dying.
How do you know if your fan is on the way out?

This could be just overheating problem. It’s possible that your heatink is clogged with dust and the fan is running all the time because the CPU is hot.
Here’s what you can try.
Find an air compressor or buy a can of compressed air. Blow air into the fan grill on the side of the laptop until all dust is gone. Test your laptop again. It runs better now, isn’t it?

Thank you so much for the wonderful explanation. I have Fujitsu T-4220 Life book and I need to change the cooling fan. My question is do I need to change the heatsink too or only the cooling Fan ?

You can replace just the fan without replacing the heatsink.
You’ll can find lots of replacement fans on ebay. Take a look here.

I plan on following this guide to replace it. Can someone recommend a replacement fan?

Tx,
CP

I could not find anyone selling a replacement, so I got fed up and decided to pull it apart myself. Removed the fan assembly, took off the fan, cut off the tabs and removed the metal cover. Cleaned out the dust then put a couple drops of 3 in 1 oil in the bearing. The metal cover pops back on and I held it in place with a couple drops of 5 minute epoxy. Put it all back together and voila! It’s running so quiet that I thought I had broken it but you can feel the heat coming out. Yahooooo!

I took a few pictures of the process if you want to upload them, let me know and I will email them to you…

Thanks!

thank you very much for your helpfull disassembly guide. You put a lot of effort and good pictures into you work. I appreciate!
Could you please post the type or serial number of the replacement fan and your source where you bought it?

Thanks in advance.

Daniel