I’m writing this email on my purring ThinkPad T42p with its new fan. Yes!
I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to dismantle my precious ThinkPad T42p laptop, and extract the “fan error”.
Each screw slot is labeled with what it secures and what size of screw it needs. The sizes are listed and the real size of the screws shown. This is a DIY repair friendly design.
The fan had an odor of burnt electronics. I think the whole room stunk of it, but it might of been the smell of my despair.
There is a part number of 13R2656 and FRU # 13R2657 which matches what I expected from the schematic.
I looked up IBM worldwide purchase links for accessories, upgrades, and replacement parts and called IBM Canada maintenance parts retail.
They only speak in FRU, and let me know the part is $65.00 + tax + $10 shipping. That part number has been replaced by 42W5240, FRU 41W5204.
Searching I found a couple of ebay sellers with a bit cheaper parts, but not enough of a saving to offset the risk and likely long shipping time.
I called back IBM and ordered it Tuesday.
It arrived today, Thursday addressed by Purolator to Llord Budd:
It looks identical to the old one. It looks more like a car part than a computer part:
And smells about the same — maybe that wasn’t a burnt electronics smell, but I think the odor was a clue. I remember the odor being much stronger
The fan comes with the tiny drops of CPU paste already applied in the right place.
Assembling back the lappy was easy and when I started it up again, it was the best rendition of the Ubuntu startup sound I have ever heard.
I have left the bay empty for now. Previously, I always had the spare battery in there.
I will be careful to hibernate the laptop all the time. Previously, I didn’t think it mattered and also didn’t want to miss any of the discussions on the IRC channels I’m on, particularly the WordPress related ones. I will have to come up with a new solution there.
The laptop pretty much sits flush with my desk, which isn’t the best.
I now understand why I sometimes see people flip their laptops sideways when they aren’t using them:
But that seems awkward. I now appreciated the simple brilliance of Andy’s modification, the “Bigfoot MacBook Pro”:
This just happened to me and the canned air trick doesn’t work. I am debating on wether to get one off Ebay or go new. New ones are around 75$, 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
Thanks so much for this post!!! I just followed all the advice and my T42p laptop is up and running!!!
No tech experience at all here but I am a great handy woman around the house.
I did not remove the pink pad(per the above advice) my old fan still had the pink pad on.
No need to use the 3m adhesive tape either. Let me know if there is a need for these in the future.
My old fan came right out no issue at all. I bought my fan new on ebay for $55 US bucks shipped to the door. Lenovo was $103 plus shipping as of 2/2009 for the fan part 41w5204
The price sure has gone up since the earlier post! I saved well over $100 doing it myself!
Thanks so much for all the post….
BTW Lenovo/IBM called this repair a difficult repair not a CRU… We all showed them!
Kathy
After a few months of grinding fan sounds my circa 2005 T43p finally gave me the dreaded “FAN ERROR” message. At first I thought my beloved computer was junk, but thanks to this article and all its comments I was confident enough to order a replacement fan and try the fix myself. I’m not sure if it’s because supply is dwindling, or if because delivery to the west coast is more expensive, but the replacement fan cost me $118 including taxes from Lenovo/IBM Canada. It took 2 days for delivery. The entire replacement process took me about 2 hours because I wanted to be very careful taking apart my T43p for the first time.
The black goo issue was very stressful. I tried a small flat-head screwdriver, a credit card, dental floss for about half an hour and it seemed like the fan would never come off the GPU. I even tried the hair dryer a few times and it finally worked after about 10 minutes of blowing on the chip (I was afraid that the heat might fry other elements, so I used the credit card as a deflector shield to help isolate the area that was being heated by the hair dryer). After heating the black goo I used the screw driver to apply horizontal force to the part of the fan gooed to the GPU. I didn’t know how much force to apply and was getting desperate, so I just kept adding more until BANG – the fan flew off and my screwdriver went digging across the GPU and into the motherboard. I was terrified I had destroyed something, but the only visible damage was a small scratch across the surface of the GPU. I cleaned of the rest of the sticky residue from the surface of the GPU with rubbing alcohol and Q-tips, then attached the new fan (with the pink sheet on) and reassembled the Thinkpad. Before turning it on I noticed a large bulge under the keyboard beneath the spacebar, so I disassembled everything and reposition the fan’s attachment cable so that it sat flatter against the motherboard – this fixed the bulging problem. After a second reassembly I turned the computer on and it worked! Fan noise is definitely quieter. The fan is still on, but there’s no grinding sound. Best of all my keyboard seems to be much stiffer and solid like my old A20p!
The 5 black pieces of adhesive plastic are to cover the screw holes on the bottom of the laptop. My T41p replacement fan won’t spin up like the original. Guess I need a new laptop.
Another T42p saved by this thread on 6/18/09!
Please note that anyone can do this! Don’t be afraid to do it yourself (DIY)! All you need is the correct replacement fan, a small phillips head screwdriver to remove the screws on the back of the laptop & a thin head regular screwdriver for light point prying to remove the keyboard (and maybe a hair dryer OR maybe not!). That’s it!
I’ve included step by step full procedure removal and installation instructions within this post below!
I knew from others with T41 & T42’s that the dreaded “fan error” issue could occur & finally it happened to me.
I heard the fan go into intermittent blasts of on/off/windtunnel/off the other night, then the fan quit running entirely & the heat started building. I shut it down to cool off, cold booted & got the dreaded “Fan Error” message (4 times in a row).
I used another machine to google “T42 fan error” & found this thread. It put me in the right direction of repairing my laptop!
As I did not know my three letter code for my exact model, I called IBM US hardware support in Atlanta to ask. After sharing my specific model # (2372-C96) they gave me the code (my machine is a Q1U) & verified that the proper replacement fan for my machine was the M10 Long Fan (FRU 41W5204). The original fan from the factory was a 13R2657. Please note that IBM/Lenovo used the letter X in place of the latter U in their three digit model number system and on the schematic they post online (found it in a post waaaay early in this thread). So my Q1U showed as a Q1X. That might be good to know for some of you out there!
After telling me what I needed, they transferred me to IBM US parts, where for US $71.94 + 13.50 shipping, I received the factory new fan overnight!
Removal of the old fan and installing the new fan is a breeze! Here is EXACTLY what you do! Remove the battery and any battery or drive you have in the Ultrabay. This will ease removal of the casing. Then remove ALL of the screws labeled #1, 2 & 3 from the back, then remove the keyboard by lightly prying up on the front lower metal base (carefully), unhook the keyboard cord by lightly pulling up on the plug, remove the top casing by lightly sliding up at all anchor points front/rear/ and sides, unhook the touchpad cord by pulling up on the plug, then remove the three screws from the fan, work the fan slightly to the right to release out from under the side lip (this is where if yours is stuck you may need to heat the pink pad area on the right end with a hair dryer (it is directly bonded over the graphics card), then slide it up and out. To install you simply reverse this procedure!
I was lucky in that my old fan came right out with no struggle & the new fan slipped right into place.
I am happy to report that my new fan worked on the first try! Since then (after 2 fresh cold reboots & hours of use) she’s still purring like a kitten & cool as a cucumber!
Thanks for this GREAT thread!
I am getting a fan error on a black screen with no boot up. I presume I need to replace the fan. Has anyone ever tried to open it, clean it and oil it, instead of replacing it? Has it ever worked with just that remedy?
Thnaks for an excellent how to. I have replaced the fan on my T43, however, must go the escape route everytime I cold boot. Does anyone know why this is happening and how to fix it. The laptop works fine but the escape method of booting suggests to me that something remains to be corrected.
I also have the T42 Fan Error message. I replaced the fan but the same error ocurrs. I tried the compressed air test while booting and that didn’t work either. Any ideas of what else it could be?
I replaced my T40 fan and it worked great for a couple weeks, but now gives fan error on booting and the fan doesn’t seem to be getting power. There’s now Any suggestions?
Hey, everyone. Another success story here… I replaced my T42 fan just as described by everyone else. Paid the $118 to Lenovo Canada for the part and shipping.
The only minor change I made to the replacement process was skipping the hair dryer method of warming the stuck graphics heat sink… Instead, I booted the T42 pressing escape then ran a graphics-intensive application (MP3 visualisations in iTunes) for 10 minutes so the GPU got nice and hot, then powered down. It was still an effort to dislodge it, but it worked.
What a great site, and I have learned so much by reading all the comments.
I occasionally experience the ‘Fan Error’ display, but overcome the problem by lifting up the right hand side of the computer around 2 inches, and then letting it drop on to the table with a bang. Not very scientific, but it certainly works !
prying off the fan is delicate. Slide a flat blade screwdriver horizontally under the fan housing. Resist the temptation to pull up on the handle, as it will bear directly on the CPU chip, which is hyper sensitive to physical force. And everything else. Slide, do not pry! Go this way >>>>> not this way ////.
Thanks for all the info! Getting ready to do this for a friend and this thread has been *invaluable*!
I have T42p with the long fan – replacement as shown here worked fine for me. A couple of notes: I just put one drop of thermal paste on the CPU (Didn’t spread it as some said you should). Be careful removing existing fan if you are just cleaning it and reusing it – pulling up on it can bend/bow it and it might not sit flat. Don’t pull on the fabric tabs – they are attached to a tin like piece that is stuck to heatsink – you could pull it off – the piece has the screw hole lined up to reconnect the keyboard & palm rest. Some screws may be goofy (Bad threads at bottom, show rust, rounded out top) – the ones that connect the heatsink/fan near the CPU & GPU should make firm contact as well as the bottom/external screws near those units.