Lenovo cooling solution?

Hello all,

Recently, I ordered a W520 to replace the T61 laptop that died :cry: beginning of 2011. The old machine's screen suddenly turned grey and died on me, with warning signs of failing to turn on for about a a couple of weeks/months.

Today, I finally found some time to open and dissect my beloved thinkpad to find the fan suffocated in dust. Dust had covered the openings of the copper heatsink. Now I am worried about my future machine slowly dying to the same problem. I see no easy way to clean the fan and heatsink without removing the entire cooling system and opening all of it up (and probably voiding your warranty if you still have it) every year or couple of months. I understand that Lenovo cooling is far superior than other companies (ie HP) which encounter this problem within a year or so of use and that this computer lasted around 5 years.

To make this thread to have a purpose instead of a mindless rant, has anyone else encounter this issue? is there an easier solution?

 

It's normal for dust to collect in a laptop's cooling fan. Personally, I've never really taken the step to open up and clean my laptops' fans, and haven't had any problems thus far. My T500 runs at about the same temperature as when I got it, so the cooling fan still seems to be fine. Not using your laptop in bed or on a carpet helps with the dust situation.

You will not void your warranty by disassembling your Thinkpad and cleaning the fan, although if you visibly damage something that probably won't be covered.

 

Using an air compressor or canned air you should be able to get to the fan and heatfins very readily.

Disassembling your laptop will not void the warranty, only if you mess something up will it void the warranty.

Make sure when using canned air or a compressor that you find an object to hold the fan in 1 position as spinning it freely as that high rpm will kill the fan bearings and also fans can generate electricity when spun at high rpm.

 

^^ +1.
Or you can go the other way and use your vacuum cleaner - gently and slowly go with the pipe near the exhaust vent. Adjust the distance accordingly to your vacuum cleaner power. Do not forget to lock the fan, as Tsunade Hime said.

 

Thanks Midnight Sun and Tsunade_Hime for the quick answers and replies (and knowledge about the warranty).

However, I used to use compressed air monthly until it died.
I did not notice any difference in heat from when I first got it until then (unless I was straining the system through taxing programs where I would connect a cooling pad to help the system stay cool).

Guess I'll just be more careful. Thanks again.

 

Given that you did clean the air vent with compressed air on a monthly basis, i am somewhat surprised that the machine can still be clogged with dusts.

Obviously, it is a requisite to use the compressed air on the T61 with the keyboard taken off, did you do that? Otherwise you are just dislodging the dusts not only on the vents but also on the fan vanes, which will clog up the heatsink vent fins.

 

I would also probably put new thermal paste just in case if the CPU is getting too warm. You can dust the air all you want but if the contact between the CPU and the passive cooler is weak, it's not going to help much. That obviously requires a lot of careful work - I usually reserve a full afternoon for such major teardowns.

I mention this as I also have the dust somewhat clogging my vents but never really saw any major temperature difference due to it.

 

@Lead_org I do take the keyboard off. I probably need to be more diligent and careful as I just sprayed it a couple of times and never really spent a lot of time cleaning it.

@unreal25 thanks for the advice. However, the weird thing is, I never noticed any temperature change. It always ran cool under normal use and just died suddenly one day when i turned it on and opened a word document. Fan was also silent but you knew it was spinning. It flashed grey and I could never use the computer again. Prior to this, the computer's screen would usually remain black after turning on and was only usable by connecting an external monitor. After the screen flashed grey and died, the computer was useless, leading me to believe the graphics card failed.

 

You're right, it could have been your graphics chip that died. Did your T61 have the nVidia GPU?

 

Yep, the NVS 140m. I took the entire laptop apart and I plan to replace the graphics card in the future when I get the budget and more free time.

 

The GPU is soldered onto the motherboard, so it would actually be easier to replace the whole motherboard than to replace the GPU. If you go this route, I suggest a motherboard that has the Intel integrated graphics to avoid the same failure in the future.

 

Thanks for the advice!