T61 - repair or replace?

Hi, everyone.

So the fan on my T61 has died, and the guy I took it to at Staples said it looks like it might have taken some other components with it. To repair it, they'll charge a flat rate of $370, but the guy says that his recommendation is to have them take the data off it (for $70) and then I should buy a new computer.

I bought the computer in June 2008. I was pretty happy with it until this happened -- a little annoyed that it seemed to be getting slow, sure, but I wasn't seriously thinking about replacing it. Should I give up on it, given its vintage, or does it have the potential for a longer life that makes the cost of repair worth it?

Any advice will be most welcome.

Thanks,

RPG

 

I'd buy the specific fan off Ebay and replace it myself.

At its current state, your T61 is certainly not worth spending over 200 bucks to repair IMHO.

 

Well, I don't have the skills to do that, so replacing it myself is not an option. According to the guy, the specific fan for my machine is on the high end --$180. Not sure what that would run on eBay.

I have the specs for my system -- any idea where it says which fan it needs? I don't know how to interpret the codes.

 

I'd suggest that you look at the guide here for instructions: How to replace cooling fan in Lenovo ThinkPad T61 laptop >> Inside my laptop
Whether or not you think you're capable of doing it after reading this is, of course, up to you, but it should make it less daunting seeming. I've replaced the heatsink assembly in a Thinkpad T400 (which has almost exactly the same disassembly procedure) and it wasn't too challenging--and only took a bit over an hour.
If you let me know the specs of your laptop, I can look on eBay to see what fan you'll need (based on the screen size and whether you have an Intel or nVidia GPU). Regardless, replacement fans look to be about $10-30, depending on model.

 

Thank you! Here are the specs:

7658CTO THINKPAD T61
42X5219 SBB 160GB HDD,7200RPM
42V8714 SBB CD-RW/DVD-ROM COM,UBAYSLIM
42X0805 VBB PC CARDSLOT EX CARDSLOT
41W1685 SBB 11ABGWIFI WL LAN USEULAANZ
42V9338 SBB 6 CELL LI-ION BATERRY
41W1787 SBB CPK NORTH AMERICA
42V9354 SBB LANG. PACK US ENGLISH
42X1754 SBB MS OFF H+STD.07-ENG
42V9428 SBB PACKAGING US
42V9635 SBB 14.1WXGAW/OBT,CAM,WWAN,11N
43Y3427 SBB INTEL CORE2DUO PROC.T8300
39T6440 SBB 56K V.92 DESIGNED MODEM
42V8645 SBB CL.PLATE T61WLAN
42V9665 SBB FCC, LABEL
42V9666 SBB GEO LABEL US, WLAN
42V9632 SBB INTEGRWWAN ANT:14.1" 11ABG
93P7250 SBB THINKPAD LOGOPLATET-SERIES
42V8229 SBB MS LABEL (XP)
42V9651 SBB MT 7658 SYSTEM LABEL
42X0929 SBB MECH MISC PARTS
42T7135 SBB INTEL LABEL CORE-2
46P4166 VBB MICROSOFT WINXP PROFESSION
42X0914 SBB NO SIM MODEL
42V8238 SBB ODD SW CD-RW/DVD-ROMCOMBO
42X1352 SBB PC CARDSLOT EXPRESCARDSLOT
42V9633 SBB STAND LCD C/B:14.1"W/O CAM
42X0915 SBB WLAN MISC PARTS
42X5982 SBB INT GMA X3100 GM965
42V9341 SBB 1GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SODIMM
42V9437 SBB MSWIN XP PROF US ENGLISH
42V9323 SBB 14.1 WXGA TFT,W/OCAM.
42X5980 SBB INTEL GMA X3100 GM965
41W2063 VBB 2GB PC2-5300 667MHZ 2DIMM
42V8195 SBB KEYBOARD US ENGLISH
42V9329 SBB UN(TRACKPOINT+TCHPD)

 

The fan is <$15 off ebay, just search t61 fan on ebay.
And t61 is easy to open up.

If the fan worth 180 and staple buying them , I will trade them in @ 30 a piece lol.

 

So does the part number matter? I'm not seeing anything that matches my list of specs.

 

if you don't want to bother with the fan repair and would rather buy a new laptop, you can buy a hard drive enclosure for your hard drive from the T61.

its very easy to do. its just 1 screw to access the hard drive. you just take it out, and put it into the enclosure, and it becomes a external usb harddrive. dont waste 70$ at staples. enclosures cost under $10 and would take no more than 5 min to remove from your laptop and put in.

Amazon.com: hard drive enclosure 2.5

 

To be honest, $370 can get you a used T61 and some more. If I were you, I'd wait it out until the next generation ThinkPads come out (unless you can't live without a laptop) and buy a new one then.

 

I would repair it, your specific model is not affected by the NVIDIA bump issue therefore it can last for a while. I changed my fan on the T61 not long ago and is a relatively easy job, you can even use my T61 thermal paste guide to see how to gain access to the fan itself. For your reference the part number for the 14.1" T61 fan is FRU 42W2460, you should be able to get some on eBay for not much these days.

 

Thanks, everyone! I bought a fan off eBay for $11, so we'll see if my husband and I can make it work. It's worth a try, at any rate!

 

Just remember to print the pages of the manual or have another computer next to you so you can refer to the manual.

Magnetic your screwdriver if need to be.

Check out the thermal paste guide, will proper pasting, you will be amaze how cool your computer can run at.

Max hour of work would be around 2-3 hour, but you will realize how hard it is to break a laptop .

 

Best of luck! That guide I posted should help--I find the pictures to be less busy than the Lenovo guide (which you can check out here: http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/42x3547_04.pdf)
Worst case scenario, you're out $11, which is a lot less than a new laptop

 

Good Luck! Please do not forget to put new thermal paste on it. That is my number 1 tip, without thermal paste you could fry your CPU if it isn't making contact with the heatsink. If your fan assembly you bought doesn't come with thermal paste, you can get it pretty cheaply at newegg.com.

 

My thoughts exactly! And your guide looks good -- I think we'll be using it.

Thanks for the tip. I'd never heard of thermal paste before researching this problem, so it's good to know!

 

Remember when applying thermal paste: you want the thinnest covering of the die surface possible. This is not a time when more is better. Too much pate (and failing to remove the old paste completely) is a common newbie mistake, and one that even the most experienced hardware geeks here have likely made when doing this sort of work for the first time.

 

How is it possible to tell if a particular model is affected by the bump issue?
Would really really appreciate an explanation - planning to buy a t61 but deadly afraid of the nvidia chip problem.

 

generally any T61 manufactured after july or august 2008 is fine. the date code is on the bottom after the serial number. it's harder to find those newer ones though, so you may be better off just buying one with intel graphics, and upgrading the screen (most were WXGA i'm sure) if you wanted.