T61 Fan Rattle

Hi all,

Well it seems my so far bullet proof T61 is having some problems. About 2 days ago I noticed my fan making a rattling noise, when i lift the machine up and move it from side to side it gets worse, it sounds like somethings hitting or rubbing against the fan. I have taken apart laptops/desktops so I don't see why I can't just order a replacement fan, could someone tell me if I should replace the entire heat sink, or just the fan? I am also using TPFan Control to stop the rattling.

-Thanks

 

Inject canned air in and see what happens first.

 

Thanks, will do, hopefully that fixes it. Should I spray from both sides?

 

Secure the blades of the fan with a pencil or something of that nature before you blast it with air. I destroyed the fan bearings in my T60 many moons ago by directly blasting air that spun the fan beyond its RPM specs.

 

Yikes, thanks for that tip. One day I just decided to inject air in from the left side and a cloud of dust shot out the back. Didn't open the case though. Hope I didn't damage anything.

 

You might want to open up your T61 and see if there's anything physically wrong with the fan. Also, you'll want it open when you spray it with compressed air - as mtneer mentioned, you'll want to make sure the fan doesn't spin too fast by securing it, which you can do only when it's exposed.

 

Thanks everyone, I'm deff going to give that a try, gotta get some canned air though just finished off my last one. I remember watching a video on how to disassemble the T61, but I lost the link. Does anyone have the link for it? or for instructions? thanks

 

Here's all you need:

T61 15.4" Hardware Maintenance Manual:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-67980.html

T61 14.1" Hardware Maintenance Manual:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-67979.html

 

Thank you so much!

 

Did the canned air trick worked? I'm having the same issue with my T61 but I don't have a can of air.

 

use a vacuum cleaner instead, just hold down the fan vane when you are using the vacuum cleaner. You can dislodge most of the dusts using this method.

 

Yeah how did this work out? Mine has been doing it for a while, but I never cared enough to get it fixed. I was thinking that I had to buy a replacement fan

 

you can strip apart the fan, with a bit of cleaning and re-oiling it should work without problem.

 

Yeah, I need to stop being lazy and open it up to clean it and check out what's going on. What kind of grease/oil are usually put on these?

 

i would apply some WD-40 and clean the fan spindle, and would then finally apply some high quality sewing machine oil... last time i did fan repair on the R60 was 2 years ago for a friend and it is still working now.

 

I had this issue. Tried the cleaning. Didn't seem to do anything. The fan is getting worse, and I suspect may have just died a matter of minutes ago??

Striking out a bit in searches, but where can I get a replacement fan for the T61? Any suggestions are a big help.

 

You can go the official route and get it from Lenovo directly.

I would however suggest looking at eBay. There are truckloads of fans/fan assemblies available for sale at very reasonable prices.

 

Appreciate it.

I dug into the laptop yesterday to see what the part number is for the fan (there are 2 from the factory, correct? 42W2460 Toshiba and Furukawa 44C0825). Turns out my fan didn't have a sticker on it. How do I know which model to get? Or does any old "T61 fan" work just fine?

No problem with just replacing the fan and using the current processor heat sink, correct? Just get some thermal paste?

 

what is the full type/model no. of your laptop? xxxx-xxx?

 

7658-CTO

Looks like online I see 42W2460. However, everyone seems to only sell 42W2461. Hopefully the 61 works fine.... I need to get a replacement soon. I'm going nuts at the noise.

 

I applied oil to my fan....but it didn't help. It's still loud as hell. I'm thinking about buying a new one off ebay.

 

your fan spindle may no longer be straight and the unbalanced fan vane maybe is what causes the rattling.

 

Yeah, the fan definitely seemed loose, but I could have also oiled it wrong. I didn't see a ball bearing, so I just kind oiled the middle part. And I used motor oil since that's all I had on hand lol.

 

There is no ball bearing, these fan use a brushless motor.

Car engine motor oil? these oil's viscosity are too high, you would need to get some sewing machine oils instead.

 

I went to look for it but couldn't really find it. I dunno if it's worth opening up again and oiling because I dunno if it'll fix it.... Will 3in1 oil work?

 

what is 3 in 1 oil? you basically need a low viscosity oil.

 

It's a low viscosity oil, Lead_org.

Renee

 

then it should be okay.

 

lol I thought 5w30 would be enough of a low viscous oil.

Any tips on where to apply the oil and how much? I'm a little bit confused since in a brushless electric motor, there shouldn't be any moving parts touching each other, i.e. the rotor and stator are not in contact. But then again, this is based on my knowledge of working with brushless motors regarding robotics...not fans.

 

5W30 is a low viscosity oil for car engine, but it is still too high for micro electronic motors.

you just need to oil the stainless steel metal pole part of the fan vane (sorry i don't know the correct description of that part).

 

JaeZTT, could you measure sizes of fan? Mine is rattling too, but I'm to lazy to fix it and I don't want to buy whole new cooling system, so I thought about changing fan only

 

Thanks lead.

ThinkLover, I will if I have a chance to open the laptop up again to try and oil it. I'm not sure if oiling it will fix the issue, so I'm kinda hesitant on trying again. You could also search on Ebay for a T61 fan. I saw a few under $20.

http://cgi.ebay.com/OEM-IBM-Lenovo-...046?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3361e1e036

 

Thanks for the link, but shipping-to-Poland price would be even bigger than price for brand new whole cooling system

 

I recently had problems with the fan on my T61, so I decided to get a replacement on eBay at low cost.

This is how it sounded before the repair. It was so bad you could actually feel vibration in the palmrest.

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I'll just throw in some pictures to show the replacement job. Sorry if it's a bit much.






















It worked out good.

 

Thanks for input.
Mine fan is not as loud as your was, but it is still annoying.
I will probably do something with it (in future) when switching CPU for T8300.