X220: New Fan

Not sure if this is widely known or covered, but I thought it's worth sharing:

My X220 with core i5 did become increasingly warmer, with top temperature of 96° reached very easily and the CPU throtteling down. I've now received a replacement fan, and temperatures are much lower - under full load 78°, idle 50°, more than 20° less than before.

First I thought the issue was dust, but the old fan was not dusty at all. It looks like Lenovo is using a newer fan generation (probably the same ones as the X230). The old one just has metal at the top, the newer has copper:

Old:
New:

So if anyone wants to get a cooler X220, consider replacing your fan with the newer model.

 

chances are... all you need was new thermal paste replacement, the ones from factory are terrible.
also turbo boost at full load will make the cpu reach 96C. I keep my settings on balanced along with arctic silver 5 runs nice and cool even under full load with stock cooler.

 

I wouldn't always say stock TIM is bad, HP and Dell I know use Dow Corning thermal paste, which is actually quite good. The problem is factory thermal paste sometimes is applied poorly, usually resulting in poor surface area contact.

 

Well, the engineer didn't clean the CPU, so have a layer of old paste mixed with the new .

But even so and with turbo boost the CPU now reaches 82° max (without throtteling). So a massive improvement.

 

I suppose this would be a good thread to ask in:
How difficult would it be to replace the fan in an X220 myself and how much does the part typically cost? Just wondering in case things go south in the future with this laptop.

 

yea lol thats what i meant it was badly applied x.x my had way too much paste on the cpu when i took it apart the first time.

My T420 also got a quad core 45W CPU instead of the old dual core 35W so that's one reason I had to keep the turbo boost off to keep temp in check

X220 Service Manual

It shouldnt be very hard to take apart, follow the manual and common sense and you should be good. fans with heat sinks are probably 20-50 bucks on ebay.

 

While it is certainly possible to do yourself, it is far beyond replacing a harddrive or keyboard. On this particular machine you have to completely disassemble it. I was so surprised by this that I took a picture...(on a T410 it's a 1 minute job...).

 

I was contemplating on doing this, but never mind.

 

Same here..too much work! I have also noticed my X220 getting hotter than usual. I might not have a choice.

 

On X series machines - starting with X60 from what I recall - the heatsink replacement is a PITA. Having said that. if you take your time and perform it with an open HMM, it's really not that bad.

My $0.02 only...

 

Does the new fan whine like the old ones at full RPMs?

 

What does "PITA" and "HMM" mean?

 

PITA = Pain in the A_ _ (just google it), and HMM = Hardware Maintenance Manual.

 

This is interesting. My i7 x220 does reach temps over 90 degrees which is a little worrisome.

I've been contemplating taking it apart and replacing the stock TIM with some Arctic Silver 5 but from what I've read online its not worth the hassle (a couple of degrees lower temp at best).

But this new fan design sounds good (perhaps too good). I wonder whether it runs at higher RPM. Did they replace the fan only or the entire heatsink assembly

 

My understanding is that the whole heatsink was replaced.

If one goes "by the book", they always replace the heatsink, and not just the fan itself.

 

The entire unit, so fan and heatsink have been replaced. I don't think that's due to higher RPM - that's controlled by the motherboard, not by the fan, isn't it? So how would the MB know to run higher RPM's for that new CPU fan?

As I type CPU temp is 49° with the new fan..before the lowest temperature reached was somewhere in high 60ies. And for the first time in a long while the HDD is louder than the fan.

 

I think it is a little less prone to whining. But I did not find the 'old' fan particularly whining at high temperatures...so either I had a good unit or I don't hear whining as other people do.

 

Thanks for the reply.

Sorry if I missed it, but did you just buy the new fan from Lenovo?

 

I have on-site warranty, so an IBM engineer supplied and replaced it for me.

 

I replaced the fan on a t420s the other day which is a very similar procedure. I've never met a device so easy and straightforward to disassemble. They use like 4 or 5 screw types total in specific areas so it's hard to lose track of what goes where especially if you are reasonably organized. Tearing down an iPhone is a more difficult procedure than Thinkpads. I may do this with my i7 x220 since it does get quite warm under load, though the fan is relatively quiet. To those on the fence, just do it, it's not bad at all and you just need a set of small screwdrivers and that's it.

 

what is the part number? thanks

 

According to the ebay auction, it's "0B67715 04W6931 04W8923 04W6931".

I just ordered it for my i7 X220 since it has been idling at 55-60C and go as high as 80C on 22C ambient indoor room temp.