T61 - repair or replace?

[redpencilgirl]

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!

[baiii]

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 :P.

[kpresler]

Originally Posted by redpencilgirl

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!

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...42x3547_04.pdf)
Worst case scenario, you're out $11, which is a lot less than a new laptop

[StealthTH]

Originally Posted by redpencilgirl

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!

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.

[redpencilgirl]

Originally Posted by kpresler

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...42x3547_04.pdf)
Worst case scenario, you're out $11, which is a lot less than a new laptop

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

Originally Posted by StealthTH

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.

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

[ThinkRob]

Originally Posted by redpencilgirl

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.

[Megavvolt]

Originally Posted by Hearst

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.

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.

[mariol90]

Originally Posted by Megavvolt

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.