T60: Try to order a replacement heatsink - horrible Lenovo support [ Edited ]

[jayk]

Just called the IBM/Lenovo parts department and tried to order a replacement heatsink for my T60 (the fan in mine is getting pretty noisy). I opened up the machine and compared it with the pictures in the HMM and the FRU is 41W0467. I tried looking this up on their parts website (not found) and then called 877-719-0841 and they just told me the part number is invalid. The parts line person told me to call tech support and gave me their number. I called and gave them the machine serial number and they told me they couldn't help me because the machine was out of warranty. They refused to even check if the FRU was valid, much less help me find an alternative p/n "because the machine is out of warranty". He kept saying it was a company policy that they would provide no information for an out-of-warranty machine. I asked if he worked for Lenovo or IBM and he said both. I asked to talk to the guy's manager and he said there was no manager for out of warranty machines and then he hung up on me. Amazing. I'm actually glad I called so I could see just how bad things have gotten. I was starting to think about a W520, but now once my T60 finally dies I'm done with Lenovo for good.

Moderator Note: Edited subject to match content.

[andyP Retired SuperMod]

jayk, welcome to the forum,

Obviously not a pleasant experience.

If you could post the Type and Model Number of your system members will be able to check the part number you need. I personally suspect you may have a typo there and might be looking for 41W6047, you'll need to scroll down a little.

[jayk]

Andy,

Thanks for the reply.  I'm looking at p. 61 of the Sept 2008 T60 HMM and it definitely says 41W0467.  It looks like the 41V9932 is similar and may also work (that's what I wanted the Lenovo Tech guy to answer for me, but he hung up instead).  My machine model is 2007-EP1 (15" ATI graphics, Core2 Duo processor).

- Jay

[andyP Retired SuperMod · Accepted solution]

Looking at the support site for your system I see;

Product: ThinkPad T60 2007-EP1

Original description: Based on 2007-J2U: T7200(2GHz), 1GB RAM, 80GB 5400rpm HD, 15in 1400x1050 LCD, 64MB ATI Radeon X1300, CDRW/DVD, Intel 802.11abg wireless, Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, Fingerprint reader, 6c Li-Ion, WinXP Pro.

The clue is the "Based on". You need to select the fan for the J2U system which is 41W6407, you will see the entry in the list against that number; 2007-J2x.

The website for service parts I link to was "Last modified:  2010-03-04"

[jayk]

Andy,

That's great... thanks so much.

- Jay

[Mark_Lenovo Former Administrator]

jayk,

Really sorry to hear about your experience this morning,  and I'm glad that Andy was able to help you figure out the right number for the fan that you need to order.  We definitely want to maintain your loyalty and business.

Kudos to you for tackling this project - please let us know if you need any help with it !

As you dive in, this related KB article on T60 fan cleaning and replacement may be helpful.

Also, there are some service training videos on the T60/T60p that show how to remove the various components.  You may have this covered, but as a benefit for anyone else tackling this project, I thought I'd point them out here.  

Best regards,

Mark

(Thanks AndyP!)

[jayk]

Mark,

Thanks for the links.

Is it the policy of Lenovo tech support to provide absolutely no information on out-of-warranty systems?

Thanks,

Jay

[Anarchy333]

Mark,

Thanks for the helpful links on replacing the fan in the T60/T61.  I have purchased a replacement fan and installed it, but when I try to power on the laptop, the fan spins up for about 3 seconds and then stops.  There is nothing being output to the screen.  After the 3 seconds, the computer is still running as I can hear the hard drive spinning.  Is this related to a pressure sensor on the CPU or something else?  Please help!  Thank you

[TuuS]

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Anarchy333 wrote:

Mark,

Thanks for the helpful links on replacing the fan in the T60/T61.  I have purchased a replacement fan and installed it, but when I try to power on the laptop, the fan spins up for about 3 seconds and then stops.  There is nothing being output to the screen.  After the 3 seconds, the computer is still running as I can hear the hard drive spinning.  Is this related to a pressure sensor on the CPU or something else?  Please help!  Thank you

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The 3 second spin up is part of a test to make sure you have a working fan. It's then normal to power off the fan until the tem sensors indicate cooling is required, then it will run at varied speeds in accordence of the cooling needs. 

There is a free 3rd party app that is very helpful for monitoring the fan usage and system temperatures, it's called tpfancontrol and if you add "dot com" to the name it will take you to their website. If you like it, please consider sending a couple dollars to help development.

If you're interested in further improvements to your T60 cooling system, many of us have installed a T61p heatsink/fan assembly. It seems to be far superior in cooling and aside from some minor fitting that is required anytime you replace a heatsink, it's pretty much a drop-in replacement. The two major differences in this part are that it uses 3 heatpipes instead of two, and the GPU cooling platform uses thermal paste instead of a gelpad to cool the graphics chip. Even if you don't upgrade your existing T60 series unit, replacing the gelpad with some good thermal paste in itself is a good way to help cooling, but any modifications to the factory cooling system should be done at your own risk and it will be your responsibility to make sure it functions properly, you don't want to make a modification and then just ignore it, anytime a system is changed or altered it requires monitoring and followup, but I can tell you that I've found this mod makes my systems run substantially cooler.

[rneal_ra]

Mark, Doe they have an email account you can request quotes from. We called the phone number and were told we could not get a quote over the phone and would need to email a request. We have emailed, but not gotten a reply after 3 days. Thanks for your help!