The inside of my Thinkpad T42p
This morning the IBM service tech came to replace the failed fan assembly in my Thiinkpad T42p. The Thinkpad has been fairly indestructable, having gone around the world several times without any problems. So I was surprised when I started getting “Fan Error” messages just after the BIOS splash screen while setting up on Sunday evening. Fortunately, I also got the 24-hour onsite support contract back when I got the system. It ended up taking more like 36 hours to get someone out here, but I did call in the middle of the night.
That reddish assembly at the middle left is the heatsink and fan. The system board runs a test to make sure the fan will spin up before proceeding with the system boot process; the original fan will spin manually, but the motor seems to have failed. I’m glad to have the technician replace the fan instead of doing it myself. Getting the heatsink off the graphics chip required some significant prodding with a sharp knife to unbond the heat compound sticking them together.
The past day and a half I’ve been using other computers around the office, which has been kind of strange. Even though they’re all part of my normal setup, nothing is in the right place, since I keep reaching or looking in a different direction than usual. It’s been like working in someone else’s office. This evening I’ve gotten everything synced back up, but probably need to start thinking about migrating off the Thinkpad at some point as it continues to age.
