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Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning

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  1. Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning, fan assembly: step 1, image 1 of 3 Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning, fan assembly: step 1, image 2 of 3 Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning, fan assembly: step 1, image 3 of 3

    • identify the exact type of your ThinkPad

    • get the right fan assembly, in this case FRU P/N: 42W2779

    • disconnect power-supply

    • detach battery

    Edit

  2. Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 2, image 1 of 2 Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 2, image 2 of 2

    • find all five screws with the shown symbols and unscrew them

    Edit

  3. Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 3, image 1 of 2 Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 3, image 2 of 2

    • unscrew all the shown screws

    • These ones are tiny

    • watch the sizes of the screws

    Edit

  4. Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 4, image 1 of 2 Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 4, image 2 of 2

    • remove the palm rest carefully

    • If you have a touchpad or fingerprint reader watch the cables

    • blow the dust away

    Edit

  5. Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 5, image 1 of 3 Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 5, image 2 of 3 Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 5, image 3 of 3

    • lift the keyboard carefully

    • watch the cable

    • Use a spudger to detach the cable

    • lift the keyboad and leave it on the side

    Edit

  6. Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 6, image 1 of 3 Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 6, image 2 of 3 Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 6, image 3 of 3

    • just for reference: images showing the keyboard-connector

    • blow the dust away

    Edit

  7. Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 7, image 1 of 2 Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 7, image 2 of 2

    • unscrew the left and right screw of the keyboard bezel and speakers

    Edit

  9. Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 8, image 1 of 2 Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 8, image 2 of 2

    • unscrew the first two screws of the shielding

    Edit

  10. Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 9, image 1 of 3 Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 9, image 2 of 3 Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 9, image 3 of 3

    • carefully lift the wireless antenna cable from the cable guide

    • unscrew the last two screws from the keyboard bezel

    Edit

  11. Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 10, image 1 of 2 Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 10, image 2 of 2

    • watch the claws of the bezel (Sorry, no image!)

    • carefully pull out the keyboard bezel

    • flip the bezel 180°

    • watch the cables

    Edit

  12. Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 11, image 1 of 1

    • remove the wireless antenna cable from the cable guide of the fan assembly

    • you might want to use a metal spudger to widen the cable guide if necessary

    Edit

  13. Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 12, image 1 of 2 Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 12, image 2 of 2

    • unscrew the fist, tiny screw of the clip

    • unscrew the longer screw of the clip

    • remove the clip

    Edit

  14. Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 13, image 1 of 2 Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 13, image 2 of 2

    • remove the shorter screw of the second clip

    • remove the longer screw of the second clip

    • remove the clip

    Edit

  15. Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 14, image 1 of 2 Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 14, image 2 of 2

    • remove the last two screws of the fan assembly

    • detach the power cord with a spudger

    Edit

  16. Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 15, image 1 of 2 Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 15, image 2 of 2

    • CPU with thermal grease

    • other chip with termal grease

    • carfully lift the fan assembly

    • you may need to pull a little more because of the thermal grease

    Edit

  17. Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 16, image 1 of 2 Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 16, image 2 of 2

    • blow the dust away

    • take a spudger and remove the old thermal grease

    Edit

  18. Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 17, image 1 of 2 Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 17, image 2 of 2

    • get a paper-wiper

    • wrap the wiper around the spudger

    Edit

  19. Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 18, image 1 of 2 Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 18, image 2 of 2

    • get some alcohol on the wiper

    • clean the CPU with the wiper

    • clean the chip with the wiper

    • Ensure there is no old thermal grease left

    • Follow this guide to add new thermal paste to the CPU.

    Edit

  20. Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 19, image 1 of 3 Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 19, image 2 of 3 Repairing Lenovo R61i fan assembly replacement or cleaning: step 19, image 3 of 3

    • now place the new fan assembly

    • pay attention to the thermal grease on the backside of your new fan assembly

    • press down the CPU- and chip-connector

    • don't forget to plugin the power cable of the fan assembly

    Edit
Conclusion

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

6 other people completed this guide.

Author

with 6 other contributors

Dennis

Member since: 01/06/13

311 Reputation

1 Guide authored

Badges: 7

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2 Comments

This worked perfectly for a couple of my IBM Lenovo R61s. It was spot on except in step 3 you need to remove both screws by the red circles in order to the get inside bezel off, for the R61 anyway. Thanks for the great tutorial!

tech4eleven - Reply

Excellent guide! It took me less than 1 hour to complete all the steps, and get my R61 up and running again! Thanks a lot

Ioannis Kolaxis - Reply

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