Lenovo T450 not booting - Fan error

DerektheDonkey

Good morning all. 
I was wondering if somebody could advise.

Come downstairs this morning to find that my  Lenovo T450  is not booting. It tries but hangs temporarily on the " ThinkPad - to interrupt normal startup press enter "  then in the top  left hand corner it then reports a "Fan error" and switches off. 

I have tried to interrupt the startup as above, I have tried removing the power and battery and pressing enter for 30 seconds, as some suggestions on the web have stated.
Nothing, it just powers off every time.

I cannot hear the fan whirring as I power it up. 

I am guessing I need to replace the fan. Are there any things that I can try prior to attempting this? 

Is replacing this straightforward, I'm averagely competent with opening up and seating and plugging, if that is all it may require? 

In addition, I have ex old machines, I always buy ex business refurbed, a L450 and an L470, might the fans be the same? 

Much appreciated to you . 

Neil_Jones

This normally means the fan has clogged up with dust and isn't spinning due to the build-up.  It doesn't always mean you need a new fan.

On a lot of laptops the "cooling" solution is a piece of copper that radiates heat to a fan on the side of the unit which blows it away.  There is normally a huge gap between the vents and the fan and this is the area that gets clogged up with dust as it is drawn in by the fan.  Given enough time the dust bunnies will accumulate to an extent that the fan can't physically spin any more.

You should be able to take the bottom off and get to the fan relatively quickly without a need to take everything else apart.  If its a T450s this might be of interest:

https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/8veypa/tutorial_on_how_to_solve_a_fan_error_on_a/

DerektheDonkey

Good morning Neil. Thank you so much. Whilst I have not dropped my laptop the symptoms are exactly as that individual on Reddit explains. I'm off to read up further and hopefully be able to fix it. 
I am also very grateful for your other explanations as to why it may have caused an error. 
I will report back, good or otherwise. 

John_Gray

Good luck on taking off the bottom of the T450 - you will probably need one or more spudgers.

It will assist you to download the Lenovo T450 Hardware Maintenance Manual and start at Chapter 9, manual page 68, and read "1040 Base cover assembly" especially the two prerequisites of disabling the internal battery and removing the large external battery. 

Splitting the case in half is not really a job for the ham-fisted!

DerektheDonkey

John_Gray said:

Good luck on taking off the bottom of the T450 - you will probably need one or more spudgers.

It will assist you to download the Lenovo T450 Hardware Maintenance Manual and start at Chapter 9, manual page 68, and read "1040 Base cover assembly" especially the two prerequisites of disabling the internal battery and removing the large external battery. 

Splitting the case in half is not really a job for the ham-fisted!

Much obliged John, that manual is saved in the cloud and will be very useful for me, I do appreciate it.

DerektheDonkey

Thanks all, managed to get the bottom off the laptop and typing this response on it.

Located the fan and it looked very clean however I took some spray air which I had from using previously, gave it a spray and, more importantly I think, with the power disconnected I moved the inner working of the fan around. Gave it a few spins.

It may have become stuck as when I connected power, booted up, it  moved the fan briefly then booted up. Success. Thank you both.

I have left the screws out for the time being but now have the base back on the laptop.

MinuteNoodles

John_Gray said:

Good luck on taking off the bottom of the T450 - you will probably need one or more spudgers.

You won't. I've done hundreds and hundreds of them over the years as the T series were one of the mainstays of my refurbishing business along with the X series and Dell Latitudes. The T series are designed to be taken apart and maintained as they're a corporate grade laptop designed for heavy use. 
The manuals they put online, and that you linked to, are very comprehensive and allow you to completely disassemble the laptop to the last nut and bolt. 

If the fan has been sticking then you may want to consider getting a replacement because it won't get better. Good news is there's tons of them online. 

DerektheDonkey

Thanks MinuteNoodles. I am going to look for a replacement, from initial searches this morning they do not appear to be expensive either. A touch of fortune.

a

sometimes reporting a fan issues are not caused by the fan, but by the bios. Make sure your is up to date

DerektheDonkey

a said:

sometimes reporting a fan issues are not caused by the fan, but by the bios. Make sure your is up to date

Thank you a.

Is this a simple thing to do? I know what the BIOS does but unsure how I check. This is a 3 month old refurb machine so would the refurb company have done this. They are a renowned company from eBay.

 Could you kindly elaborate? Thank you

neilmcl

DerektheDonkey said:

a said:

sometimes reporting a fan issues are not caused by the fan, but by the bios. Make sure your is up to date

Thank you a.

Is this a simple thing to do? I know what the BIOS does but unsure how I check. This is a 3 month old refurb machine so would the refurb company have done this. They are a renowned company from eBay.

 Could you kindly elaborate? Thank you

You need to go to the Lenovo support pages and look for the drivers for your particular machine. There you'll find BIOS updates if any. All you'll need to do is download and run the installer.

If you hit Windows+r and run the msinfo32 command you should be able to see what your current BIOS version is.