Lenovo ThinkPad T420 Repair: CPU Thermal Paste & Fan
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- Опубликовано: 21 авг 2024
- I've had my trusty ThinkPad for a long time now. Some might say it's showing its age. "NO WAY", I say. With a little bit of time and effort, it'll work as if it was almost new. This dismantling shouldn't be used as a guide per se, but in all of my research this is how I gathered on how things should be done. If you have any tips or corrections, feel free to let me know.
0:56 - Tools
3:16 - Screws
5:20 - Keyboard
6:22 - Keyboard Bezel
8:32 - Speaker
8:54 - Heat sink
10:00 - Removing Thermal Paste
15:20 - Applying new Thermal Paste
16:34 - Putting it back together
22:25 - Results and Recap
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Please note: I am not your technical support. This is not a tech support channel. I prefaced at the beginning of this video that you shouldn't explicitly follow what I do in the video, and should instead refer to the manual. DO NOT ask me questions about problems you have with your ThinkPad. I do not have answers.
Daniel Falconer can you tell me how do I resolve error 1962 on a thinkcentre pc?
@@PlayJewel did you not read the message?
For anyone wondering, the alchohol doesn't need to be isopropyl, it could be methanol or ethanol, it also doesn't have to be 90 percent or higher, because even 70 percent alchohol dries all the water off the surface that's been wiped, it just takes more time to dry, but we are talking seconds. Also, you don't really need to avoid q tips and cotton in general, just be careful not to leave any of it in the laptop, and that's about it. It is easier to use a microfiber cloth because it doesn't leave fibers, but even that is not really that important. I don't even wanna talk about buying coffee filters for the sole purpose of cleaning one cpu with them. This guide isn't bad but if you know a bit about the subject at hand you'll know that many of these steps require unnecessary effort.
One of the most instructive and thoughtful how-to videos I have watched. Thanks for producing and sharing it.
I have a T510 ,would be four years old this year since I've had it ,has given no problems since I've had it ,until recently last week.when it shuts down on its own without my authorization. I got to know that a possible could be a dried up thermal paste at the capacitor. Id like to know if unveiling it would be in the same process as this shown in the video.
Thanks for the tutorial, After 10 years of use, I changed the thermal paste on my T420 and the temperatures of CPU dropped from 90° to 50° when normal use and to 70° C under load and almost same for the GPU, incredible !!
Daniel, just did this. One of the best vids I've seen. Cleaned the fan, also slightly bent the fan cover up a tiny bit to stop the sound of the fan hitting the aluminum cover. After all this I thought it had jammed, it was so quite! Thank you for doing us a big favor!
Great video. It's amazing how these "older" thinkpads still have so much life left in them.They're so easy to repair and upgrade.
I've got a T420 with a 240GB SSD and it's serving me well. If I ever need more CPU power I can get a QM i7 chip, if I need more RAM I can easily upgrade, and I can have up to 3 storage devices (2 x 7mm HDD / SSD + 1 x Msata SSD). Even USB3 or external GPU is possible with an expresscard.
That all is not possible with newer 'thin' laptops that have soldered RAM, CPUs and even SSD's (wtf???).
Real laptops are THICC
hey man, di dyou allready upgrade the T420 with i7 QM chip? hows goin now?
i have T420 Nvidia, that i really2 want to upgrade to i7QM but still doubt abut the thermal issues.
Hey, I have a T520 (similar to T420) that has an i5. I recently upgraded to an i7-2860QM, with no thermal issues. In fact, the temperatures decreased because I applied new thermal paste (Noctua NT-H1) and cleaned the fans. I believe the CPU cooling system is the same for either CPU, because I have a friend with a T520 that came with an i7, but the cooler looks the same. Hope this helps, I believe that there will be no issues. Good luck!
wow thanks man, thats a good news, by the way, did you change your T520 heatsink pipe to the dual pipe or not?
No, I just used the old i5 heatpipe.
ok thnaks for the answer man, will do the upgrade soon in mine, still waiting the processor come from aliexpress, haha.
Thank you, still helpful in 2021 for my newly acquired T420.
Great video. I just did this to my Lenovo T410 with Arctic MX-4 thermal compound, cleaned the fan/fan path and temperatures dropped dramatically. When streaming TV system would rise to 98 degrees C and shortly there after shut down. Now temperature is 79 degrees C when streaming. Super happy.
Hi Daniel, great video - very clear to see what was happening and with excellent naration to clarify each step. My T420 was peaking at 97 degrees, idling at around 50+ .. I followed your video and did the job in next to no time. Now idling at 32 degrees so very happy! Thanks a lot :)
Thanks. I just needed a quick rundown on which screws to take out and which parts to disassemble. This video did a good job of it.
Thanks for the great video! It saved me a bunch of time yesterday in getting my T420 from 78C down to 41C!
What did you do to lower the temperatures. Mine is getting well into the 80 degrees mark.
this laptop is still beast, even for 2017 usage.
i have mine with dedicated Nvidia graphic, using 16GB RAM, 250GB mSATA SSD, 2X 1TB SSHD in main drive and ultrabay slot with caddy, just bought new 9 cell original battery, and it can hold about 8-9 hours in a single charge.
not an ultrabook absolutely, but still perfect mobile companion and semi rugged gear :)
hello. you speak about the 420s ? (is the one with nvidia graphic and 1600x900 resolution). Where can i find an original battery for it ? its not similar to the plain 420... thanks for your reply
well yes, i have both currently, ( T420 and T420S ) i just bought in local store in my country for around 75$ USD - the original 6 cell battery for T420S, and you can find it also at aliexpress.com if you want to :)
it will be far from original, but if i can get 4 hours out of it, i would be grateful. :) thanks for your reply. have a nice day. the 420s is actually a very good laptop. :)
4 solid hours is allready great for T420S, even the original new battery in decent condition can only hold 4,5-5hours max in light usage :)
very neat tutorial. little mix up of q-tips and toothpicks - verbally. but good camera, good editing, cautious maintenance work and good explaining. thank you
This is one of the most thorough videos I've seen for dismantling a ThinkPad, great job! Was gonna do the same thing for my T410 but one of the screws holding the palm rest in is completely stripped, I couldn't unscrew it : (
Thanks! The few videos I've seen for specifically the T420 were kinda terrible, so I tried my best to show off the process (as I understood it).
Thank you very much, Daniel! This prodedure is indeed very helpfull to cool the notebook. For Lenovo T410 uses: Remove all screws on the backside of the notebook to be able to remove the palm rest.
Thank you for sharing the full tutorial. Today I finally replaced the thermal paste on my T420 using your video as a guide.
It always starts with "don't use any sharp metal objects and stuff like that" and in the end we find ourselfes using the biggest knife and hammer we have in the house.
Thanks for your detailed video! Did the same today with my T420 and I can confirm that it was a major improvement! Now, next I am going to try with an X430, which is somewhat more challenging, because you have to almost completely disassemle it to get hold of the fan & heatpipe.
Thanks for the useful video, I was just noticed that I'm running around 90°c idle and that quite freaked me out
Old vid but very informative and easy to follow. Helped me a lot today!
A truly superb video without editing things out. The 'proper' Think Pads were designed to last and be upgraded in all main ways inclusive of CPUs. They have their own mystique and professional 'style' and I am pleased that Lenovo is returning to the original principles with some top models in 2023. This is probably because they lost the confidence of the corporate, medical and education sectors for rugged and upgradeable machines. Korean/Japanese/European companies based around Clevo chassis ideas (with some Asus and MSI input) filled bespoke gaps.
Even Apple is restoring ports and not quite everything is sealed and soldered.
Just a quick tip for anyone doing this maintenance, it is useful to connect the keyboard supported at an angle then place the bezel over and affix the pad connector then it leaves literal 'wriggle' room to seat the keyboard and bezel and retain the liquid proofing for which ThinkPads were famous prior to the somewhat insulting T440 slim and poorly made model.
Thank you for this video. I watched it, then followed it monkey-see / monkey-do with my T420 to install a new fan unit. No hiccups. Thanks again.
Awesome video man! Got a T420 for my grandparents from ebay, and it was overheating like crazy. Best guide from all of them on this website. Now its running like a champ. Thanks!
Glad I could help!
Best video for accessing the T420 CPU 💯 thank you :)
Great video, although you're incorrect about not using Paper Towel and Q-Tips, You can most definitely use Paper Towel and Q-Tips for cleaning, you just don't want to use them for the "Final" cleaning. So by all means, use Q-Tips to clean the hard to reach parts, or to scrape some of the solidified thermal paste. After you do the majority of the cleaning, then use the coffee filter with rubbing alcohol to clean up any lint that was left behind.
Another thing, since its a mobile chip, and it does not have a IHS/Integrated Heat Spreader, and being the direct die, Its best to try to smooth the thermal paste over the entire processor core to ensure that it has adequate heat transfer. www.arcticsilver.com/intel_application_method.html / www.arcticsilver.com/pdf/appmeth/int/ss/intel_app_method_surface_spread_v1.1.pdf As per Arctic Silver's website (Regardless of what compound you use) you should only do the Bead or Line method with processors that have an IHS. Otherwise, Mobile processors, you'll want to use a credit card or something firm to just gently spread it across the entire surface. You can expect even better temperatures this way, as the bead method, may have left the corners of the die uncovered which will make for poor heat conductivity.
Ahhh, yes, that does make sense for the cleaning method. The coffee filters did work pretty well though.
And thanks for the tip and pdf. I'll keep that in mind if there's a next time.
No problem at all, glad I could offer a few tips! I've been working on PC's many many years, and although haven't used Arctic Silver for a long time, I always refer to their application method page to find out the best way to apply it depending on the CPU (especially with the newer chips, as they are usually quite large or weird under the IHS, so I always want to ensure I use the best application of thermal paste. Personally I prefer using Noctua NT H1 thermal paste, as it works great!
You did a great job at detailing all the steps and putting the video together though! My T470 will eventually need this to be done in several years (My first Thinkpad after a friend got the T460), I've already opened mine up twice, once to swap the HDD with a 525GB Crucial SSD, and the second to add an additional 8GB RAM bringing it to 16GB, overall I'm very happy with it.
Thanks!
It's a shame that all of Intel's parts are SoCs now. I was tempted to upgrade the CPU in my ThinkPad because it's dead simple (and dirt cheap at this point). Can't do that with newer ThinkPads :/ .
Well, I suppose it does make sense, people want thinner and thinner devices, and to better save space, its more efficient to solder a BGA style CPU, rather than a socketed one in. It would be nice to be able to upgrade a CPU, but I went with one I felt would provide for me for years to come, i5-7200. :)
Agree. I’m repairing one of these for friend of mine and it was getting very warm. Came to me with complaint of screen shutting off. (Think daughter wanted new laptop). 😏. Noticed it’s running hot and more sluggish then it should, Came here to find the spring for DVD release as missing on one I’m working on and was “thinking” of cleaning the heat sink/fan but just with compressed air. Def ripping down to do replace paste.
Now if on,y I can find the $#*& spring to hold the DVR in place. (Won’t come out when done but curios what happened to it. Then again, was curious all but 3 screws were in place on bottom. 🤫.
Have two 430i and similar and can say they don’t make rugged systems like anymore.
Thanks for idea on deciding to replace the paste and clean for my friend. May as well do it right
Thank you so much for this video. I followed your detailed instructions and reduced my t 420s temperature from 92c to 70c.
Very nice video, thanks so much.
Cleaned my fan and renewed the thermal paste after 10 years of daily use and it's much faster again due to better cooling. Nice.
Thank you for the clear instructions! I used a guitar pick to undo the clips. Typing this on my T420 :)
Thanks... this helped me save my computer (and a lot of $ doing it myself). Appreciate the detail! Total beginner and was able to follow along easily enough. Cheers!
This video was incredibly useful!!! Thanks so much Dan!! My T420 is working like a charm again.
I recently replaced the thermal paste on my t430 because I was idling at 70C! First I thought that maybe a sensor was broken but nope the thermal paste was crusty as hell and I’m back to using it confortably
Good video! my T420 was running kinda hot. I just followed the video, and its running cooler now. One note, if you work from the left side (where the hard drive bay is) and around to the front when removing the bezel, it will come off easier because of the headphone jack on the right side. Also I followed the recommendation from Arctic Silver 5 that on laptops you spread the thermal paste around. Thanks for the very helpful video!
The guide was amazing, thank you
Thank you very much for this video. I'm having similar issues with my 5-year old W530 and thought the slowdowns were related to malware or software updates, etc... Since our PCs are about the same age, I'd bet my thermal paste is as dried up as yours was.
i don't use coffee filters i use eye glass cleaning papers good ones are lint free and some of the one with cleaner on them work real good.
for the fan plug, a hemostat works great for grabbing the plug and pulling it in the tight place and plugging it back in. i also would change the CPU battery while you have the case open. if your computer is that old and its never been changed
Thanks, buddy. Successfully replaced the fan
Thanks a lot for your video👍Have the same problem with overheating, and your video was very helpful for me!
Mine is absolutely overheating too.
Edit: I have opened the laptop, cleaned up the fan, then decided to get bolder, went to shop, bought the thermal paste and isopropylalcohol, and did the whole thing. The difference is incredible, the laptop is so much cooler now. Before it was soo hot i was having problem holding my hand on the fan output on back or on the bottom of the laptop, now its getting cold air out of the place. Now i can play Counsterstrike Global offensive on my laptop, its playable with framerate between 30-45 fps. It was unplayable yesterday.
Wow man, you just saved my life, thank you so much!!!
Great videos. My T420 running like new.
Servicing my dads Lenovo t420 atm, fan bearing was making some bad noises after i changed thermalpaste & cleaned out some dust, turns out the fan is just held down magnetically so it was super easy too fix with some automotive wheelbearing grease.
(Bit on the thicker side for the purpose but should last quite a while.)
Got a 500 gb WD blue ssd on the way as well while i recover files from his 750 gb hdd that had a visit with the floor after my younger sister dropped the laptop.
thank you for such a great video. the steps were straight forward and easy to follow.
could you make the music any louder thanks
Put an SSD in mine a couple years ago, and upped the RAM to 16GB a few days ago (works fine even tho documentation would lead you to believe 8GB is max. documentation is out of date from before 8GB sticks were widely available). Followed your vid and replaced thermal compound a year or so ago and it improved temps a little but still runs pretty hot.
You should change the title of this video to t420/ t430 repair because I followed the steps exactly for my T430 and it was the same process.
Excellent! Easy to follow, works GREAT!
Thank u man, your video was very helpful for me, good job. Thanks again!!!
Thank you, its a very good and clear tutorial. I have the same laptop and the temps are getting high. Gonna do the same thing but I am very afraid of messing my laptop...
The Lenovo T420 fortunately use a double heat pipe cooler that run always cool avoiding the degradation of thermal compound. With cleaning compressed air to remove the dirt is enough. From my point of view has no sense to do a complete disassembling is a waste of time with the risk to damage internal components.
I use a vacuum instead of compressed air. Cuz to me it seems to violent and put dust particles inside rather than outside. My humble point of view of course.
Thanks for the guide bro!!
Thanks for this video, save me a lot of time.
Just the job! Fan was completely clogged. Did the job in about an hour and the machine now barely gets warm.
My T420 is getting really hot, into the 90 Celsius sometimes. I think I should replace the thermal paste.
Thank you body!
I had the same issue so thanks to your video, it is fix!
Thanks for this clear, instructive video.
Also, the latching mechanism thing. It happens when you remove the palmrest sometimes, lol
When that happens I just take the palmrest off again, align the plastic slider, and install the palmrest again
super cool video, i have a T440 old one, i will clean it and change the thermal paste also. thank you for your tips
This video was very helpful. Thank you.
Helped me in replacing the laptop fan.
Just did this today by following this video and everything works well! Thanks for giving a thorough steps and explanation :D
Couple of things i did differently is when taking off the CPU Heatsink screws, i did the uninstallation by unscrewing screw 4,3,2,1 then installation is vice versa (1,2,3,4) in criss cross pattern.
Then i take off the old thermal with just tissues and a little bit of water. Works just as well since i didn't have alcohol around.
Good job, my friend. :)
A very helpful video thanks!
I love my t420.
What's funny is it shows how little Intel improved from the 2000 series processors to the 6000 series processors since they didn't have competition like they do now.
If you look from the 7000 series to the current 10th you'll see way more improvement in core counts and frequencies for the same money.
I.e. i7 2700k vs i7 6700k (same 4 cores and 8 threads just frequency and other small improvements) then the i7 7700k (4c 8thread) to i7 10700k (8 core 16 thread) because for the prices AMD is and core counts they are forced to offer more.
Hi Daniel,
This video was very helpful. It is very illuminating an easy to replicate. Thanks a lot for recording and posting it. I have a quick question. Would 95% ethanol work for cleaning thermal paste or would it damage the processor?
Thanks,
Giorgi.
Don't see why not. I'm not sure if it'll evaporate though. Rubbing alcohol is dirt cheap though, and is a safe bet. You could also get ArctiClean which is useful when the thermal paste is dry and crusty.
I would recommend Isopropanol over Ethanol because its evaporating much faster with less stain because you have in 95% Ethanol, 4,9% Water.
Thanks! This worked out perfectly! Greatly appreciated******
Thank you so much, ur video helps me a lot on my laptop!
The music makes a fairly stressful job for the uninitiated all the more stressful
...do you have a version without the soundtrack and the annoying dominant7th#9 chord grating on my nerves?
lol no
sorry..
So my t420 is shutting down after getting very hot and want to try this fix. Looks pretty straightforward.
Any suggestions not in your video?
PS: that dominant seventh ends up resolving I think and the music gets better..
thanks.
Read some of the comment threads on this video. I wasn't right about a couple of things.
Thanks Daniel.
Did this fix your overheating issue?
Delicate job!
Nice guide, still using the T420? How is it performing now if so?
Every once in a while, yeah. Starting to act a little weird, but I've updated Windows quite a few times now without a refresh. Probably over due for one.
Thanks for the vid, but Jesus Christ why the music???
To sooth your precious soul
I have a t420 also mine done same stuff i got it new in 2011 ran piss out of it for yrs. Redone thermal paste temps wont go over 60c max load now also turned off turbo boost that keep it 55c max and the extra 300mhz makes no diff in daily tasks. Laptop has 256gb msata 500 gb ssd in 2.5 hd socket 500 gb ssd in dvd ultra bay ran in raid 16gb ram i love mine only downside is the display
.. Cheers to you ..
That's a lot of work.
I have almost this exact same laptop (T410) and it is having this exact same issue you described here. This video is so very thorough and informative so I am really hoping it will help me fix the issue.
Btw, can you tell me the brand of the thermal paste? I keep trying to understand you in the beginning of the video when you say it and I can't tell if I'm hearing "Arctic" or something akin to "Sparktic" when I look it up all I get is "Arctic Silver 5" but I want to confirm that I am getting the correct product for my computer.
Yup, Arctic Silver 5. But really, any well rated thermal paste should be fine as far as I know.
Awesome! Thank you so much for the reply! Sadly my local PC shop only had some unidentifiable generic thermal paste for sale and then even the guy tried to tell me that laptops use a thermal pad, not a paste. I told him I know my model uses a paste but he insisted on his claim. Weird. Either way, I'll be ordering the thermal paste used in the video to be certain, so yet again, thank you so much for the info. =)
Dunno where you're from, but I always order things from Amazon. If that's not an option, maybe newegg?
I live in a small town in Colorado. I did forget to check Amazon again after I had looked there for spudgers, luckily my local shop actually gave me a small set for free. I tried Newegg but the least expensive option was out of stock and the next one up said they couldn't serve to my location. I ended up turning to eBay where I ordered some from a seller with an incredibly good feedback rating.
well i tried following your instructions and i just cannot get my computer open. the keyboard will not slide out like you showed.
Great video,
What liquid did you use to get the paste off of a CPU?
thanks... perfect video
My X230 and T420s are now facing surgery :)
thanks m8, im gonna have to try this out
It was good until the music came on
i did an opsie, somehow i managed to slip and pierce something and idk what it is or how to refer to it in order to find a spare online to replace it...i pierced smth black, like a foil or smth, through this hole right here prnt.sc/w4ugcj can anyone tell me what it is? ty :(
I noticed your t420 has two heat pipes. I just took mine apart and I only have 1. I'm wondering if there would be a difference in cooling if I upgrade to two heatpipe heatsink? I will note that my single heat pipe is almost as wide as your double heat pipe heatsink... so it makes me wonder why they choose one over the other. I do not have the nvidia gpu chip.
I am still using my T420. It is not the fastest, but I'm willing to sacrifice a couple seconds here and there. Are you still using it?
A little. It's still going.
my t420s gives my tiny but very irritating whine noise, the more the fastest it spins. how to prevent it ? will replacing fan help? or can I just put some lubricant in it somehow?
Tomek Atomek probably the system 32 virus again.
After clean fan and change thermalpaste, how about the temperatur of cpu? Its significan to reduce the temperatur?
HOLA DANIEL UN GUSTO COMO SACO LA TECLA ESPACIADORA DE LA T420 PRESIONO Y SOLO MARCA SI APRETO CON FIRMEZA EN EL CENTRO , UN AMIGO ME COMENTO QUE TIENE DOS CONTACTOS Y QUE SEGURO UNO DE LOS DOS NO ESTA FUNCIONANDO BIEN O ESTA SUCIO PERO QUIERO SACAR SIN ROMPER
Thank you! :)
13:00 Toothpick. Anyway, I just use a credit card to scrap the old paste off, then wipe with alcohol and a kleenex to finish off. Been working well this way for twenty years.
my thinkpad is always telling it have 92C when i just touch the air is almost cold, already change the paste 3 time and put grease with vaseline inside the cooler, and still telling me the laptop is working at 92C when im pretty sure that is fake the cooler air is still cold for my touch also the computer is not hot at all....
Spoiler, fan noise will always be the achilles heal of these thinkpads no amount of fan replacements or tweaks will remove that high pitch race car fan hum they make
Thanks
Thx buddy!
Thanks!
Great video, but the music is tortuous.
tinner or alcohol to remove paste heatstink ? or something
Thanks 🌹
Are you still using the ThinkPad T420? If so, I have the corei5 version with eight gigs of RAM and a 500 gig SSD am I able to upgrade to windows 11?
Most any hardware is capable of running Windows 11, though often done though non-conventional means. They were just trying to scare us with that whole TPM 2.0 thing.
running in the 90s
Sadly I came here too late, my thinkpad died in the middle of a final exam in smoke lmao and I opened up the thing and the gpu cooked itself.
CRITICAL step is missing from this guide. After you remove the battery, 3:33 DEPRESS THE POWER BUTTON FOR AT 30SECONDS to remove ALL the power the motherboard!!!
Fail to do this and you WILL fry your laptop!!!
Is that mentioned in the service manual? I don't remember it being, otherwise I would have done it. Also, while it may be good advice, there's no reason to speak in absolutes. I didn't do it and my laptop was fine lol.
How did youclean the fan?