Dear All,

I opened my R52 the other day (Type = 1847-CTO, warranty lapsed) wanting to unmount the fan and CPU (to remove dust and apply new thermal paste).

However, I cannot remove the fan (after taking out its three screws), as it seems to be stuck down over another chip (maybe the GPU?, ATI Mobility Radeon X300) with some rubbery black contact material.
The copper "heat sink" part looks different from that in the maintenance handbook, extending further down to this other chip (which is somewhat below the centre of the computer).

It appears that someone else had a similar experience with their T43 (viewtopic.php?f=2&t=68787&view=next), although I am not really keen to start cutting away this black stuff with a knife! (the contact area is something like 20-mm square and I would have to carve out under the copper, which seems like taking a big risk of damaging the chip(s) underneath).

Sorry I didn't take a photo while it was open...

Does anyone have any tips how to proceed to unmount the fan?
Why might the heat sink in my particular R52 not correspond with that in the maintenance handbook? (it is ca. 4 years old...but so is the August 2005 handbook...)

Many thanks, MT

For a R52 with X300, there should be another metal bracket held down with 2 long screws to be removed. After that, just grab the edge of the heatsink and lift up. It is stuck usually but it can be removed without tools.

Hi sj

Thanks for the tip. I didn't see any other screws to remove (myself and 2 colleagues spent a long while sniffing around), just the "standard" three screws with fairly deep counterbore (some kind of suspension built in).

The elongated heatsink appears to be a single piece. May I ask what precisely do you refer to with "another metal bracket"?

I will look again for two more screws, presumably down near the graphics chip....
Should these screws be immediately visible/conspicuous?
Just to check: They are screwed in from above the board (i.e. not through from the underside of computer)

Do you happen to know if IBM/Lenovo released a tech note for this?
(The maintenance instructions are so clear, and then...sigh...the fan heatsink is different)

Kind regards, MT

R5x series using ATI 7500 chips use a short fan and no heatsink on the GPU. 9000/9600 GPUs use a separate aluminum or copper heatsink with two screws to the right thru the Ultrabay cage and a third screw to the left thru the KB bezel. The two screws to the right are from top and the one screw on the left is thru the case bottom.

(heatsinks are rotated 90 deg counterclockwise in the picture)

R52 X300 use a long fan and this long fan is press down by a "L" shapes bracket similar to the heatsink brackets in the area over the GPU.

Hi. Is that the only difference with an X300-equipped R52 and an R52 with a lesser GPU? I was just disassembling mine and found that bracket (and long fan) where the HMM for the R52 only shows a short fan. I looked for a different HMM but with no luck.

That's one big change from the HMM, I just wondered if there are many more, anything that might catch me out.

Thanks,