Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon 4Th Gen Fan Replacement Repair Guide

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

8

Time Required

                          8 - 10 minutes            

Sections

2

• Bottom Panel
• 2 steps
• Cooling Fan
• 6 steps

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Introduction

The cooling fan is the main reason why your laptop is able to run smoothly as it pushes outside cool air over the main components in the laptop like the CPU and GPU, which heat up while the laptop is in use.

Most laptop fans, however, are very susceptible to dust build-up, which can cause the fan to either malfunction or create undesirable noises.

This guide covers how to replace the fan. It is recommended that you use canned air to blow any dust that might have jammed the thermal fans before trying to replace the fan entirely.

Keep note that in this guide, you will be removing thermal paste that is under the fan assembly. It is good practice to replace the thermal paste after taking out the fan. For more information, click here.

Before starting this guide, make sure to power down the device fully and unplug any exterior sources of power from the laptop.

What you need

Step 1

              Bottom Panel               

• Unscrew the nine captive screws on the bottom cover of the laptop using a Phillips #1 screwdriver.
• The screws do not fully come out of the back cover, so there is no need for screw management.
• There are a few small clips around the edge that you may need to pry at to free them. An opening pick may be helpful for this process.

Unscrew the nine captive screws on the bottom cover of the laptop using a Phillips #1 screwdriver.

The screws do not fully come out of the back cover, so there is no need for screw management.

There are a few small clips around the edge that you may need to pry at to free them. An opening pick may be helpful for this process.

1024

Step 2

• Lift the back cover up and off of the computer.

Lift the back cover up and off of the computer.

Step 3

              Cooling Fan               

• Peel off the black protective film to the left of the fan.

Peel off the black protective film to the left of the fan.

Step 4

• Do not remove the four screws closest to the fan. They do not affect the fan assembly.
• Disconnect the antenna wires on green the wireless LAN card to the left of the fan.

Do not remove the four screws closest to the fan. They do not affect the fan assembly.

Disconnect the antenna wires on green the wireless LAN card to the left of the fan.

Step 5

• Lift up the hinge connector that is attached to the fan’s ribbon cable.
• Carefully disconnect the cable by pulling outwards from the ribbon connector.

Lift up the hinge connector that is attached to the fan’s ribbon cable.

Carefully disconnect the cable by pulling outwards from the ribbon connector.

Step 6

• Loosen the screws on the ‘x’ configuration of metal.
• These screws are held on to the metal ‘x’, so don’t worry about them falling out.

Loosen the screws on the ‘x’ configuration of metal.

These screws are held on to the metal ‘x’, so don’t worry about them falling out.

Step 7

• Lift the fan upwards from the board.

Lift the fan upwards from the board.

Step 8

• It’s best practice to replace the old thermal paste under the ‘x’ configuration of metal. (Guides on how to replace thermal paste can be found here.)

It’s best practice to replace the old thermal paste under the ‘x’ configuration of metal. (Guides on how to replace thermal paste can be found here.)

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

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                    Alexander Davis                     

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David Mintz - Jul 3, 2021

Reply

I bought a refurbished Lenovo from Ebay and it purports to be a Carbon X1 4th Gen, but its guts do not look like the ones depicted in the photo. Instead, it looks like https://davidmintz.org/images/20210703_l…. Nevertheless I was able to remove the fan — the general idea is similar enough. After three or so years this machine has died with a simple “Fan error” message at boot time. I tried blowing out some dust and trying again, no luck. So I will be looking for the replacement part. Wish me luck. Thank you for the guide!

Edwin Blake - Oct 16, 2022

Reply

Very useful and allowed me to clean the fan on my 4th gen X1 Carbon. That fixed the immediate “fan error” message on boot failure. It is running rough so I will have to replace it soon I think.