Change fansink on X61?

I have a three year old x61 with a noisy fan. I placed a service call, and the guy who called back asked me if I could put it in myself. I figured he wouldn't ask if it was too difficult so I said yeah. Previously, I had swapped RAM on the machine and it was a simple matter of pulling a panel and snapping in the new DIMMs.

Well, the new fan came in the mail and I downloaded the service manual. It turns out I basically have to take the machine totally apart. I am pretty handy, but I have never attempted this big of a job.

Part of me still wants to change the fan myself, but I am worried about damaging the system board. According to the manual, it is pretty fragile. Is that accurate?

Has anyone done here done this? How difficult/dangerous is it?

 

Shouldn't be too terrible. You have the service manual, just take your time, be methodical, remember where every screw went. If you have them, make sure to use small precision screw drivers to not strip the screws or the pattern on top. Good luck.

 

you're correct in saying that you need to take everything apart.   it's not that bad.   i've done more times than i can count on the X6x platform, tablet included.   keep track of screws and work in order.

the new fansink assembly includes pre-applied thermal compound and a thermal pad.   this makes things easy once you get to that point.

if it helps, you can always watch the video to see how it should be done:
http://www.lenovoservicetraining.com/ion/X60/index.html