Fan problem with the x201

Been a while since I came to the forum - I hope everyone's doing well.


My two year old x201 seems to have an issue with the fan. A month back, the fan would not start on boot up. the laptop would display a 'Fan Error' and power off. IT was a hit and miss and I didn't take it too seriously at first.

Last weekend, I opened up the laptop and was able to remove the motherboard successfully. I wanted to do couple of things -

1) Clean the fan
2) Open up the heatsink, clean up the old thermal paste and put on a new layer of Arctic silver 5

Murphy stepped in - and both tasks were incomplete.

Once I cleaned the fan and put back the laptop together, The fan started with a high pitched whine - it does not go off at all. Last night, the fan quit working (TPFanControl shows 0 rpm) - the laptop overheats and shuts down.

I'm getting a can of compressed air today to open it up once more and give the fan a thorough cleaning.

Need help on the following:

1) is there any authorized place from lenovo from where we can order spares. If I can't get the fan only, I'll have to order a replacement of the entire heatsink assembly.

2) Apart from Lenovo, is there any trusted place from where I can get lenovo spare parts.

3) One of the screws on the heat sink has a non-standard head. Any ideas on what screwdriver / head would be required?

Any thoughts and suggestions are welcome!

Btw- the battery is gone as well - when the remaining capacity shows 30%, it shuts down without warning. I'll get a replacement (a 9-cell hopefully) early next year.