IBM ThinkPad T41 CPU Replacement

Written By: Marissa Blustein

Comments: 8

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

Time Required

25 - 30 minutes

Introduction

This repair guide will aid you in taking apart your IBM ThinkPad T41 laptop to reach and replace its CPU.

Tools

Step 1

Close the screen and turn the closed laptop over.
Remove all 17 screws on the bottom of the computer.
The multiple colors (turquoise, red, blue, orange, yellow, and purple) are for organizational purposes, indicating different screws.
The yellow marker at the rear denotes the UltraBay device retaining screw. This screw is optional as the UltraBay mechanism will hold the drive or battery in place anyway. The yellow marker at the front denotes the hard disk caddy retaining screw.

You need to remove the battery, hard drive, and UltraDrive before starting step 1.

cak - 01/10/14

Step 2

Remove the extra RAM cover, by lifting where the screw was and pulling out.

If there's extra RAM under the cover, remove it by spreading the retaining clips.

cak - 01/10/14

Step 3

Turn the laptop right side up and open the screen.
Lift the keyboard, using a spudger at the seam between the keyboard and trackpad.
Careful of the ribbon cable underneath, which may tear if the keyboard is lifted too vigorously.

Step 4

Unplug the keyboard’s ribbon cable, by lifting up the edges of the plug.
Remove the keyboard.

Step 5

Close the laptop and turn it over.
Remove the five plastic stickers covering the screws on the front edge of the case.
In order to reuse the stickers, remove them carefully.

Step 6

Unscrew the five screws that were hidden by the stickers.

Step 7

Turn the computer right side up and open the screen.
Lift the trackpad assembly by placing hands on both edges and then pull towards you till it is free of the case.
Be careful of the ribbon cable underneath. It may tear if the trackpad is pulled too vigorously.

Step 8

Unplug the trackpad’s ribbon cable by pulling on the white plastic tab.

Step 9

Pull off the one black and one white coaxial cables by lifting the tabs labeled main and aux (for auxiliary).

Step 10

Push apart the retaining clips.
Note: The card should pop up a little bit.

Step 12

Remove the screw on the left hand side of the case, above the expansion slot.

Step 13

Lift the black plastic border by lifting on either side.
Once the sides are up, pull the border towards you and away from the screen.
When lifting up, there are two pairs of plastic clips hooking into the fan grill. If you pull hard enough the border will come away, but it's better to push the clips with the spudger.

Step 14

Pull the sheet metal cover away from slot.

Step 15

Lift out the expansion slot by starting at the entrance hole and pulling upward.
Note: Try wiggling the slot from side to side until it comes out all the way.

Step 16

Remove the three screws holding down the modem in the upper left corner of the laptop.

Step 17

Lift the modem up, unplugging it from the motherboard as you lift.

Step 18

Pull out the wire that connects the modem to the screen.
Unplug the other cable that attaches the modem to the motherboard

Step 19

Close the computer screen.
Remove the four screws on the back of the laptop, near the right and left hinges.

Step 20

Open the laptop screen.
Remove the single screw that secures the left hinge to top of the computer.

Step 21

Remove a single screw from the metal plate that secures the display cable.

Step 22

Pull the metal plate away from the display cable.

Step 24

Carefully pull up the long antenna cables that were attached to the wireless network card.

Step 26

Unsnake the black cable from the black plastic frame.

Step 27

Remove the sheet metal piece, which was underneath the modem.

Step 28

Remove the rubber microphone cover in the upper left hand corner by lifting up the gray metal frame.

Step 30

Remove three screws near the edge of the computer, holding the optical bay and HDD covers.
Remove three other screws on the other side of the covers.
You should have six screws in total, three of one size and three of another size.

before this steep, you have to lift the cd drive.

marci -

are the next 3 steps truly necessary? I don’t see the point…

Antoine - 31/01/20

Step 31

Lift out the optical bay and HDD covers.

Step 33

Unplug the fan from the motherboard.

Do not try to pull the bottom part off. Unplug the top part only!

yvette2g -

Step 35

Lift the fan out.

During removing cooler, you must maybe use a heat gun (or Hair dryer) directet on GPU part of cooler. By me, cooler was burnt on GPU and with heating of this part it goes better.

alienkos -

why do you need to remove the CPU chip, the RAM and wireless card? Seems to me those could stay there.....

Todd Norman - 06/10/15

Step 36

Turn the CPU retaining screw 90 degrees counterclockwise.
Carefully pull the CPU out of its socket.

Conclusion

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

One comment

The disassembly of the machine goes way too far. Due to my experience it’s enough to remove keyboard, palm rest/ touchpad unit (only unscrew it and set a bit aside from fan) and fan (there are different versions, long/ short). Then you can exchange/ replace the CPU an reassamble all the stuff. This shortens the time needed to about 10 to 15 minutes. Don’t forget to add some thermal compound to assure heat flow between CPU and fan. I needed to replace a Banias with a Dothan CPU to have the NX CPU flag available. NX is a prereq for Windows 10.

Msu Europagii - 12/02/20