kony said:
It is extremely unlikely that they'd sell you less than several
cases per order.
This is what I figured too, but it never hurts to ask whether they would
arrange the order via their local distributor (maybe getting them to carry
the item and offer it to independent repair shops). Sometimes I have
been lucky with small shops, that have gone the extra mile to order
some rare stuff outside the catalog for good service.
Certainly it won't be cheap that way, but sometimes you don't have a
viable alternative with the timeframe at hand.
You could seek part numbers to do an online search, or search for
same part number you already had, or seek (or ask them) who the
distributers are in your area, and further, ask distributers who
carries those in your area or within reasonable (shipable/cost)
distance.
I've done all that and now waiting for replies at the start of the
week. However, I'm faced with the urgency of the situation, I need
that laptop up and running ASAP. The longer delivery is going to
take, the more I'm inclined to take whatever I can get fastest.
It seems I now have one option for a more powerful fan, getting it
from HP (with the same outrageous price) as the old fan model. I
was able to match the Matsushita part no. of a same sized but
higher RPM fan with a Compaq part no. belonging to a fan from
a different Compaq laptop model.
Keep in mind that if original fan was failing, you may find a new
replacement to have original RPM still and be adquate.
This is a bit more complicated. To cut the long story short, I think
the underlying problem is in the thermistor sensing voltage
regulator circuit, that doesn't give enough voltage to the fan
(enough for the CPU in the condition it is in now, it's not exactly
brand new). And yes, the fan is anyhow dead now .
Instead of trying to adjust that without the circuit diagram and
advanced diagnostic facilities, I plan to solder a direct 5V line to
the new fan to ensure that it goes max RPM when the machine is
powered up (not Stand by or Hibernating, ofcourse). I have the pins
for this figured out and all I need is a new fan.
Sure, a fan with the standard RPM might be enough, but now that the
fan needs to be replaced, I'd rather err to the safe side and get a
more powerful unit so that I don't have to fix it again.
And I don't care if it's louder than before, I got several 34dB fans in my
desktop machine so anything up to that doesn't scare me.
It seems that laptop cooling solutions are often designed with less
marginal for safety than desktop ones, because of the space/power
constrains and expectation of lower utilization. With this in mind,
any aging compounded by adverse environmental conditions and high
CPU demand leads a narrower gap to thermal instability.
Often on those types of 'sinks, the metal base is somewhat crude,
there is even more benefit to lapping the bottom of those than a
desktop heatsink... just be sure you don't get any metal dust
into the fan, masking it off with tape might help.
I checked that, it's fine enough for me not to try to improve. I
also tested it by adding a layer of silicon paste and a large
passive aluminium heatsink on top of the thermal module and that
stopped the crashes (and this heatsink got really hot). The
CPU/thermal module joint is good.
Even with same fan body, there may be differences in the mounting
mechanism. You could also investigate how the present
heatsink's fan is mounted... some have pressed-in bearing that
isn't going to be useful but others have tiny screws, so the
fan's frame (bearing and electronic portion) can be removed from
the metal base.
If that is the situation then you can reuse same
base if suitable base with same mount isn't readily available,
just swapping the fan housing from the new 'sink to the old.
The frame cover top plate is riveted to the rest of it (Adda's model has
tiny screws), but otherwise it fits your description. But I would need a
replacement fan with the exact same diameter of the fan axle tube
(the fan axle goes in the middle and the PCB with the stator coils
on top goes around this tube).
This model is close, but it's slimmer and with less flow. The desirable
model is similar but higher and with more flow. I got the specs from
a similar page at panasonic.co.jp.
Sorry about these long ramblings, the best answer to get was just that
name 'Matsushita', which helped me a lot in finding some relevant data.
