Using a 2 dollar shim to fix a laptop fan rattle that three shops gave up on

Kelly Kelly · 2026-10-15T20:30:05.999743+00:00

A customer brought in an old ThinkPad T480 (2018 model) that was making a grinding noise for about 8 weeks, and two other shops had already told her the fan needed a full swap. I pulled the fan and the bearing felt fine, so I watched it spin with the cover off and noticed the whole housing was vibrating against the heatsink. Turns out the foam pads that sit between the fan and the copper pipe had flattened out from years of heat cycles. I cut two tiny strips from a 2 dollar sheet of adhesive silicone I keep for phone repairs and stacked them under the fan mounts. Noise gone completely, and the temps dropped 6 degrees during a stress test. I have fixed four more of these since then instead of ordering new fans. Do you all keep a stash of shim material for stuff like this, or is that just me?

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Using a 2 dollar shim to fix a laptop fan rattle that three shops gave up on | Computer Technicians - SMM Buzz