Lenovo ThinkPad L490 Fans Not Working

If your Lenovo ThinkPad L490 is overheating, follow this guide to troubleshoot any fan issues.

A common problem with the ThinkPad L490 is that the battery options being on "balanced" does not give the fan the adequate amount of power due to limiting the power the fan needs in order to adequately function.

• If you are on Windows 10, select the battery icon and drag the slider from "balanced" to "best performance"
• If you are on Windows 11 follow the steps below:
• Right click the Battery Icon located and the bottom right of your task bar
• Left click on the "power and sleep settings"
• Select power mode on "Best performance"

If your fans are not working as intended all of a sudden, your drivers could be outdated. Whenever you update your OS on your computer, the current software you are using may no longer be fully compatible. This could either make your fans not work or stop functioning all together.

• If you are unsure on how to update drivers for the ThinkPad L490, follow these instructions to guide you on how to update your fans to the current drivers

The BIOS is firmware that helps your PC operate to its fullest capacity. If you have recently updated or made any changes to your BIOS, this article in order to safely update you BIOS without damaging your PC.

• Reinstalling your BIOS will reestablish any settings that is required to have your fans operate

Overtime, laptops tend to attract dust, lint, and hairs inside of your laptop. They also eventually degrade in quality due to corrosion, rust, or wires wearing down. To ensure your fans are working in order to clean your fans without opening your laptop, follow the instructions to guide you on how to clean your fans

If neither of the fixes above helped out, there could be possible damage on either the fan itself, any of the connectors from the fan, or the motherboard itself could be damaged.

• Replace the fans or the motherboard on your device.