Narrative:

Just after liftoff; the equipment cooling exhaust light came on. As we climbed out; we ran the checklist in the QRH and switched to the alternate fan. After about five minutes; the light was still on. We contacted dispatch to see if they wanted us to divert or continue to ZZZ. While we were waiting for their answer; we looked up the MEL for both fans being inoperative. MEL has a note about not flying over 30 minutes because of the possibility of losing the first officer display unit and the upper center display unit.we also checked the circuit breakers to make sure they were not open. After dispatch initially wanted us to continue; we diverted to ZZZ1. We were ok with this; considering the amount we were overweight for landing at that point. We did land overweight; but we elected not to burn [excess fuel] because of the additional flight time required to do so. This aircraft had a history of this issue. Both the fan and the sensor had been replaced in recent days. I did not feel comfortable flying internationally in this condition.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737-700 Captain reported loss of the avionics cooling fan after takeoff that resulted in a diversion.

Narrative: Just after liftoff; the Equipment Cooling Exhaust light came on. As we climbed out; we ran the checklist in the QRH and switched to the alternate fan. After about five minutes; the light was still on. We contacted Dispatch to see if they wanted us to divert or continue to ZZZ. While we were waiting for their answer; we looked up the MEL for both fans being inoperative. MEL has a note about not flying over 30 minutes because of the possibility of losing the First Officer Display Unit and the upper center Display Unit.We also checked the circuit breakers to make sure they were not open. After Dispatch initially wanted us to continue; we diverted to ZZZ1. We were ok with this; considering the amount we were overweight for landing at that point. We did land overweight; but we elected not to burn [excess fuel] because of the additional flight time required to do so. This aircraft had a history of this issue. Both the fan and the sensor had been replaced in recent days. I did not feel comfortable flying internationally in this condition.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.