“My Toshiba laptop suddenly shuts down by itself without any warning. Sometimes it works fine for hours, sometimes it shuts down in 10-15 minutes.” This complaint we hear from our customers over and over again. About 15-20% of all Toshiba laptops we get for repair, suffer from an overheating problem. Yep, OVERHEATING!
This is one of the most common problems with Toshiba laptops we deal with.
Indications of laptop overheating problem:
- The keyboard and the bottom of your laptop are very hot when the laptop is working.
- The CPU fans are working all the time at maximum rotation speed and operate much louder than before.
- The laptop suddenly shuts down by itself without warning. When it just started, the laptop was shutting down after 1-2 hours and how it shuts down after 5-10 minutes of operation.
- The laptop works fine when it runs idle, but shuts down as soon as you start using any memory demanding applications (DVD player, image editing software, video editing software, etc.).
Solution:
If the CPU heatsink is not clogged with dust and lint completely, you can use canned air and just blow it inside the laptop through the openings on the bottom and on the sides. It’s nice as a precaution measure, but it might not work if your laptop already has a problem and the heatsink is completely clogged.
- Open the laptop case, so you can access the CPU fan and the heatsink. In some cases you can access the heatsink through the latch on the bottom of the laptop. Sometimes (for example Toshiba Satellite A70/A75) you have to open the laptop case all the way down.
- Carefully disconnect the fan cables on the system board and remove the fan. If the fan makes unusual sound when it spins (grinding sound), I would recommend to replace the fan.
- Clean the fan and the heatsink with compressed air.
- I would also recommend removing old thermal grease from the CPU and applying new grease for better heat conductivity.
UPDATE: I just received a nice tip from MC N’Colorado. I think it could be useful for all of you with guys:
I decided to use a shop vac to suck the dust out and it worked. I tested it by letting the machine run all night and it worked. It’s been a couple of weeks now and I’m glad I did it. I was ready to take the machine apart, now I’m glad I didn’t. I’d suggest you use a heavy duty shop vac to clean out the fan and heat sinks first.
I agree. Try to fix the problem without taking the laptop apart first but I would recommend using a powerful air compressor instead of a vacuum cleaner.
If your laptop is still under warranty, you can take it to any Toshiba Authorize Service Provider and fix the problem at no charge to you.
Toshiba laptop disassembly guides with pictures and instructions.
Toshiba Satellite A15 Clogged Heatsink
Toshiba Satellite A35 Clogged Heatsink
Toshiba Satellite P15 Clogged Heatsink. Absolute champion!
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March 8th, 2010 at 4:30 am
I have a toshiba sattelite L300-20n laptop. I had it for not more than 6 months and one evening when I decided to turn it on. It was completely dead. I took it in because it was luckily still under warranty, and they told me the motherboard had packed up. They replaced it, but for some reason the fan does not work. So I’m guessing they did not re-connect the fan when they replaced the motherboard or it could be something else. My question is, how do you take this particular laptop apart, because I have tried unclipping it so I can try get to the fan to have a look, but when you get the back part of the laptop where the screen is, it is almost impossible to unclip it, unless I wedge a screwdriver in there which could possibly cause some serious damage… any advise would be most greatful… thanks
March 4th, 2010 at 3:13 am
Hello,
I have Toshiba sattelite, I am facing the same problem of shutting down and restarting of Laptop abruptly.but my other laptop of HP is also having same problem!!!!!!! Funniest thing is that both Laptops devloped this problem at the same time, when i use some infected USB.
where Toshiba is 5 months old, HP is 2 years old Laptop.
so is this could be a virus related problem.
Plz reply.
Thanks
sanjay
March 3rd, 2010 at 11:08 pm
I have a Toshiba A305 S6858 and didn’t know why my laptop would shut down randomly. After reading this advice, I looked up how to take apart my laptop. Thank goodness I did this! I found a massive clump built up in my heat sink, much like the third example above. It was ridiculous. Now my computer can breathe and keep itself cool. Thanks guys!
March 3rd, 2010 at 10:27 pm
Sofyan Gammaz,
Probably overheating. Clean the heat sink.
By the way, it’s not just Toshiba. It happens with many other laptops too.