“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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September 7th, 2009 at 3:05 am
My laptop overheats after like 2 hours of using it (scanning and music). what should i do?
September 1st, 2009 at 10:51 am
I did the shop vacuum trick and it worked. The surprizing thing is I did not think that it would work but it worked GREAT!
September 1st, 2009 at 7:36 am
jagger,
Why do you want to change that? Is your laptop overheating?
August 31st, 2009 at 11:13 pm
i have the toshiba qosmio x300. iv noticed that when i play games the fans slow or some turn off is there any setting where i can change this?
August 30th, 2009 at 2:52 am
i hav a toshiba a200 i was using it yesterday night in the morning it want of os try to put in the charger may is of lowbattry but it can not come on but if u removed the charger and but it on the power light will blink and will not come on
August 29th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
About a month ago I got the idea to use a vacuum cleaner to solve the overheating problem, because I was a bit reluctant to open my laptop. I taped the cleaner inlet to the computer air outlet, switched on the cleaner (on a low speed first) and just let it run for about 30 minutes. Problem solved, no more overheating
Just be careful not to block the air inlet of your laptop. I think this is a bit of a brute-force method, but it worked well for me.
Toshiba Satellite A100
August 28th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
sampa,
Most likely it’s bad keyboard. You’ll have to replace it with a new one.
August 28th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Sampa, hold Ctrl and press the function key (one of the upper right F-keys, if I remember correctly.) If you use an laternate keyboard sometimes it messes the laptops built in keyboard up but the function key fixes it.
August 28th, 2009 at 1:39 am
i have toshiba laptop a235-2276 i format with xp no sometime the keys y,6,h,n, are not working what could the problem plaease help me
August 26th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
catchero,
Sounds like a bad hard drive. Try running the recovery with a known good hard drive installed. Will it finish the recovery?