“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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November 7th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
nvgroups,
Sounds like the motherboard failure to me. I guess you’ll have to replace the motherboard.
November 7th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
p.lopez,
I guess it’s bad motherboard. You cannot use a 15V adapter with this motherboard. It requires 19V.
November 7th, 2009 at 9:02 am
My Toshiba Qosmio F10 system does not power-up. When I attach the system to the power supply, nothing happens – the LED will not glow or blink. I checked the adopter (power cord) and it works fine. The battery was replaced one year ago (when the system was in warranty, Now I do not have warranty). What can I do to make it work again. Thanks in advance.
November 6th, 2009 at 11:12 am
cj2600 I did what you posted and NOTHING happened Now The laptop comes with a 19v 6.3a output charger when I plugged it in nothing, I also have a charger 15.6v 5A out put , when I used that one I can hear a clicking sound coming from the CPU ??????
November 6th, 2009 at 10:28 am
p.lopez,
Do you get any LED lights at all?
Remove the motherboard from the laptop. Unplug everything and leave only CPU. All you need is the motherboard and CPU with cooling module, nothing else (it has onboard memory).
Plug the AC power adapter and turn it on. Can you see the cooling fans spinning? If not, most likely the new motherboard is bad. CPU failures are not common.
November 6th, 2009 at 10:17 am
I just replaced the main board on a A75 s206 Toshiba and nothing happened, No power and its not the power cord.
Thanks.
November 3rd, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Just to let everyone know about another problem that I came across. I recently bought a pre-loved Tecra M4, my wife has a M200 and I really liked that. It all worked for about a week but then started shutting down very ungraciously. I also noticed that the battery was not holding any charge. I cleaned out the fans, although they were not too dirty and re-pasted the heat sinks. This had no effect and the problem worsened, it would shut down during reboot. I wondered if this was a power supply problem so decided to see if I could boot from battery and took the one from the M200 and installed that. Wow, it works. So my crashing during boot is down to a faulty battery. It also seems that the laptop needs a battery to operate, that is, it cannot run solely from mains power.
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:24 am
Your 120v power supply is possibly at fault. Try borrowing another before tearing into your unit
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:21 am
FYI: My Toshiba A20 would give temperature warning and sloooooow down to point of being unuseable. Fan and heatsink were cleaned and OK. Problem was secondary fan. You must split the cases to access this one. Fan is located beneath ESC key with discharge grille on left side. Check for air discharge there. A guide to access of this fan is:
http://www.irisvista.com/tech/.....nges_1.htm
PS Leave all mo-board ribbons attached. Lift board enough for fan access only. This unit actually comes apart quite easily.
—– Howie ——
October 29th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Gerwyn,
Could be heat related problem. It’s possible that when you have your laptop plugged, the CPU runs at full speed and generates more heat. Clean the heat sink and cooling fan using compressed air and test the laptop again.