Why my Toshiba laptop suddenly shuts down by itself without warning?
“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.).
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!
Entry Filed under: Toshiba Laptop Problems
881 Responses to “Why my Toshiba laptop suddenly shuts down by itself without warning?”
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Pages: « 89 … 16 15 14 13 12 [11] 10 9 8 7 6 … 1 » Show All
April 25th, 2006 at 5:18 pm
I want any information about Eisystem laptop prices specialy the kind of inte(R) , celeron (R) , cpu 2.6GHZ and Li-ion Battery 14.8v 4000MAH8640SC with serual no MSL S/N :4766050a8i-4c0428 and part No :40004852(SM)
April 25th, 2006 at 7:00 am
Hi, 1st Thanks A LOT for having this site, is one of the few sites I’ve seen with real good useful info. I’ve been having the overheating problem for more than a year. I have a Satellite P15, how do I clean the heatsink?
April 24th, 2006 at 8:47 pm
Hey Eric,
When you see a warning message about a cooling system problem in Windows, then most likely the fan doesn’t spin and should be replaced. I had to order a new fan for Toshiba Satellite R15 this morning with a warning message like yours. Removing fan on Toshiba Satellite 5205 laptop requires some skills. Here is a guide for Toshiba Satellite 5105 VGA board replacement, it will show how to get access to the fan and the guide should be the same for Satellite 5205. If you are not sure, do not open the case.
Here is a Toshiba part number for the cooling fan: P000352700 or P000371020
April 24th, 2006 at 6:22 pm
Hey, I know a million people have said this above — but this is such a cool resource. Thanks for putting it out here.
My laptop (5205-S703) just started shutting down today. Or actually, it doesn’t shut itself down, it just keeps throwing up these dire warning messages every 15 seconds or so, saying a problem has been detected with the cooling system.
When this happened, I noticed that there was no fan activity at all. The machine was totally quiet. I don’t know how long it had been like this, but MAN it was hot.
After reading through this post and the comments, I imagine I’ve got enough dust in there to build a whole new computer with (the machine is 3 years old). The question is, do you think the fan strained so hard to cool the system that it just broke? Or is a fan shutdown what you’d expect in an overheated situation like this?
Blowing out the heatsink I can do myself. Messing with component stuff like that, I’m going to people who know what they’re doing.
Thanks again for doing this — it’s great!
April 22nd, 2006 at 11:31 am
Sathya,
Most likely your laptop shuts down because it overheats. You can take it apart and clean the heatsink with fans.
April 22nd, 2006 at 10:43 am
I’ve got a Toshiba Satelite A75-S231 The problem is following: the computer switches off every 30 minutes, After 20-30 minutes of working it gets too hot (I think so) and switches off. What can be the reason of such problems? And i don’t have any warrenty on my laptop
i want to do myself pl give the clear idea to trouble shut the problem without any problem
i hope u will give the clear picture and also where i will get the accessories for the same
i am waiting for ur reply
with regards,
sathya
April 22nd, 2006 at 8:33 am
before starting in my toshiba laptop there is a 20 seconds beep. Why?
April 19th, 2006 at 10:44 pm
If the laptop shuts down while working then it might indicate two problems.
First problem: DC jack loosing connection with the system board and should be re-soldered. If the LED lights flicker when you wiggle the power plug, then the DC jack should be replaced or resoldered. Most likely your system board was replaced before because of this problem.
Second problem: the laptop overheats and shuts down without warning. To fix the problem you can buy a canned air and blow inside the openings on the bottom of the laptop. That could be your solution to prevent laptop overheating.
April 19th, 2006 at 10:26 pm
I’ve A70 and same problem. Laptop keeps shutting down while working. Got reparied so far 4-5 times and changed mother board 3 times so far. They also replaced CD/DVD, TSF and much more. Now they trying to walk over me that there is lot of dust in my laptop which gets overheated, but infact it’s not true. My laptop never stays in the dusty environment.
Now I wanna get the permanent solution for my laptop so I can use smoothly, what can I do? As of now the unit is not under warranty.
April 18th, 2006 at 10:31 pm
Hi Peter,
It is not enough just disable the device using device manager. When you troubleshoot the laptop you physically have to remove the device from the laptop. You mentioned that the CPU is loaded 100% all the time and reloading the operating system didn’t help. I guess that’s why you are getting a choppy video output. I cannot say what is causing the problem.