“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!
If you find this article useful, please consider making a donation to the author. Thank you!
February 19th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
This site makes very good sense. I had the same problem with my Toshiba Laptop. It would just shut down and it would only do it if i was playing a game or watching a video. I could surf the web and check my e-mail but if i went to play farmville then it would shut down within 2 minutes. It got to be very annoying so i checked into it and found out that it was over heating. I used my air compressor and blew on the heatsink and saw some dust but all that did was make the dust go somewhere else inside of it and didn’t keep it from shutting down. You have to try to remove the bottom cover if you know what you are doing or you can just take all the screws out of the bottom of the cover to where you can lift it of a bit and then shoot air into the back of the heatsink,,you will be surprised at how much dust will fly out,,and be sure to blow air throughout the whole pc to get as much dust out as possible. If you get your Toshiba dust free and it still shuts down then buy a new one!
February 16th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
I have A305 Toshiba and it turns off after 5-40 mins by it self the fan is workin fine and the AC adapter is working fine, should i try to change the DC POWER JACK since it the power light goes off for a few second then turns on again!! I spelled juice on the laptop but i cleaned it and changed the keyboard and it worked fine for two days after that then the power problem came along! if u have any suggesting ill be thankful its a 14 months old and i have no problem with the laptop it works perfect when its on… is it possible that the juice killed the Motherboard! im confused plzz help
February 16th, 2010 at 8:09 pm
Hello,
First I apologize if I am not in the right section.
I have a Satellite 1110 PS111C-006MU with the Japanese XP which I don’t understand a single word of them. I want to install the English version of XP on the laptop but find out both the DVD and floppy are not reading, although they are both recognized by the Bios and are not disabled. The cable connector of the floppy seems OK, but I still don’t know how to take out the DVD to check (DVD is underneath the motherboard).
My question is any one also have DVD and floppy not reading, and what cause them?
Thanks
February 15th, 2010 at 12:49 am
Dear All;
I have Toshiba EQUIUM M40X-230 Laptop, i have problem with my laptop regarding its Mother Board. First of all it became shut down itself, now its not going ON completley OFF no beep nothing…technical support here suggest that its mother borad will be replaced…plz help. Thx
February 11th, 2010 at 7:31 pm
The Touchpad on my toshiba qosmio x300 doesn’t work
It’s enabled through BIOS, It’s not locked with Fn+F9
yet it still doesn’t work
Please help
February 10th, 2010 at 11:59 pm
Kumaran Krishnan,
You’ll have to find the factory recovery disc or generic Windows installation CD. I believe this laptop doesn’t have hidden recovery partition and the operating system has to be reinstalled from a CD.
February 6th, 2010 at 10:54 pm
Dear All,
I have a Toshiba Equium A300D-13x PSAK2E. I came to know from forums that ihis has overheating problems. I was trying to update the BIOS downloaded from the site http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com . . . the whole updating process went well but now the laptop does not even start. onlu the power button is on. I can hear the fan zooming for a moment aand then nothing . . . .
I understand that there is a mess up of BIOS update but how can I repair it now . . . should I open the laptop and look for BIOS flashing switch ? . . . Can anyone guide me how to flash and bring my laptop back to life again . . . . HELP needed
February 6th, 2010 at 7:00 am
Hi,
Can someone please tell me how to reimage my Toshiba Satellite 2435-S255 laptop to factory settings by wiping out everything. I don’t have the CDs that came with it.
I tried F11, ctrl+F11. Neither one worked.
Help please.
Thanks,
KK
February 3rd, 2010 at 9:14 pm
I am using satellite a105 model of toshiba and had the same problem of auto shut down of computer with loud fan sound and overheating.Now I am using a ice pack wrapped in cloth under the cpu where the fan is present(my fan has stopped working too) and surprisingly the problem is solved . no more shut down guys …. I intend to use a laptop stand with fan to further resolve the problem. The ice pack has to be changed 2-3 times a day. This is an economic way of dealing with this situation.Hope it works for you too…. good luc
January 25th, 2010 at 1:18 pm
Regarding Raymond’s post #1092, it sounds similar to my problem. I have a 2 year old Toshiba Satellite U305 with very rare shutdowns under Windows or Ubuntu Linux –the kind that would otherwise only happen if you were to pull the plug when there’s no battery inside.
I have tried two different batteries. When the random shutdown happens, and I don’t have the battery inside, shuts off a few random seconds after Windows or Ubuntu begin to load. Tried disabling the second core in the BIOS and the Data Exec prevention, but that doesn’t help.
I don’t think the problem is the AC adapter for mine. Normally the problem happens after a long day when the unit is very hot. Oh well, it’s been a good laptop.