“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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July 12th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
Hi There,
Thanks for the tips on fixing my laptop which had just started shutting for no apparent reason.
I was ready to take the back off & decided to try the vaccuum & air compressor..works like a charm.
Unlike previous poster, I love my 6 year old Toshiba; wouldn’t buy anything else.
July 9th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
Ditto, have 6 month old Satellite P505-S8980 and it also started shutting down before, during and just after loading Windows 7. Hard drive just recently failed and was replaced under warranty. Still have the shut down problem! Any ideas?
July 4th, 2010 at 3:51 am
I had the Satellite M40 and had the same problem of overheating. But instead of shutting down after few hours or minutes, I usually have trouble with starting the laptop – it just fails right before Windows OS commences and display some blue error page.
This seams to be a very common problem among Satellite owners in recent years, mine is now broken and would never buy Toshiba again.
June 25th, 2010 at 12:42 am
wcanorth,
Take a closer look at the fan. Even though the heat sink is clean, it’s possible the fan not working and the laptop overheats.
Try installing Windows with only one RAM module in place, try different modules in different slots. Sometimes RAM fails intermittently, but it’s very unlikely that both modules are bad.
June 25th, 2010 at 12:26 am
Chris KAYUKA,
Could be bad memory module.
Do you have two memory slots in this laptop? Try removing memory modules one by one. Test the laptop with only one memory module installed.
June 23rd, 2010 at 8:03 am
Hello,
I bought a TOSHIBA SATELLITE M40X 1 year ago.unfortunately,wile i was burning a DVD movie it shuted down by itself.it was on march 2010 till now the computer doesn’t function.But,when i power on, it seems to turn on the vetilator for 5seconds only but nothing ca be seen on the sceen.I leave in DR CONGO exactly in BUKAVU.PLEASE DO TELL ME WHAT I CAN DO IN FEW DAYS TO GET IT RECOVER
June 21st, 2010 at 7:06 am
hi i have a toshiba A200 laptop which works great if i use a boot disk with mini XP and will run utility programs all day if i want to but i’m unable to install xp or windows 7 or toshiba restore disks as it loads so far and resets at random
fans/heatsink cleaned no dust HDD(sata)tested ok ram 2x 1gig also ok grafic card ok CPU thermal grease cleaned and replaced
2 laptop tec. had a go with no luck looked on toshiba forum and 90% of their reply’s were dust dust and more dust i would be very greatful if you could at least give another answer besides dust hope to hear from someone thanks a lot (WCANORTH)
June 5th, 2010 at 8:50 pm
I just solved this problem!
I tried the compressed air thing first. It did blow a surprising amount of dust out of the fan and heat sink ports (making me wish I’d done it outside!) but the problem didn’t change. Then I removed all the screws from my Toshiba Satellite and pried the front of the laptop open… it only opened a little bit before I gave up at trying to get the whole bottom piece off. Then I turned it on… and now it’s back to its old self! I am surprised. It just needed some more breathing room, apparently.
Love, Darko
May 21st, 2010 at 4:49 am
Contrary to the suggestion of using a “shop vac” to clean the inside of the laptop, I do not recommend this. Normal household and shop vacuums are not ESD (electro-static discharge) safe, touching the nozzle to a static sensitive component can damage your computer. The damage may not be readily apparent it may be latent and show up days or months later. Anytime you work on a computer please discharge yourself by touching something metal and work on a surface that is not plastic or painted (this includes metal) as they can hold a low static charge. Better yet, purchase an anti-static mat with wrist strap, they are cheap approx $30 for a good quality one.
May 20th, 2010 at 7:14 am
dear sir,
surprised i solved my problem
thanking you