“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!
August 31st, 2010 at 6:28 am
I took my laptop (MX35?) apart and blew out all the dust I could find. It still is shutting down after a few minutes. I did not remove the heat sink. Is it possible that dust can accumulate under it and not be seen? If that is not the problem, do you know where the thermal sensor is? I was thinking it may be a component failure.
TIA,
Les…
August 15th, 2010 at 10:17 am
Mike P,
It’s a good practice to blow off heat sink and fan once in a while. This simple maintenance will help you avoid overheating related problems.
August 7th, 2010 at 2:26 am
Yeah, this seems to be about the only complaint I get against Toshibas, but its a big enough one that I’m not sure I’ll be recommending them again. This many problems with over heating just doesn’t point towards a quality product.
But I have noticed that this kind of basic maintenance is not getting performed on peoples computers. As an electrician for my local PUD very obviously stated to me when I told him he should invest in canned air for his tower, dust is an insulator. You should have any laptop cleaned out regularly. If not, you risk burning the whole system up.
August 2nd, 2010 at 5:22 am
look at your display and power settings, fo some reason all these settings default to SLEEP mode , power buttons and all, Im having same problem after updating important files , (everytime) and I noticed this was a problem.
August 1st, 2010 at 3:49 am
The fact that this is “known user issue” and most likely won’t happen until after warranty expires I filed a complaint with the BBB. The response of Toshiba was completely unresponsive and belligerent. It seems to me the only way for Toshiba this obvious manufacturer defect that should require them to offer a “free” cleaning of the fan, is to present them with a Class Action lawsuit. Perhaps, a website forum should be created for that purpose. Until, then I guess, like others, it’ll have to be compressed air or vacuums.
July 31st, 2010 at 8:51 am
Brilliant; 5 year old Satellite A30, overheating, shutting down; solved after I removed the 5mm thick x 10 cm long wad of lint and dust out of the heatsink. Word of warning, check out the relevant laptop disassembly instructions – I didn’t and bent one of the tiny pins on the CPU resulting in black screen – managed to fix with a pair of tweezers though – phew. However, thank you, just given my old lap top a new lease of life; I’ll definitely be making a donation to the author, seeing as he just saved me spending £400 on a new laptop!
July 26th, 2010 at 11:27 am
this site just saved my life, i was really worried because my toshiba just did the same thing, but i took the battery out, let it cool down a little, and then vacuumed it with the shop vacuum we have and it restarted. thank god or i think my mom would have killed me! thanks to whoever put this page out here!!!!!
July 25th, 2010 at 7:01 am
guess what? i send my laptop to two different shops and they simply predicted the problem of my laptop as “processor problem” and “motherboard problem”…. luckily i refuse to fix it because in the end, it’s just the fan problem.
many thanks to you.
July 22nd, 2010 at 1:56 pm
Hi, i have a 7 month old Toshiba Satellite L455. On Monday I noticed the fan was staying on longer than usual but i didnt think anything of it. By mid morning, when I turned it on to use it again, the fan came on and stayed on but this time, my laptop shut down after 10-15 minutes.
I restarted it again and tried to enable my anti virus software (somehow it got disabled) and it shut down. I restarted it again and this time i tried to open up my web browser and it shut down again after 7-10 minutes. I attempted to restart it and sometimes it would shut down a few seconds after windows boots up.
I tried restarted it in safe mode to see what would happen and it stayed on for about 35-40 minutes with no programs being opened before it shut down.
I got a can of compressed air and blew out the heat sink. Restarted the laptop and it still shuts down.
If it is a heat issue, how come i can always restart it right after it shuts down. The fan is always blowing and i always use a cooling pad with my laptop. Plus the the back of my laptop isnt even that hot when it shuts down.
Any thoughts?
July 14th, 2010 at 4:37 am
“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.”
I have 10 month old Satellite with overheating problem.
My Toshiba Service Provider refuse fixing it because it dosen´t fall under warranty.