“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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March 13th, 2012 at 5:08 pm
Hey guys, this is not about Toshiba but I think you can help Asus F3E(Intel graphics C2Duo)
There are 3 temperatures, ACPI Temp, Core0 and Core1
It overheats badly, happened one day out of the blue, from 40 to 70 degrees.
I openened it up, the heat pipe was flimsy inside the heatsink, it wasnt so firmly soldered to the aluminum fins. The pipe went into two things, the CPU and something else, the motherboard I assume. The latter had some thermal pad instead and had a longer gap I suppose. I removed it and put a thin layer of thermal paste on both. I had done something wrong since the computer shut down instantly, so I opened it again and smeared a lot more paste. Now it works but it still overheats but it’s a bit worse even.
The fan seems a bit flimsy also, but I think it’s a heatsink problem. Should I remove the paste and add a thermal pad again? Should the copper pipe be firmly soldered to the heatsink fins?
March 4th, 2012 at 6:47 pm
i solve the problem if you want your computer to stop shutting down you will fist clean the dusted vent like above apply thermal paste and then replace the charger when your computer shuts down it means that it generates alot of heat in a short time when that happens thats because there is no paste and th vents are clogged but you can clean them and put the paste on and still will continue to shutdown solution replace the charger i guarentee 100% that will work i tested on 3 toshiba and the results were successfull
March 3rd, 2012 at 10:15 pm
My laptop is Toshiba satellite-L30115.
Last night it was properly working and today morining when i gave turn on it showed ‘toshiba leading invation’ after it showed me ‘NTLDR is missing’and below that ‘press ctrl+alt+del to Restart’ please help me by this head ace. . . .
plz. . .
March 3rd, 2012 at 5:16 am
i have a toshiba satellite pro C640……It was working well last night, but today morning when I start it , it shows the starting screen “TOSHIBA leading innovation” and after that it just blackouts…..I kept it for a long time but it does not show any reaction, it does not show the “starting Windows” screen, I restarted again and again but the same thing happens again….I don’t know what to do, pls help….
February 26th, 2012 at 7:41 am
My toshiba satellite a 505 was shutting down on me as well. What i did was blow it with a compressor. Get into all the crevices, fan outlets, key board. etc. This might work for you too.
January 25th, 2012 at 6:54 am
@cj2600:
Thanks, I will see to check it:)
January 23rd, 2012 at 5:10 pm
@ Trevel12,
I think the next step would be testing the laptop with another AC adapter. If the problem persists this could be motherboard related failure.
January 22nd, 2012 at 8:06 am
I have been dealing with this shutting down of my Toshiba laptop for a couple of weeks now. Fans are cleaned and it was working non-stop after that, but now it seems that it is OK as long as battery doesn’t start charging. Then after a while the laptop shuts down. Could it be a problem with power supply, ie. power voltage drop? Everything else is checked… And computer is not hot when I check with hand.
Please guys any suggestions?
Thanks!
January 20th, 2012 at 11:41 pm
@ vonix,
Not sure what it means.
1. Make sure the fan spins.
2. Make sure the fan and heatsink are clean.
3. Replace thermal grease on the CPU.
January 17th, 2012 at 1:35 am
HI! I just got my laptop’s IC reheated for about 2weeks now. and i still have problems with overheating since it’s getting hotter when I use it for longer hours. can anyone suggest what should be done? I really dont want my laptop go to waste. thanks much!