“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 11th, 2006 at 11:06 am
Oh my God I travel all over the world with my laptop and could not figure out why it was shutting down. I had more dust than that pic you have posted and I keep my computer clean in a case. Thanks so much for the advise. Cheers from S.F.California
July 11th, 2006 at 10:58 am
[...] First of all, make sure that the laptop shuts down because of a dead fan and it’s necessary to replace it. When you turn on the laptop, does the fan start spinning? Can you here it at all? It’s very likely that the laptop shuts down because the cooling module is clogged and it needs just a good cleaning. Laptop overheating is a very common issue. I just replace a motherboard on Toshiba Satellite A65 and believe me, the heat sink was 100% clogged with lint and dust. [...]
July 9th, 2006 at 2:35 pm
Awan,
Here’s my guess. It looks like that the battery charges when the laptop is turned off. As soon as you turn on the laptop, the laptop starts running on the battery power. The battery lasts for about 2 hours and then the laptop shuts down. It’s just a guess.
I would try to upgrade the BIOS to the latest version. At this time it is version 2.10. I checked Toshiba downloads for this model and they have a lot of BIOS revisions for this model.
Try to remove the battery, connect the AC adapter and start the laptop. Does it start at all when the battery is removed? I think it’s also possible that the AC adapter is defective and doesn’t provide a normal voltage necessary for the laptop to operate properly.
July 9th, 2006 at 10:27 am
I have had so many problems with my toshiba a75 laptop so I called toshiba myself and found that there is a class action law suit against the a75 laptops. http://www.classcounsel.com/news/toshiba.html
this site will help explain a little better. Good Luck!!
July 8th, 2006 at 7:12 pm
hi, looks like this is a very good resource for toshiba owner.
i just bought an M55-S3512 series, and have an annoying problem.
i usually work with AC power, but after about 2 hours (or more) the battery light is blinking and makes a beep sound about maybe 10 minutes, then it shuts down.
i go to toshiba power saver in control panel and set all powerdown setting to ‘never’ in ‘full power profile’ but no luck.
i tried to plug out the power source and pug it in again after the beep occured, still no luck.
it’s not an overheating problem i think, because there’s no abnormal heat under this laptop, it even far more colder than my old P15 series.
so.. what’s wrong with it? is anyone here had the same problem?
thank you.
.awan.
July 8th, 2006 at 3:30 pm
After one year of getting frustrated while my laptop would randomly shut down, I found your website from google. I hestiantly dis-asembled my cpu, but it actually was not that bad. What I found looked just like the pictures above. The fan was clogged with LOTS OF DUST! I cleaned it out, and now my laptop works just like new.
I would recommend this procedure to anybody that is having similar problems with their Toshiba laptop. It works! Just be sure to save all of the 100 different screws when you take the cpu apart!!
July 7th, 2006 at 4:14 pm
Thank god that worked, mine used to boot out of nothing like once an hour. It turns out the heat sink was filled with dust, literally filled. Works greats now, the fan rarely turns on. It used to be running most of the time since it’d heat up quickly.
July 6th, 2006 at 11:48 am
Hey Subra,
Here is Toshiba Satellite A65 disassembly guide.
You can easily access the fan and clean it up properly with compressed air, if you only remove the keyboard. Go inside only if you are confident.
July 6th, 2006 at 11:35 am
Can anybody file a class action suit against Toshiba. I bought an A65-S1066 in Sept 2004 paying $1200 and since Sept’05 it shutdown after some use. Same overheating problem. Hi cj2600, Is the disassembly for A65 same as other toshiba?
July 4th, 2006 at 3:21 pm
I did it !
I’m touring USA right now and I had to get my Satellite a-70
working. I was a little bit scared to do it ,I’m still on the computer
waranty. It was easy but took 2 hours of my day . Last week I both a apple macbook computer beacause my sattelite used to shut down after 10 minutes . I was screwed again beacause my
sound card is not yet compatible with the macbook . Today I decided to open my sattelite a-70 ! ITS WORKING GREAT NOW! THANKS !
I’m still mad at toshiba cause I heard all their sattelite costumers have the same problems and all they can do
is clean up their computer insted of replacing them