“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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August 23rd, 2006 at 3:52 pm
Do you know where to get a restore cd for a satellite A75-S229. I cant find it on ebay and I have lost mine.
August 22nd, 2006 at 5:40 pm
CJ,
Yes, I also tried that, I used the restore CD and everything. It was kind of slow the instalation too, but after it tells you to remove the CD and restart, is when it won’t start at all. I’m kind of lost, I’ve never seen something like this before happened, but to tell you the truth, I got a bad feeling about the CPU, is just that I don’t find any other way to go. I even thought that could be just the battery of the BIOS, but after all the only way teh BIOS can affect the CPU speed is by changing the clock-speed, and that feature is not in my BIOS like other I’ve seen.
Should I trhow it away already?? lol
August 22nd, 2006 at 4:09 pm
Hey Alex,
If the CPU is detected properly in BIOS, but not in Windows, then might be it’s just a software thing? Have you tried to reload Windows at all?
August 22nd, 2006 at 3:47 pm
CJ,
The BIOS seems to detect it fine, it shows 3.2GHz, and what I see in My Computer properties is this:
Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz,
64.58GHz, 896MB of RAM
And actually I updated the BIOS but is beeping whe is turning on, showing an “error on the time” (like when you don’t have battery on the BIOS or is low). And of course is THAT SLOW!! that the beep last for almost 12 seconds lol.
August 22nd, 2006 at 3:10 pm
Toshiba Guy,
If Satellite A75 will not boot from a good AC adapter of from a good charged battery, then I would say something is wrong with the systemboard. Not sure about power manager chip, I do not repair motherboards on component level. Do you get any LED activity at all? What are your symptoms? Do you hear any sounds?
August 22nd, 2006 at 2:40 pm
My laptop toshiba a75-s206, will not power on from ac or battery. Tested w/ known good working other pwr ac and bat. still no power on. So I think power manager chip is dead?
August 21st, 2006 at 9:45 pm
Alex,
If the CPU runs at 68GHz, it should be really fast! Just kidding.
How your CPU is detected in BIOS? What speed does it show?
As soon as you turn on the laptop, pres on ESC key. The laptop will continue to boot with details on the screen. You should be able to see the CPU speed. I tried it on Satellite A75-S211 and on my laptop it’s the fifth line from the top. If the screen flashes too fast, you can pres on Pause key.
What CPU speed you see? 3.2GHz or 68GHz?
August 20th, 2006 at 11:56 pm
Fadi,
I don’t know what’s wrong. If the heatsink is clean, you have new thermal grease on the CPU and the fan works properly, then the laptop shouldn’t overheat.
Here are a couple guesses.
1. Wrong thermal grease. I would contact the manufacturer and ask them if you can use the grease with your CPU.
2. Usually fans spin at 2-3 different speeds. May be your fan works only at slow speed. The fan is controlled by the motherboard. It’s possible that a circuit responsible for CPU speed doesn’t work properly.
3. The heatsink is not seated properly and there is a gap between the heatsink and the CPU surface.
August 20th, 2006 at 9:36 pm
Hey CJ, you may have missed my last comment.
Computer’s been on overheat, and I replaced the compound. Still on the fritz, and my fan looks like its working just fine.
Thanks again in advance.
August 19th, 2006 at 2:37 pm
Need an advice..
toshiba A75-S229 Pentium 4 538 @ 3.2GHZ
I posted a problem before, (230) and I checked my HD and is working, I even use it after the test to star my desktop in safe mode with no problem, I updated my BIOS with no complications either, but it’s still not startin in normal mode and taking even more than 16 min in safe mode. Whe I go to properties of my PC (running is safe mode) is really wird that the speed of my procesor is showing as 68.33GHZ. I think the procesor could be damaged. Any ideas??, sugestions?? I would really apreciate it.