“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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September 15th, 2006 at 9:23 pm
I have dealt with the overheating issue on my A65-1068 too, but my problem now is that it keeps restarting and going to the Windows Advanced Menu. No boot method works (Safe modes or CD-ROM), so it makes me think it is a HW issue.
Any ideas?
September 15th, 2006 at 1:31 am
My TE2100 will occasionally shut down by itself, so I thought it is due to overheating. However, I took out the HSF and did not see any clogging. I removed the thermal grease from the processor and HSF and reapplied some AS5 on it.
I assembled everything and switched the laptop on, but the temperature is about the same as before.
AS5 needs some time to perform optimally, so maybe it is due to this?
I used a program called MobileMeter to check the temperature.
It ranges from 60 to 64 degrees Celsius. Is this OK?
September 12th, 2006 at 7:14 pm
This is about as cheap as you will find for a new lcd for this laptop. Or you can order from toshiba for an extremely high price. I would check and see about how this will affect your waranty if you replace the screen though or you can do it and just not tell them anything
. If you are interested in selling your damaged screen let me know.
jnsantqs at cyberback.com
September 12th, 2006 at 3:35 pm
Hi,
Does anyone know where to buy or replace an LCD screen cheaply for a toshiba p35-s629? Warranty won’t do anything unless there’s like 7 or 8 dead pixels. I have 2 right now, but it’s annoying the heck out of me coz I paid so much for it and I expect the screen to be perfect. Any suggestion will be really helpful. Thank you.
September 12th, 2006 at 5:45 am
Benard,
I was able to locate a 2.8GHz P4b Northwood. It requires the same wattage as my 2.8 GHz Celeron and the same voltage. The FSB on the P4 is 533 and the FSB on the Celeron is 400. Will it still work? The thermal design power for both processors is 68.4 Watts and the voltage for the Celeron is 1.25 to 1.52, the voltage for the P4 is 1.52, I am also upgrading the expansion ram to 1Gb for a total of 1.25 gb. I know I am pushing the spec’s to the max but hopefully this will give me the performance I need without purchasing a new laptop. I will also be placing a triple 60mm fan cooling pad under the machine.
Many Thanks for your advise!!!!
Mike
September 12th, 2006 at 4:17 am
Thank you Benard,
I need to dis-assemble the unit anyway. I had an overheating issue with this machine. I found your website and followed the directions to clean it. the temp dropped to 70 C but it still freezes up and runs consistently at 100%. I know i need to change the thermal grease if I havn’t burned out the processor. I was thinking this would be a good time to up-grade the processor since I have to dis-assemble the unit . You assistence is greatly appriciated.
Mike
September 11th, 2006 at 8:43 pm
To Mike: Question 283
Yes you can change the Processor from an Celeron to a P4. Now the bad part. You must take the computer apart to gain access to the processor and remove fans, heatsink and processor. You will need new thermal grease to re-attach to heat sink. Now the most important part to remember you must find a compatable P4 that has the same or lower wattage rating than the Celeron. If you don’t the computer will overheat. I changed a Celeron 2.4G to a P4 2.0G with a lower wattage rating and the computer performed much better.
Good Luck
Bernard
September 11th, 2006 at 10:38 am
Do you know if I can up-grade the processor in my Toshiba A65-S126 from a celeron to a P-4
Thanks,
Mike
September 11th, 2006 at 6:41 am
CJ, Thanks for the help, I did finally get the computer to work. I had ordered a new hinge, and figured that I might as well fix the hinge and worry about the overheating later. It’d be cheaper to fix the overheating issue at a service store than fixing the hinge anyway. So I fixed the hinge using your wonderful tutorial (thanks man!) and figured I’d give the overheating issue one more go at it. I cleaned the heat sink and CPU again, this time for like a solid half hour. I spread some of the generic, $3 Compusa grease on there, and for some reason, it worked this time. Not sure what I did different this time, but I’ll take it
Thanks for the help, you rock!
September 10th, 2006 at 10:01 pm
Horatiu,
Have you tried to reseat the video cable on the motherboard? If not, then disconnect the video cable from the motherboard and connect it back. See if it fixes the problem.
You cannot replace the video card in this model, because it’s a part of the motherboard. On the disassembly step 16 of this guide, you can see ATI video chip permanently soldered to the motherboard. But I don’t think that’s the video card problem, because the external video is fine.
I think that you might have a bad video cable (replace the cable) or a bad video connector on the system board. I hope it’s just a bad connection.