“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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December 24th, 2006 at 7:37 am
I have a P35-S692 and after over heating over and over and over, it wouldnt come back on, I took it apart and nothing, put it back together and a mirical is came back on, now its still overheating, and it shut down lastnight from overheating and wont come back on at all. I am really starting to hate toshiba, they told me to send it in, but now i am scared because of all the horror stories I have read on different forums. Has anyone come up with a good solution so this overheating problem…besides a boxfan and a cookie cooling tray lol…btw, it doesnt help when I try to play a game…its elevated 3in off the table and it still shuts off.
December 21st, 2006 at 3:58 pm
I was wondering…I have a toshiba laptop and i am experiencing strange freezing after starting up my computer…wondering if it is overheating. If i leave my computer for a while it will seemingly run fine for a little bit. Whether I leave it or open programs, it will eventually become unresponsive. Sometimes I can correct this for a short while by hitting alt ctrl delelte, and bringing up the task manager, other times this will not work and I have to restart. If I use my computer, the freezes seem to become more frequent and happen faster the longer I use it, which would seem to point to overheating. I want to know if this could be the problem before I try reformating.
December 18th, 2006 at 8:25 pm
Brian,
The cooling fan plugs directly into the motherboard. If you installed a new fan (I assume it’s a good working fan) but still experience the same problem, then there is something wrong with the motherboard itself.
December 18th, 2006 at 8:21 pm
Cashif,
Before you take the whole thing apart, find an air compressor and blow of the fans and heatsink. It should help.
December 16th, 2006 at 12:02 am
Toshiba Qosmio .Display distortion.Blue screen error then system reboot itself.
December 15th, 2006 at 7:16 pm
There is a class action lawsuit against Toshiba because of problems discussed here for certain models. See this website: http://www.a70m30xsettlement.com/
December 15th, 2006 at 1:16 pm
This Toshiba 6000 was shuting down on it’s own. I suspected heat problem so I checked the fan. The fan never spins, no matter how hot the CPU gets. So, I replaced the fan, started testing, well, this fan does not spin either. System still shuts off due to overheating. Any thoughts?
December 11th, 2006 at 10:43 pm
My Toshiba shut down on me last night, now when I attempt to turn it on it won’t boot up, it sits idle with a black screen. The power button is on because I see blue. I will say this, it came on earlier, then shut itself down.
December 10th, 2006 at 6:41 pm
The Toshiba Satellite P15-420 overheated from day one. The cooling fans always ran at full speed. Both the cooling fans and the heat sink were kept clean at all times, and heat-sink was properly applied to the chipset during each maintenance check-up.
At the end of the second year, the laptop motherboard burned out. Toshiba replaced the motherboard, which again burned-out within a few months when the laptop was no longer under warranty, and has refused to address the design defect.
Symptoms: The PC suddenly stops and the screen goes blank during normal operation. Occasionally there is system-dump information. Occasionally, there are CMOS errors when re-booting. Battery power management is not working properly.
December 8th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
Hello! You guys are amazing… I have been noticing Overheating with my Toshiba Qosmio G25-AV513. It is Bottom part batter, harddrive , Top Keyboard gets really really hot and Fan kick-in non stop for 10- 15 mins then it cools down. But it is keept on happening now when I try to run BenchMarking or Graphic Extensive Apps or JAVA APPS that uses JAVA VIRTUAL MACHINE. One Solution I’m using now is bought a really Fine Quality FAN that Sits on the BACK of my TABLE when I work on the Table which I now mostly to keep the Laptop Cool.This is getting annoying and i need a permenant solution. It is out of warrinty only 14 months old.
What I need from any of you guys to help me GET THE DETAIL HARDWARE MANUAL and Please TELL ME what are the HARDWARE TOOLS I would require to OPEN the LAPTOP and Get to the bottom of it…Please tell me where I can buy all the MUST have Tools and Maybe needed tools. I have none. This is my first time I will be opening any LAPTOP and I want to do it right. GOOD MANUAL and GOOD TOOLS with Precuations will do it.
CASH