“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 10th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
Dennis Rick,
Why do you think the laptop overheats? It freezes up, shuts down and just feels hot?
March 10th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
I own Toshiba A10 and it stop running do to failure of the Cooling system.
does anyone know where I can buy a new fan to replace this defective piece?
Thanks,
March 10th, 2007 at 9:13 am
Tony,
Try this. Disconnect the adapter and remove the battery. Wait for 1-2 minutes, then plug in the power adapter and turn it on. If it will not help, try reseating the memory module.
March 9th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Outstanding site, very good advise.
Now my problem, I have a Toshiba A-15 S129 puchase oh about a year of so ago (New) and it work fine to last week, when it started over heating and the fan was making noise’s. So, I got a can of compress air, blew everything out, then the fan died, so I brought a new fan, put new grease under the heat sink and it still heats up. Now when I take a little battery hand held fan and put it to the slot where the fan it (fan is running) it appears to help it cool down for awhile. But it still heats up, could I have cook the processor and its having a slow death?
Thank You
Dennis
March 7th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
James Fong,
I noticed your post of Dec. 16 regarding the Qosmio going to a Blue screen and then re-booting. I wish I had an answer to this myself since my G25 is doing the same thing. If I find any answers I’ll let you know and hope you’ll do the same for me.
March 5th, 2007 at 3:32 am
My girlfriend was using my P35-6292 and mistakenly buried the bottom rear of the computer into a blanket while she was working on it. When it froze (assumably from overheating) I had to come turn it off with a 4 second power button hold down. The next day when I attempted to restart it and with every subsequent attempt, the power light goes on, the fan starts its inital burst for a second or two and then it just sits there. No HD boot up, no monitor response, no dvd light. Just the power button light and three green lights up front. Any possible resolutions?
Thanks, Tony.
March 4th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Ethan Eyre,
Make sure the cooling fan is working. It’s possible that you have a dead fan and it’s necessary to disassemble the laptop and replace the fan.
Blow off the heatsink. Buy a can of compressed air and spay it inside the air intake on the bottom of the laptop. If the heatsink is clogged, you’ll see dust coming from the grill on the side of the laptop.
March 4th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
I have a Toshiba A105-S361 and it seems to be overheating every single time I turn it on. It turns off every single time after it gets to hot. Whats the solution to this problem. I really appreciate your help with fixing this.
Ethan Eyre
Founder
AREYOUIN.COM
March 3rd, 2007 at 3:33 pm
cj2600,
Thanks for your kind answer.
I was glad to hear the solution might be such a simple matter, however, 1700 seems to be completely different from 1800. There is no internal power cable (or battery board). Nothing of that sort. The battery plugs straight into the motherboard and the only power plug on the mother board (and I mean all over the board), that is similar to the one that you mentioned, is the cooling fan’s plug.
I completely agree that the problem is power-related, though, as even the led is off (when I plug in the thing), and I can’t use any of the “switched-off” functinalities either (like cd player, etc). The laptop seems completely dead. During these brain-dead times, when I plug it in, the led blinks, though, and it really seems like the longer I leave it alone, the longer it would co-operate. Very funny. Like a reward system: if I leave it off for a week, it would go for several hours (I could even install windows, in fact), one day grants half an hour, etc. Might be my imagination, but she seemed to wait until I finished installing stuff on several occasion. Very strange…
March 3rd, 2007 at 9:04 am
hisham,
I’m not sure what is going on with your laptop. It sound’s like you might have a problem with the motherboard.