“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 21st, 2007 at 6:34 am
Thank you for all the excellent information. A15-S1292 (3 yr old) overheats and shuts down. Cleaned the dust out, new Si thermal grease, Si lube to the fan (was ‘rattling’ when it stopping), turned processor speed down, and bought a chill mat. Worked OK. Recently ran large application w/o chill mat; overheated, shutdown. No dust on the heat-sink. Fan is working. I am now undervolting to lowest setting, and monitoring temp w/ SpeedFan. I will replace Si grease w/ Arctic Silver. Is there anything else I could try? Thanks again, great site.
March 19th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
Victor H,
It’s located inside the laptop
Take a look yourself, check out this Toshiba Satellite A60/A65 disassembly guide, the heat sink is shown on the step 13.
March 18th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Thanks i spent hours looking for info on overheating laptops and this was the best one i found.
March 17th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
hello thanks for your website very informative i just have a question: where is the heatsink located(please be specific) on a toshiba satellite a65-s1070) I’ve already cleaned the inside with compressed air but i’m not sure if i got the heatsink or not. Thank you very much
March 16th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
my Toshina laptop suddenly shut down by itself yesterday, and it’s still not working… whenever it was started, it was shutting down in 2-3 seconds.
I don’t know what happend… Should I take it to Toshiba service provider? My laptop is not under warranty… does it take a lot of money and time?
March 16th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
my laptop is not under warranty.. does it take a lot of money and time to fix it??
March 16th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
my toshina laptop suddenly shut down by itself yesterday, and it’s still not working!!! whenever I try to turned on it was shutting down in 3-4 seconds… I don’t know what happened….it never happened before… should I take it to service provider and fix it??
March 11th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
Don’t restrict this excellent advice to Toshiba models. My HP Compaq Presario has been troublesome for months now, shutting down on me, seemingly due to temperature problems. The symptoms worsened and I contacted HP helpdesk and wwas given the drastic advice that I’d need to replace my motherboard! I did some self-diagnosis and found your site – the indications listed above perfectly described my situation, so I took the plunge and unscrewed my lappy, only to find the fan and heatsink covered in a disgustingly thick layer of dust! I cleaned it out, used compressed air to get rid of any lingering dirt and…voila! Like a new computer…purring like a kitten.
Don’t hesitate – try this great advice!!
March 11th, 2007 at 7:25 am
Ref 473.
I would guess that the new fan I bought is bad.
It does freeze up and feels hot (unit)
Dennis
March 10th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Chan,
Search for “Satellite A10 fan” here and you’ll find it.