“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 5th, 2006 at 6:47 pm
You would be surprised Meg, but Toshiba Satellite A75 laptops with a Celeron CPU inside experience the same overheating problem as laptops with Pentium CPUs. You can prevent the common overheating problem with this model if you buy a can of compressed air and clean the heatsink 2-3 times a month. Just make a few shots inside the fan opening on the bottom of your laptop. If you have some dust inside the heatsink, it will go away through the openings on the side. Also do not use the LAPTOP on your LAPs
, use it on a flat surface.
March 5th, 2006 at 6:18 pm
Thanks for the great site! You are a lifesaver for those of us out here with out of warranty Toshiba laptops. I have a A75-S229 with the common overheating problem. Sent it in for “motherboard replacement” while under warranty and I am having problems again now that the warranty has expired. Do you know if it is possible to change processors in this model? If I switched to a Celeron processor would that reduce the heat production? Is this even a possibility? Do you know if Toshiba is doing anything to make this right? I have tried to find out information from the company but they are not very forthcoming. I love this model with the exception of it overheating all the time. Thanks for any help you can offer.
March 5th, 2006 at 3:37 pm
Hi Bruce,
You can clean up your Toshiba Satellite A30/A35 heatisnk without pulling it out. You have to remove the heatsink cover and blew the dust out with a canned air. The dust collects between the heatsink and the CPU fan, so clean it properly. After that you can check your job with a flashlight. If you can see the CPU fan through the heatsink it should be good enough to fix the overheating problem. You have to remove the heatsink if you want apply a new thermal compound on the CPU (Artic Silver thermal compound is a good one).
March 5th, 2006 at 1:56 pm
Great Site! I have a Toshiba A35 that overheats and Im about toopen it up to clean it. Having read about others CPU problems during reassembly, Id rather not pull the heat sink off. Is there a way to remove the “lint/felt” without pulling the heat sink out once tyhe back is off? ( I havent looked inside yet)
March 4th, 2006 at 1:23 pm
Hi i have a Toshiba M35X laptop and it shus down by iself. I used the coprssedair on the outside of the model next to the fan. I’m scared of opening the laptop but anyway my laptop shuts off in 15min on a good day and 50sec. on a bad one. I tried the old vaccum trick and hat didn’t work. I don’t know what to do because im not a computer wiz and im short on cash.
March 3rd, 2006 at 9:49 pm
The CPU in Toshiba P30 is getting hot very fast. It is still possible that you have an overheating problem, even if the laptop runs only for a minute. Check if the CPU fans work properly. Also try to start the laptop in Safe Mode to load only basic Windows files. It is possible that your laptop is infected with a virus. If the laptop works fine in a Safe Mode, than most likely you have a software problem.
One of the best ways to bypass Windows OS files and exclude the software problem is to boot the laptop with Knoppix CD (Comment 34). If you still have the same problem after you booted with Knoppix, the software is not your problem. If your laptop work fine in Knoppix then I would try to reload Windows OS (backup all important data and run a restore CD).
March 3rd, 2006 at 7:46 pm
Toshiba P30-100.
Having problems with it starting. As soon as it gets to desktop it shuts down. I don’t think it is an overheating problem as it doesn’t start long enough to even get warm. Any ideas would be great.
Thanks in advance
March 1st, 2006 at 10:31 pm
Hi Steve,
Unfortunately I am not familiar with this laptop model; I repair mostly laptops sold in the USA. I assume that you laptop is similar to Toshiba Satellite 5105 and it has a dedicated video card (not integrated on the system board).
I think that it is a good sign that you were able to get rid of the lines on the screen by flexing the laptop case. It is possible that you can fix the video just by reseating the video card on the system board. Very often the video problem may occur because of a faulty connection between the video card and the system board. You can try to remove the keyboard and push on the video card to see if it will change the video output. If your model is similar to Toshiba Satellite 5105 than you can use my disassembly guide: how to remove the VGA board from Toshiba Satellite 5105 laptop . A new “refurbished” video card is very expensive. Last week I had to troubleshoot a similar laptop, and I quoted to my customer over $200 – he declined the repair. It might be more expensive to fix your laptop than to buy a new one.
You can look for a new video card on eBay. It is risky but sometimes you can get buy stuff very cheap.
I haven’t work on Qosmio G35-AV600 yet and cannot give you any advice. This model is pretty new and very expensive. I guess I will not see this model in our shop in the near future. When you buy a new laptop do not forget to buy an extended warranty, it will pay off.
March 1st, 2006 at 1:52 pm
Hi There – great site. I have a S5100-603 (european model I think) that crashed every day when I used ISDN -every time I logged on it would soon crash – but has been fine for months since I got broadband. Anyway, the big issue is that the screen has flickering pink-ish vertical lines, very hard to read but I manage by changing to lower colour settings where the lines get wider – about 1/4 inch wide or so. Once or twice the way i pressed on the body of the laptop made the lines disappear but I could not recreate this effect and it only lasted a few minutes. The screen is bad on a projector too so its not the LCD thats at fault. I could buy a new laptop for the money I’m quoted for a new video card (telephone diagnosis of the problem) which I’m told needs a new motherboard. I’m wondering if you have any ideas – do I need a new mortherboard? If so can I upgrade from the broken nvidia 440go? Can the video card be replaced without replacing the motherboard? Where can I buy a motherboard? I have searched the net for a long time now.
Incidentally my brothers Toshiba shuts down too till he got it cleaned.
On another note, I need a second laptop for work and the new Quosmio AV600 looks great – especially the speakers. Any ideas will this be crap for overheating too?
Many thanks for your help,
Steve
February 28th, 2006 at 1:01 pm
It is very possible that you have a software problem, as you were able to run Windows in safe mode but not in normal mode.
I am not sure what knowledge you have about computers and I hope it will not sound very complicated for you.
You can download Knoppix Linux live CD in ISO format and burn it on a CD. After that you can try to boot you laptop from this CD. It will boot to a Linux GUI environment, very similar to Windows. Knoppix uses drivers from the CD and by booting to it you will bypass Windows OS. If you laptop works fine in Linux then most likely your problem is a corrupted Windows OS or the hard drive itself. You can test the hard drive with Hitachi DFT drive diagnostic tool . I do it all the time when I am not sure if a corrupted Windows OS is causing problems.
I would also remove any extra parts from the laptop (DVD drive, battery, wireless card, modem card) to minimize the system and see if it will fix the problem. Try to start the laptop after each part removed. If it will start working properly, the last remove part could be defective. Sometimes bad wireless card can prevent a laptop from booting normally.
I would definitely tested the memory modules with Memtest 86+ utility. If you have 2 memory sticks installed, you can remove them one by one and start the laptop to see if it makes any difference.
Your laptop is not old and I think you can use the same thermal grease if you do not have a new one.
If you do not have any important data on the hard drive try to run a restore CD, I guess you have nothing to loose and the laptop does not work properly anyway.