“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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April 3rd, 2007 at 2:52 pm
If i do need to replace the fans can you assist with a guide on how to do it?
April 3rd, 2007 at 6:13 am
I have a Satelite A45-1202 and i have replaced the cpu (not a dirty problem )and cleaned the heat sync and blown out the whole underside. I booted up and all works fine except I keep getting a little pop up window telling me there is an internal cooling error and to shut down immediately, I feel the air intake and exiting but the fan motor has not come on. Do I need to replace the fan itself?
April 2nd, 2007 at 9:10 pm
rlllngriver,
Isn’t it twarnmsg.exe? After a quick search I found that twarnmsg.exe belongs to Toshiba System Warning Function (provides notification dialog when the cooling fan stops). Try removing it from the startup menu (type msconfig in the run box) and see if it fixes the problem.
April 1st, 2007 at 8:07 pm
tswarnmsg.exe
I keep getting this tswarnmsg.exe that comes up and the cpu keeps running very slow at 100%. I have cleaned the heatsync. I have formatted and reinstalled the OS. It still has the same problems. What do you recommend?
March 27th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Toshiba has acknowledged they have a problem with these laptops overheating, and have extended the warrenty. If you try any repairs on your own you void the warrenty, call Toshiba first!!!!!!!!
March 26th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Same thermal overload problem with the Satellite. Problem got progressively worse until I had to use an external fan to do anything. Didn’t really feel like going thru laptoprepairguy’s 52 step process to disassemble then reassemble the machine. So tried the vacum trick but the lint just got caught on the screens. Popped out the screens (very easy just use an eyeglass repair screwdriver or small knife) an was able to get much cleaner suction from the shop vac and remove all lint frags. Also I blew compressed air in from the rear as it sucked from the fan ports. Presto!. Shinning a light in, the heat sink is totally clean and a few weeks later I have not had a problem. So my suggestion is save yourself the grief of dissembling your machine. Just pop out the screens and vacum.
Hugh
March 25th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
I recently purchased a new cd-rw for my toshiba a70.. it went out a few months ago but I jsut havent gotten around to getting one until now when the computer started failing… the computer started locking up telling me that the computer wasnt shutdown properly and gives me the four different boot options… anyhow on normal boot it flashes a blue screen then restarts. On all the others it still restarts never loading into windows… and for somereason when i put the xp cd ( not the toshiba rescue disk, i lost it.) it wouldnt give me the option of reloading windows even though i set up the bios to start cd-rom, external hardware then hard drive… I tried fdisk, deleted the partion but it stopped everytime when it was validating the hard drive at 41% … also would not find c drive to let me format it.. so I tried a third party partion program called wipedrive.. it would only get .18 % done then stop… so I figured its the hard drive has gone bad… the only problem i had with fdisk is that it said that it couldnt find drivers for the cdrom prob because the boot disk with fdisk i had was used for windows 98 se… what should i do.. go out and by a new hard drive ? And how do i load the drivers for the cdrom ? any help would be awesome
March 23rd, 2007 at 5:04 pm
hey i did my a70 fans they sounded bad. I took the stickers of the middle of the fan axcel, after disassembly of course. Then squirted oil in.
March 22nd, 2007 at 5:28 pm
David,
Here’s something to try:
1. try enabling the touch pad with Fn+F9 key combination
2. lift up the keyboard and make sure the touchpad cable is properly connected to the motherboard
March 21st, 2007 at 3:49 pm
Well today I did it, I took apart the laptop, and when i got down to removing the heat sink well their was an inch of thick dust. I totaly recomend this way to clean it, I had a hard time around step 14. One of the screws at the top middle wouldn’t remove, it was stuck. I got it off, but you don’t want to know how. LOL
I also fixed my plug issue.
I put it all back together and well the only thing not working is the mouse pad (touch pad) So next time I clean it, or when i have a nice afternoon i will sit down, and do it all again!
Thanks so much,
David