“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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May 11th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
I have a Satellite that was overheating. Inspired by the “shop vac” method I gave it a shot. Seems my shop vac is rather week, so I turned tward the next obvious choice… the leaf blower. My laptop is now quiet and running cool. The leaf blower did the trick! Thanks to everyone for sharing, I wouldn’t have thought of this without this type of open forum.
May 10th, 2007 at 12:03 am
So, here’s the deal…
I have a Toshiba Satellite A75, Pentium 4 3.0Ghz, and it shuts down randomly when I’m running the DVD player too long or playing a game (mainly World of WarCraft).
I’m using Notebook Hwardware Control to keep the CPU running at Max Battery Life, I have it on Mid-Power, and I have a cooling pad blowing air into the system on the bottom. I took the notebook apart last week, cleaned everything out, added new thermal grease, etc. and it was running fine for awhile, stayed around 88 to 92 degrees F. But now it’s getting up to 100 degress and this is at 11PM at night. I know its not that hot in my apartment.
I’m running out of options here. Anything you can say to help would be much appreciated
May 8th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Stas,
It looks like there are four different CPUs listed for a Satellite A30/A35 notebook.
2.70GHz Celeron, 2.80GHz Celeron, 2.30GHz Pentium-4 and 2.80GHz Pentium-4.
I think if you replace your 2.80 Celeron with a 2.80GHZ Pentium processor, it might work.
Not sure 100%, never done it myself.
May 8th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
Does anybody know if the cpu on Toshiba Sat. A35 is replaceble? I have a Cel-2800 and would like to replace it on a real P4.
May 2nd, 2007 at 10:04 pm
paco,
Crucial.com has a memory advisor tool. According to this tool, Toshiba Equium A60 will take DDR PC2700 memory module. I believe you have only one slot available for upgrades, you can install 256MB, 512MB or 1GB RAM module into this slot.
May 1st, 2007 at 10:55 pm
Hello guys
I want to upgrade the RAM memory of my laptop, is a toshiba ea60 152, Which is the name of the memory I have to buy?
May 1st, 2007 at 9:27 pm
I have myToshiba laptop placed on top of a metal cookie cooler rack. I know I know sounds strange but…the fans are not blocked and it finally runs cool, AND it has stopped shutting down in the middle of tedius editing.
Clare
April 28th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
Yay!! i love the net for this. i got one of the Toshitbas for free cuz kept overheating. thanks for the tip. i took apart the laptop (every screw) and vacumed it. it works PERFECT now. WHAT A BAD A__ COMPUTER! ima put a gig a ram in it and then it should be complete.
MOST IMPORTANT-
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
CPLUS
PS – gosh darnit, thank you!
April 27th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
[...] any reason when you ran CPU intensive programs? If yes, then most likely it happens because the laptop overheats. It happens because overtime the heatsink gets clogged with dust. A layer of dust collects between [...]
April 22nd, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Yanique Ramdial,
It could be overheating. Make sure the heatsink is clean. Blow off the heatsink if it’s clogged. Make sure the cooling fan spins. If the cooling fan doesn’t work, the laptop will overheat and shutdown even with a clean heatsink.