“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!
If you find this article useful, please consider making a donation to the author. Thank you!
March 20th, 2006 at 11:59 pm
Thank you so much, especially for the instruction for dismantling A75.
I had this problem for so long, I tried to dismantle it, but never figured out how.
I’ll try this now,
Thank you so much
March 20th, 2006 at 1:39 am
Hey, very nice job for doing this Page for all of us that need some manuals to fix the overheating problems, My father bought an A75 and after 1 year and a half working great he started to have some problems, so he took it to a repair center and it work great just for 3 weeks, so I found this page and I followed the instructions and applied some Arctic Silver 5 and is working great for now, hope it stays like this.
Now I have two questions:
1.- Is there any web like this to dismantle a Acer Ferrari 4005? I have one, I don’t have any problems but I want to put it Arctic Silver 5 hehehe.
2.- Is there any Software like MobileMeter to see the temperature of the A75?
Thank you a lot and great job.
March 19th, 2006 at 9:38 am
been having overheating problems with my toshiba 35 found the guide in how to clean the fans out but dont have the star key to unlock the 2 screws to get to the heatsink…can i buy one ?where do i get one?
March 18th, 2006 at 8:23 pm
[...] Overheating problem. The laptop will shut down by itself without any reason. To fix the overheating problem you have to take the laptop apart and clean up the heatsink. [...]
March 17th, 2006 at 7:44 pm
CAN CLEANING IT REALLY HELPS OR ITS JUST A GENUINE PROBLEM WITH ALL TOSHIBA?
March 15th, 2006 at 12:51 pm
Hi Dan,
Here is disassembly guide for Toshiba Satellite M55 laptop. On step 27 you can see the laptop system board. The DC jack is on a pigtail and you shouldn’t experience any problem with cutting power. Just leave it as is.
If you are going to use compressed air to clean the heatsink may be 2-3 times a month, it would be under your control.
BTW, it is always a good idea to buy an extra 3-4 years warranty to protect your investment. I can fix laptops myself, but I always buy an extra warranty. Laptop hardware is so expensive!
March 15th, 2006 at 10:25 am
Dear CJ,
Just bought a Toshiba M55-S3314 3 wks ago. Works great at the moment; but reading about the overheating and dc-plug issues scares me a bit (yeah, it’s under warranty, but I don’t want to have to go there if I can prevent it). Two questions:
1. Do the M55’s tend to get clogged and overheat? If I use compressed air blown through the side, maybe with a vacuum cleaner sucking underneath, say, once a week starting now, should that keep it under control?
2. The DC jack is kinda flimsy, looking at it from the outside. I don’t know if it’s on a pigtail or on the board. Is there a way to secure it (like, maybe, epoxy) around the edges where the jack sticks through the case or something like that? Something preventative? Or is this a non-issue.
Sorry for it being so long, I’m just trying to protect my investment…an ounce of medicine is worth a pound of cure, you know…
Thanks so much,
Dan
March 15th, 2006 at 7:37 am
Hey Ryan,
Sorry cannot help with this one. I’m not familiar with this model.
March 15th, 2006 at 7:36 am
Hey Brendan,
The DC jack stays away from other components, so you have enough time to heat it up. I do not solder myself a lot and it takes me some time to fix DC jack on the system board, but I haven’t had any problem so far.
March 14th, 2006 at 3:45 am
My Eisystem notebook turns off suddenly without warning. can you help?