Why my Toshiba laptop suddenly shuts down by itself without warning?
“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.).
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!
Entry Filed under: Toshiba Laptop Problems
881 Responses to “Why my Toshiba laptop suddenly shuts down by itself without warning?”
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Pages: « 89 … 66 65 64 63 62 [61] 60 59 58 57 56 … 1 » Show All
September 5th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
there was a class action lawsuit against toshiba over the a75. google it and you might be able to get them to fix it for free.
September 5th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
i have a toshiba satellite 2400 which was working fine up until it suddenly turned off. Now when i attempt to turn it on i get the led error code 431 in the plug in light. I tried using a second ac power source and same result. I have remove all peripherals and the battery and such and still no change. Any ideas?
P.S the battery itself has been going downhill for some time and rarely holds a charge but the computer has not given me any grief.
August 31st, 2007 at 9:05 am
Hi! i have toshiba laptop A45-S121, Which heats up and the fan start running loudly when u run application(s) and shut down after sometime.
I am planning to take apart my A45 and follow the http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptops/ToshibaA45/Satellite-A45-remove-hinges-1.htm step 1 to step 5. After I clean it do I need any special glue to put the heat sink back on?
pls help i am very new to this and dont want to mess up..
August 31st, 2007 at 12:35 am
i just got my laptop fixed i got it back and i aint got no sound please could u help thanks
August 28th, 2007 at 4:44 am
Hi i have an A60-181 and the wifi has stopped working i know my router is ok as my ps3 is still logging in, can you help is there an easy test or will i need a new wifi card.
August 26th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
stana,
Remove the battery and plug the AC adapter. Does the power LED lights up? Do you see any lights at all?
If the laptop appears to be dead when you plug the AC adapter, it’s possible that you you have a bad AC adapter. You can test it with a voltmeter.
August 26th, 2007 at 10:39 am
hiya its me again my toshiba tecra 8200 laptop wont charge it wont even come on with no battery, is it my ac adaptor plz plz plz help me
August 25th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
hello i need help my toshiba t8200 laptop shut down and now it wont charge can any1 help me
August 22nd, 2007 at 1:31 am
I am facing a problem when i was baking up the information on my system to an external hard drive the lab top shut down then i received the following massege Abort;29005 Result=1 Drive=128 Sectors6292863to6292927 please could you help me to download this sectors to a cd then i will download that to my hard drive so i can start my lab top back.. My labtop is shutting down even with my recovery disk. or can you download an automatic recovery disc so i can solve my problem
August 14th, 2007 at 4:52 am
I’ve got a good story. My A75 had a chronic overheating problem as detailed above - got worse and worse, but the computer could run as long as I propped it up at least 3 inches off a surface for clear air flow. Finally, back in March, it shut down and wouldn’t restart - I thought the power supply had fried because there was no indication it was getting power at all. I kept trying it for a couple of weeks just to make sure, nothing.
I couldn’t afford at the moment to get it fixed as I’d just had to replace my desktop computer, so I got a USB cable to allow me to access the HD and be done with it for the time being.
This past weekend, almost 4 months later, I decided to give the laptop another try. Bam, it suddenly works again. Still overheating like anything, but it’s getting power once more.
Anyway, going to try the tips above - thanks:)