“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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November 5th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
i have toshiba satellite A215-S7444 which is only less than a month old. the first week i got it it just shuts itself off.. like nothing. the screen displays a dark blue almost black color and the hard drive just stops working but the power button is on. sometimes it does that for 2-3 times a day and getting really frequent. and im pretty much sure that there is space around it for ventilation.
so since reading this forum.. i wondered could my laptop be overheating? isnt it too soon for that?
so anyways, before stumbling to this website.. i called toshiba tech support and they told me to do a system recovery coz they said that maybe some programs that i installed is interfering with the hard drive. but my brother who has an acer laptop, we pretty much have the same programs installed and he’s not having any hard drive problems.
so, what do you think is wrong? and solution for it?
October 31st, 2007 at 11:49 am
OK I have a major problem then!!!
I have cleaned the heat sink and replaced the fan. However it is still shutting down at various times. I also notice that the fan next to the heat sink is blowing much much cooler air out than it used too. The heat sink seems to heat up near the cpu however does not heat up nearly as much near the fan. I dont know how or if the actuall heat sink can go bad. Any suggestions??
October 31st, 2007 at 11:03 am
Hello I have a Toshiba Satellite 2435-s255 model, I disconnected the power cord from it the other day and now the computer is dead. When you plug the power adaptor back in it will not do anything, and you can not start it on battery either. I checked the power adapter and we are getting power. any ideas?? this happened once before and a friend took everything apart but could see nothing wrong and after that it powered up. I tried that and still nothing thanks for any help I love my little laptop. John
October 30th, 2007 at 9:12 am
Hi CJ,
My M55 satellite is having an overheating problem, but it seems to be the hard drive. Now, I don’t know if that would be a hard drive problem, per se, or a general “it’s clogged with dust” problem. I was looking thru the photos of your disassembly, and it doesn’t *appear* to be cooled internally in any way, so I might just have a dying HD (actually, I hope it is…easier to replace than trying to open the case, which is probably too advanced for the likes of me). If it’s a general overheating thing, is there a way to just remove the base of the unit to get access, or does the entire thing have to be broken down? Any help would be really appreciated…
Dan
Panicing in Richmond, Virginia…
October 27th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
Bill from Maryland,
I believe the fans will run separately and the fan witch is located further from the battery will run more frequently.
October 27th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
Bill from Maryland,
First of all you should know that Toshiba extended warranty for a few models including Satellite A75. Did you know that? It means that Toshiba will fix your laptop at no charge even though technically it’s out of warranty, but only until November 7, 2007. Hurry up, you still have some time left.
No, I was talking about cleaning fans when they are removed from the laptop. After the motherboard is removed from the laptop, I separate the fan from the motherboard and clean fans using a powerful air compressor. I block fans with my fingers and clean the with air, I just don’t like when they spin too fast.
I don’t think so. I’ve cleaned many laptops like that and didn’t have any problem. Yes, the fan can rotate in either direction.
October 27th, 2007 at 9:42 pm
Kubes,
Yes, it’s possible. Make sure the heatsink is not clogged with dust.
Does it run only on startup or it also runs when the laptop gets hot?
If the fan runs only on startup but will not turn on when the CPU is getting hot, it’s possible that the thermostat witch controls when the fan should start is not functioning properly.
Did you notice if thermal grease under the heatsink is still OK? Maybe thermal grease dried out and has to be replaced?
October 27th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Can I also ask if the fans are designed to run separately or always both at the same time? At the moment only the fan closer to the rear is in action but not the other.
Also, maybe there is some kind of thin strong narrow shaft that can be inserted through the fan grills to immobilize the fans when blowing hard compressed air.
PS – I am thinking your quote above referred to times when you had the fan units out of the disassembled case and could manually secure them.
October 27th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
CJ,
I try to keep the space around my Toshiba Satellite A75-S229 as free of dust as possible and have not had heat problems. But I have only really used the unit during this year [2007] after its July 2004 purchase. So maybe the heat/dust issue is in my future.
To protect against that, I am asking if you can clarify your reply to Carew Rowell on August 17 of 2006 where you said, “I’m not sure if you can burn up the fans but when I clean them with compressed air I block the fans just in case. I usually take the fan out and block fans with my fingers.”
Most of your posts advise compressed air without further ado. So when you said, “I usually take the fan out [-did you mean 'grill'?-] and block the fans with my fingers,” this appears to be a little additional technique of some importance.
Did you mean you pry the circular fan GRILL out of the bottom of the closed case and stick your finger in there from outside to hold the fan steady?
I ask because Hugh also indicated on March 26th of this year: “I popped out the screens – you can use an eyeglass repair screwdriver or small knife – and was able to get much cleaner suction from the shop vac and remove all lint fragments.” [question: Are those screens designed in a way that one can even get them out like that?]
I am confused a just a tad by your description because the compressed air method is all about not having to open the case. The generic process would be to blow air through the in-place fan screens of a fully closed case. In your quote, were you talking about a process during a certain stage of case and contents disassembly?
Lastly, if we ever need to graduate from a can of compressed air to “full leafblower mode,” is there any concern that that blowing highly compressed air into the open grill at the rear of the case or down through the circular fan grills could damage the fans? And are the fan mechanisms fully free to rotate in either direction?
- Bill
PS – By accident I stumbled upon lowering the processor setting to “Mid” in the Toshiba Power Mgmt utility. The result is that the notebook only very occasionally needs to rev up the fans up to hyper-spin speeds. (I do no gaming.) I wish I had found this option earlier in time because ‘less suck’ means less dust intake!
October 27th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
thanks for the info cj2600. I checked the heatsink fan and it runs on startup. Do you think despite the fan is working correctly, it may be faulty causing heat entrapment? Thanks