“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!
December 20th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Using an air compressor or compressed air is not actually the best way to do this. A vacuum is. The reason is simple, a vacuum pulls the dirt, dust, debris out the same way it came in, but a compressor can actually force the stuff in tighter. If you have just a dust problem for sure then you can use air, but if you have pets or hair you need o watch when you blow it out. Make sure the fans are stopped and cannot spin up or you will eventually burn out bearings as the air will severly overspeed them. Put the air in and you should get a few good puffs of dust. If you don’t get much dust then you probably have hair or lint clogging the vents and the things needs to come apart to get it clean.
December 12th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
I don’t have a compressed air can in my home, but as someone suggested I used my vacuum cleaner. It seems to have worked well. My fan turns on now!
Hopefully it won’t heat up and shut down as much. thanks!!!!!
December 7th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
I discovered my cat has been using my lap top as a spare litter box. Apparently cat feces not beficial to the Dell circuitry.
December 5th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
You site helps me a lot to solve the problem for my laptop. You provided me with many information.
December 5th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
I have TOSHIBA SATELLITE A135-S2276, now I couldn’t use it as the bios has gone corrupted and system gets switched off by itself without any warning, found the cooler fan stopped working after sometime and thereafter the system gets shutdown.
We thought the problem would be in the OS, we formatted the disk and again we had this problem and went to reinstalling BIOS from toshiba site, unfortunately, the system went off in between of installation and switched on I couldn’t see anything on the screen. Now, it looks dead.
Core issue, system gets switched off by itself without warning.
Is there anyone out there to help me?
December 5th, 2007 at 7:30 am
my compaq laptop 2800 just shutdown by itself when i am install winxp in it and no work again
November 25th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
Steve,
You can buy thermal grease in any local computer store. Also, yon buy thermal grease online.
Toshiba uses this thermal grease for Satellite A75 series: X-23-7762-01
Google by the number and you’ll find it.
November 25th, 2007 at 9:59 am
thanks for the information on the Toshiba shutting down. i thought it was because it was running too hot, i will suck out the fan area and see if that helps and if not change the grease conductors. thanks again.
November 24th, 2007 at 10:34 am
Where can I find Thermal grease?
November 19th, 2007 at 5:20 am
I have AOL downloaded onto my laptop here. AOL has this feature through IMs where you can have a chat with people through microphones, its called AOL TALK. Anyway, I disabled the micophone under my laptop here, which is a built in microphone, and I’m just wondering how you would enable it again. Anyone know?