“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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January 7th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Janis Pollock,
Most likely it’s a software related issue.
If you can see the cursor in Safe Mode, you can try using the system restore utility. Revert the system back to the time when the cursor was working fine.
Or you can reinstall Windows from the recovery disc, this will reload your laptop back to factory defaults. In order to run the recovery process you’ll have to boot the laptop from the recovery disc.
Insert the recovery disc into the drive, restart the laptop, press F12 as soon as Toshiba logo appears on the screen, select CD/DVD drive from the boot menu, follow instructions on the screen.
WARNING! The recovery process erases everything from the hard drive, so do not forget to backup all personal files (music, images, photos, letters, etc…) before you start the recovery process.
Most likely reimaging the hard drive (running recovery discs) will fix your problem.
January 7th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Hello~my daughter has a toshiba satellite A105 laptop and when she opens it she does not have a cursor…what is the problem? Help! we are not very computer savvy! and info would be greatly appreciated…
January 5th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Edie,
It’s possible that somehow you’ve changed resolution on the screen. Try changing the resolution back to original settings. Here’s how you can do that.
Right click on the empty area of the deskotop and then click on Properties. After that click on Settings. In the lower left corner you’ll see the screen resolution slider. I believe for a Toshiba Satellite P30/P35 laptops the resolution should be set to 1280 x 800. Move the slider to this resolution and then press OK. Does it fix your problem?
January 5th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
I don’t know if this will reach anyone. I find it difficult to understand how the forums work. If this reaches someone who could help, I’d be most grateful. I have a Toshiba Satellite P30 2yrs. old. My most recent problem – I wear wrist braces for my arthritis and hit a key accidentally and the text and icons increased in size and distortion. I can see them better but need it back the way it was. I cannot edit photos that are distorted.
All text size settings are unchanged. I know the problem is the Toshiba Zooming Utility Fn+1 which should reduce it, but it does not work!!!! All the other Toshiba “hot keys” work except Fn+1 and Fn+2 (I guess that one worked well because it is the enlarge function which I probably hit with my wrist and it worked just fine but Fn+1 won’t).
Toshiba won’t tell me how to fix unless I pay them $40 which I don’t have.
Can anyone help me or direct me to a site where the information might be? Thank you.
December 31st, 2007 at 2:18 am
Hi, I have a Satellite A105-S2712 with the following problem.
After about 20 minutes of use the screen flashes. It can go on for about 2 hours of intermittent flashing but with no apparent pattern. At some stage the screen will black out with only a few horizontal grey lines at about a third way down the screen.
If the computer is running on battery power than the screen goes white and flashes with the horizontal lines barely visible.
None of this happens on an external screen.
Otherwise the computer continues to function and can be switched off by pressing the on/off button.
I have opened the computer and cleaned the heat sink and reapplied grease to the processor but it makes no difference. The computer is almost 2 years old and was getting very hot for some time with no adverse effects. Although it doesn’t get as hot since it’s been cleaned I wonder if the overheating in the past has caused irrepareable damage.
Enquiries on other forums suggest the inverter may be to blame or the screen or even the motherboard.
Any help would be appreciated and thanks in advance.
December 27th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
on 661 commentary, Id exterminate that cat immediatly
December 27th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
We too have a toshiba satelite laptop that shuts off after a few minutes of operation, we bought a 4 inch fan and have it blowing under the laptop while its on, and it stays running fine, apparently these laptops dont have proper ventilation, I think we need to start a class action lawsuit against Toshiba to force them to buy back the defective laptop computers that can IN court be proven to overheat due to a design flaw, any takers on attorneys that will take this issue to court?
December 26th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Regarding Toshiba extending the warranty on the Satellite A75…just another loophole for a huge “don’t give a crap about consumers” company. I found their customer relations department arrogant and indifferent. I’ve had nothing but problems with my laptop since purchasing it new. Toshiba never contacted me about the extended warranty. I stumbled across the info while online one day. I sent the unit in before the deadline and they said they would have to charge me $400 to repair the overheating problem!….because I had modified the power supply. And you know what???? I’ve NEVER had a power supply issue since me and a teenage neighbor replaced the faulty Toshiba design. Enough said. I’ll never purchase any Toshiba product again.
December 23rd, 2007 at 1:43 pm
Panelle,
At this point it’s hard to tell what is wrong. You’ll have to test the laptop with an external monitor and find out if the laptop works with an external monitor and external video is fine.
Here my other posts that can help you to troubleshoot video problems:
How to troubleshoot and fix laptop video problems
Notebook display assembly diagram. How an image appears on the screen.
December 22nd, 2007 at 6:18 pm
My lap top toshiba i have 3 yrs ago has a black screen eveyrhthing is ok no dust i have no idea i have a reg computer which i love but my husbands lap top has a black screen thats driving us nuts. can you please help? thanks