“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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February 16th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
the overheating comes sometimes from the transistors that can’t handle the load of power from the motherboard. these components are on the motherboard and are tricky to change if you have no experience doing so. the best thing to do is change the transistors and use one with a higher load so the laptop doesn’t shut down from overheating…
now on the motherboard their is about 10 of these trnasistors to change get an experienced laptop technician to fix the laptop for you and make sure he knows a little bit about electronics and then you should be good to go
February 16th, 2008 at 1:46 am
my toshiba a70 5v port which the cooling fan connects is not working but the fan is working
February 13th, 2008 at 6:12 am
Shawn,
Before you replace the video cable, check out this post.
Laptop has bad video on the LCD screen. What is wrong?
If your lines look the same as on the example 2, reseating or replacing the video cable will not help.
February 12th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
I have a Toshiba Satelite P35 which has developed vertical lines in the display, how do I change or reseat the video card?
February 6th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Hello,
I have found your site over the Internet and I have tried it today and
I was able to disassemble my toshiba laptop and everything as you
written at your site.
You really helped me much cause I have laptop M40X (It is the same as
m35x just mainboard is little different) and I have been using it for
3 years. In that time lot of dust accumulated in laptop. After
clearing dust with compress air and changing processor thermal grease
I am able to use my laptop at full speed at 1.6Ghz.
Last year I was using laptop at 800MHz cause CPU was overheating and
it was really really slow at that speed.
I am fascinated with howto that you written and I have decided to
donate you 25$, I hope that is OK.
January 27th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
phuc,
First of all try this. Enter the BIOS setup menu and then load default settings (I believe you’ll have to press F9). Save settings and reboot the laptop. It might help.
Also, try reflashing the BIOS. Upgrade it to the latest version.
If nothing helps and the laptop still cannot see a known good hard dive, most likely you have a problem with the motherboard. Apparently the controller is bad. It means you’ll have to replace the motherboard.
January 26th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
My Toshiba A105 no detect hdd. I replaced new hdd but It haven’t work. In BIOS display NONE. please help me how to fix it
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:45 pm
David Franks,
There is no easy way to access the cooling fan on this model, you’ll have to take the whole thing apart. There is no hatch on the bottom and there no easy access under the keyboard. You’ll have to remove the top cover.
Just find powerful air compressor and blow off the fan/heatsink through the grill on the side.
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Krishna,
If the fan worked before you pulled the connector from the motherboard, them most likely there is nothing wrong with the fan. Maybe you just didn’t solder it properly.
As a last resort you can try soldering fan wires directly to the motherboard. I’ve never tried it myself but it might work.
Unfortunately I cannot give you a better advice without testing the laptop.
Here’s another thread dedicated to Toshiba Satellite A65 laptop problems.
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Frank,
yes, this problem can be related to the overheating. Also, it could be related to faulty memory and bad hard drive. Test memory with Memtest86+ and hard drive with Hitachi’s DFT utility (links in Resources).
You can see fans through the grill on the bottom.