“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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March 6th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
michael saunders,
No, updating the BIOS wouldn’t damage the fan. Probably the fan is bad and has to be replaced.
March 6th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Peter,
Here’s your manual for a Toshiba Tecra 8200. Click here.
March 4th, 2008 at 5:35 am
My toshiba laptop has been freezing. When I try to go into the control panel it comes up not responding. A message comes up as well saying logon error message in the security
March 3rd, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Dears,
Needed motherboard for Toshiba laptop Satellite S1900-703.
Please to reply.
Regards.
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:35 am
my laptop is suddenly login but not properly shut down
pls.tell me if there is big problem
thank u
swati
March 1st, 2008 at 3:13 am
thanks I already clean the heat sink in my Toshiba satellite s1900-101 laptop and every think going fine no more shutdown
February 27th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Hi CJ, please help, I’m a bit desperate with my laptop’s problem. I live in the UK. I bought a Toshiba satellite p100 – the one with a 17 inch screen and copper cover. I’ve had it a year and a half.
Yesterday, while working on it, the screen just went black. Since then, I have tried to turn it back on and it never gets past the welcome Windows XP screen. The power light is on, the keyboard light is on, it just wont get to the desktop.
I tried the recovery CD and it went through the whole process and even said, wait for Windows to start up, but it wouldnt.
Could overheating cause this problem? I read almost all the posts in this topic carefully and I have not had the problem where the laptop keeps shutting off – this is the first time this has happened to me.
February 27th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Hi, new here but I have a compaq nx9010 it has 2 fans under neath and only the 1 blow out fan is working and the air intake fan has stopped, I updated my bios and now only 1 fan works would the bios update do this? as my laptop is now overheating.
cheers
mick
February 26th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
I just purchased a brand new Toshiba laptop two weeks ago and it shut down on its own the very first day. After several occurnaces I took it back to Best Buy and they exchanged it. Now the one has done the same thing. Does Toshiba have a fix? I don’t want to keep exchanging laptops.
February 26th, 2008 at 7:29 am
What is the difference between a lap top and a notebook?
Peter