“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!
March 12th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Karl Jahr,
Take a look at this disassembly guide for Toshiba Satellite A10 and A15 laptops. Open the heatsink/fan door as it shown on the step 3 and clean both heatsink and fan with compressed air. You can unplug and remove the fan to get better access to the heatsink. It’s not difficult at all, all you have to do is remove a few screws.
March 12th, 2008 at 2:51 am
hi am it’s my to just inform u that my laptop was not ok at all but i try to put it in order but all my effoct to do so was thesame with b4 please can u just teach me hw to do this so that i would not give money to all this people that call their self engr
thanks i would expect your feedback have a nice day
March 11th, 2008 at 4:08 am
sir
i am using acer aspire laptop even i am paceing same problem
now i am going to try wht u guided in this doc well i will check my laptop
thanQ for the impormation…………….
March 10th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
I have a Toshiba A10-S169 laptop. It normally runs fine (Firefox, Thunderbird, Open Office, and simple Photoshopping is most of what I do, though it does get quite warm. However, when I am running a chess game, which is compute intensive it will overheat and cut out after about 10 minutes.
I put some felt floor protector pads under my laptop to raise it and provide air space under it. It seems to help a little because it takes a little longer to overheat.
I shall not open the box (the good Lord gave me 11 left thumbs). Can anybody possibly send me a picture showing where I should blow air in or suck it out.
I am also not planning to buy a new computer because I can’t buy one with XP on it, and my experience with a friend’s Vista has turned me off.
Any ideas?
Thanks
March 8th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
GUARANTEED FIX!
Are you suggesting to install the CPU back into the socket while it’s still attached to the heatsink? I wouldn’t do that because you can damage CPU pins. It’s very hard to align CPU pins with the socket when you cannot see the socket. If the CPU is not aligned with the socket and you push on it, you can damage the CPU. Don’t do that.
Here’s what you SHOULD do.
Overtime thermal compound between the CPU and the heatsink dries out and the CPU gets glued to the heatsink. When you are removing the heatsink, the processor may came out attached to the heatsink. In this case you’ll have to separate the processor from the heatsink with a flathead screwdriver. After that UNLOCK the socket, install the processor back into the socket and LOCK the socket. Now, when the processor is secured, you can remove old thermal grease from the top of the processor using soft cloth and alcohol. Remove old thermal compound from the heatsink too. Clean the heatsink with compressed air. Apply new thermal compound on the CPU and install the heatsink back in place.
DO NOT INSTALL THE HEATSINK WITH THE PROCESSOR STILL ATTACHED TO IT, YOU CAN DAMAGE PINS ON THE PROCESSOR. SEPARATE THE PROCESSOR FROM THE HEATSINK FIRST.
March 8th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
Marcie vanderen,
I don’t think that your problem is related to overheating unless the laptop has a dead fan, it’s too early for the heatsink to be clogged.
Try reimaging the hard drive from the recovery disc. This process will erase all personal data from the hard drive, so make a backup first if you can.
If the laptop still shuts down randomly even aver the hard drive has been reimaged, you’ll have to take the laptop to a service center. Apparently, it’s a hardware related problem.
March 8th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
First step, disconnect power and pull out the battery and hard drive. hard drive isnt necessary, just a precaution. get to the processor. The heatsink is ontop of the processor. Pull out the heat sink and processor. You’ll notice that there is an aluminum shroud covering the heatsink and processor, take this shroud and throw it directly into the garbage. Next, clean the heatsink fins out using a toothpick or something of that sort, make sure you give them a good scraping. Make sure not to bend the pins on the processor. Also, it may take a bit of a pry to get the processor and heatsink out, it should just pop out with a little bit of pressure. After you have cleaned the fins, and thrown the piece of crap aluminum shroud in the garbage, reinstall the heatsink and processor. once you have the processor lined up, push on the top of the heatsink carefully until you feel a pop or hear a click. Now that the processor and heatsink are back in the laptop put the screws back into the side brackets. Now, the plastic cover on the bottom of the laptop, take this and drill some very small holes in it, i mean the smallest drill bit you have. fill it up with holes. now screw this back into the bottom of the laptop. fire it up and PRESTO!!! the son of a gun will run for months on end without overheating or needing to be shut off!!
March 7th, 2008 at 6:53 am
My daughter’s Toshiba laptop is a month old. Purchased the end of January 2008. Satellite A215-S7422. Worked great until the last week or so. Now it shuts down randomly every few minutes. Is this caused by overheating by dust or something else?
March 6th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
marlene taylor,
Test the hard drive. Download Hitachi’s drive fitness test (link in Resources) and diagnose the hard drive.
March 6th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Cheeku,
Can you boot to the desktop in Safe Mode?
Test the memory module. Download Memtest86+ (you’ll find link in Resources), burn it on a CD and boot the laptop from this CD. If the memory module fails the test, you’ll have to replace it.
By the way, if you have two memory modules you can try removing them one by one and test the laptop with each memory module separately.