“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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April 7th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
Lizzie,
Nope, this applies to different laptops. Try cleaning the heat sink.
April 7th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Do these instructions only apply to Toshiba laptops? Mine is an Advent, 7106, running on windows xp. I can hear the fan running, so I think this is the problem with mine – it is EXTREMELY slow (67% disk space!) & shuts down with no warniing. Don’t have funds to take it in to a shop, so any help (for a non techy numpty!) would be appreciated.
Thanks, Lizzie.
April 6th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
I just noticed that my fan doesn’t spin, put a normal fan under my laptop and the temperature stays at 45. Any ideas how to repair it? can it just be dust if it doesn’t spin at all?
April 6th, 2009 at 11:51 am
I have toshiba satellite A205, same problem, CPU temp stayes at 64 degrees, once I start using Youtube, skype etc it goes up to 70 something, and I think that once it hits 80 the computer switches off. It crashed 3 times and I only had it for a year. I vacumed it, but I think I’ll have to open it and see how bad it is,I’ve never done it before, so can you tell me if there’s anythingthing I can damage when doing it? shall I take the battery out? can I use a brush to dust it or I shouldn’t really touch anything? Please help me, I’m so frustrated!
April 6th, 2009 at 11:40 am
@Mich:
Mich, if you turn on your lap, begin witth the sound, the green diodde, turn on the fan and stopped THIS…. No image, no nothing It’s all…
The only thing you can do is jump it off the roof, land on its feet, jarring THIS loose, no the sound, no the green diodde, no turn on the fan, and all image (red maybe).
April 4th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
kumar ashish anand,
Have you tried cleaning the cooling module?
April 4th, 2009 at 11:20 am
I’ve had overheating problem with my toshiba l100-120 for the last three months. My laptop got very hot after 20 minutes and switched off after maximum two hours. Now I tried the vacuum cleaner method and it worked!!! It doesn’t overheat at all. I can leave it switched on for the whole day!
April 3rd, 2009 at 2:21 am
h! my self kumar ashish anand from bihar,motihari, i have just problem that my lenovo note book 3000 G400,has been shot down without any warnning, after some time of power on,it’s model no. 2048 22Q & serial no. MA88DDW
March 18th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
mich,
I had this happen with my sat 1905s303 and it was a bad memory module.
on the topic though, i cleaned out my heatsink which was completly clogged as well, but my laptop still shuts down every so often, 1x a day or so.
March 17th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Turn on my lap, begin whith the sound, the green diodde, turn on the fan and stopped THIS…. No image, no nothing It`s all….
Pls, what can I do for fix it.
Toshiba Satellite M35XX-SP161