“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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June 4th, 2009 at 11:52 am
My son has a IBM Thinkpad T41. Unfortunately, he knocked it to the ground a few days ago, about a distance of 12 inches. Now when we turn it on the screen is slightly black with a strip of blue at the top and the lights flash and go out…I can hear the fan, but it sounds weak, like it is struggling to power up. After a few days we tried it again and everything booted up fine. It then worked for about 10mins then shutdown but the fan continued to work but humming noise was coming and going (very difficult to explain). When I try to start it up, again I get the black screen with blue stripe. Could the fan be damaged? Causing it to overheat, hence it shutting down? HELP! Thanks in advance for any advice.
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:49 pm
so if this problem is a motherboard problem as you said CJ200 when i bring it to the service dealer or sent to toshiba am i going to lose all my information on this machine ? or they can replace the motherboard without doing that . or will i have to get a whole new machine alltogether
June 3rd, 2009 at 6:38 am
The best solution is to dust-off the heatsink. If you don’t want to open your laptop, you can try this temporary fix:
1. Press F2 as the laptop reboots.
2. Disable Hyperthreading. Hyperthreading generates more heat, so they say.
3. Press F10 to save changes and then reboot again.
4. If you’re lucky, Windows may be able to load.
5. Next go to msconfig, How? – click Run and type-in msconfig.
6. Go to the Startup tab and click Disable All then OK. This will kill all processes that are running in the background.
7. Then Reboot.
June 1st, 2009 at 11:14 pm
hey thanks for the quick reply. I turned off the laptop, plugged in the power, turned on the laptop without lifting or moving, it is booted up, hd is busy for about 15 minutes and i can’t run any applications until it displayed an IO error message then shut down. I turned it on again, just after the password it froze with this buzzing sound and screen distortions. I had to pull both the power cord and the battery for it to stop. By the way I can feel some air coming out of the two fans outlet on top of the keyboard. Help..what should i do now?
June 1st, 2009 at 10:15 pm
dong P,
Can you hear the cooling fan working at all? Maybe the laptop freezes because it overheats?
June 1st, 2009 at 10:11 pm
dong P,
What if you:
1. Turn off the laptop.
2. Plug in the power adapter.
3. Turn on the laptop without touching or lifting it.
Will it freeze or what?
June 1st, 2009 at 10:04 pm
Hello, pls i need your help. I have this toshiba satellite pro m200 that i can’t use when plugged to ac adapter but functions well on battery. Everytime it is plugged to ac adapter, screen distorts and computer hangs. I have to charge the battery while it’s shutdown and can use it only for two hours max because battery is drained by that time. I tried plugging the power while on safe mode and it worked without hanging up. If hardware is the problem, why do u think it functioned while on safe mode? really will highly appreciate your opinion on this. thanks
June 1st, 2009 at 8:53 pm
josh,
Can you start the laptop from AC power when the battery is removed?
June 1st, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Matt,
Nope it’s not a problem with the adapter or battery.
Also, I doubt that it’s related to overheating. The laptop is relatively new and most likely the cooling fan is still clean.
Your description sounds like a problem with the motherboard. I would suggest taking it to the authorized repair center while it’s still under warranty.
June 1st, 2009 at 7:01 pm
hey can anyone help me i have a toshiba satellite a355 . new model came out in december . ive been having this problem that the computer does a hard shutdown randomly . toshiba support said it could be a battery or AC adapter issue but now im not sure . i recieved a new batter and it still happened . now im recieving a new AC adapter and well see if it happnens too