I have a Toshiba Satellite A60 laptop and the fan is pretty much dead
I have a Toshiba Satellite A60 laptop and the fan is pretty much dead. The computer shuts off after 15 minutes of use. Can you tell me the model number for this fan and is there a guide to replacing it?
First of all, make sure that the laptop shuts down because of a dead fan and it’s necessary to replace it. When you turn on the laptop, does the fan start spinning? Can you here it at all? It’s very likely that the laptop shuts down because the cooling module is clogged and it needs just a good cleaning. Laptop overheating is a very common issue. I just replace a motherboard on Toshiba Satellite A65 and believe me, the heat sink was 100% clogged with lint and dust. So, I would check the heat sink and the fan first. Here’s a disassembly guide I made for Toshiba Satellite A65 laptop, it would be the same for Satellite A60. If you want to find a heat sink cooling fan for this model, look up on the Internet by the part number: V000042110.
If you want to clean up the fan and the heat sink, it would be enough to remove just the keyboard. You’ll get a good access to the cooling module so you can clean it up with compressed air. To replace the fan, you’ll have to remove to top cover and fortunately, you don’t have to remove the system board.
UPDATE: Here’s another thread dedicated to Toshiba Satellite A60 and A65 problems.
July 11th, 2006 at 11:01 am
I am re-installing the motherboard into a Toshiba A65-s1065 laptop. I did use the diagrammed procedures (www.irisvista.com) to take the laptop apart.
I am having a difficult time slipping the wireless on/off switch cover (connected to the laptop enclosure) over the switch on the mother board.
Any suggestions?
Thank you.
July 11th, 2006 at 11:04 am
This connector has 2 parts. One part is placed on the system board. After you install the system board inside the case, you stick the second part (I’ll call it a slider) from the outside the box. The slider – that’s a part that you see from the outside, when the laptop is assembled and you move it to turn on the wireless. So, when you disassemble the laptop, you have to remove the slider first. The slider has 2 legs with hooks. I usually use 2 small flat screwdrivers and press on the hooks, so I can remove the slider from the case. I hope you understand what I’m talking about. Be careful; put a tape over the slider when you press on the hooks to release it, because it might jump any direction.
July 11th, 2006 at 3:08 pm
The instructions involving the slider were P-E-R-F-E-C-T. Thank you very much.
I have another question. I am ready to place the cover assembly back into place onto the base. I have two cables with ends that resemble battery cable ends. If I did not know better I would say one is positive and one is negative. I am unsure where to connect these.
Any advice? It is greatly approciated.
July 11th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
I think you are talking about the wireless card antenna cables. One wire is black and one is white and they coming from the LCD assembly? If yes, then that’s antennas. These wires go through the hole in the system board to the opposite side and then connect to the wireless card, if you have any installed. The hole on the motherboard is close to the parallel port. The white cable is the main connector and the black one the auxiliary connector.
July 12th, 2006 at 2:06 pm
Will the guide be the same for the toshiba equium A60-692? whenever i try to find anything about it noone appears to know anything about it
July 12th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
Hey Crazy Clown,
I’ve never worked on Toshiba Equium A60 but I think that the disassembly guide would be very similar. I fond some images on Google and this model looks like a Toshiba Satellite A60 laptop. I think Equium A60 is just a different name for Satellite A60.
September 4th, 2006 at 9:26 am
Hi, I have a Toshiba A60 with the overheating problem. I used the dissambly guide for this laptop. But I can’t remove the DVD Drive. I don’t know how to do it. Please help me.
September 4th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
Remove B2 screw on the left side from the memory bay, open the DVD drive with a paper clip. open the drive and carefully pull from the laptop.
September 4th, 2006 at 3:19 pm
Really thank you. I have succeeded now. I had forgotten to remove this screw.
Thank you for all (especially your dissassemble guides).
September 6th, 2006 at 10:16 am
I just cleaned the entire heatsink (Toshiba A 70) and used thermal compound from OCZ technology on the CPU. The fan seems to be working even more then before. Is this normal, i.e. will it take some time for the compound to be effective? Can someone guide. Thanks
September 6th, 2006 at 10:50 am
Here’s a note from their website:
I guess you can just wait and see if it goes normal.
I think with A70 you can set the fan speed to slow, medium or high performance through the Toshiba power management software.
September 20th, 2006 at 4:08 pm
My wife’s A60 shuts down exactly as described here, and there’s no question you could cook eggs on parts of it. I have disassembled it following the wonderful instructions and photographs. I see there are two fans: a larger fan on the right, and a slightly smaller fan which is more or less dead centre (Canadian) in the unit. This smaller fan appears designed to blow air over the cooling fins of the heat sink.
Next I put the battery back in, attached AC, and turned it on. The larger fan came on immediately. The smaller fan DID NOT COME ON.
Does this mean the smaller fan needs to be replaced? Or does the computer need to heat up for it to come on? With all these screws out, covers off, CD drive removed – is there a risk to the computer to leaving it on?
Is replacing a fan a difficult job? Is there a place you recommend for parts?
Thanks so much for your generous help.
September 20th, 2006 at 4:29 pm
Uh, oh. I just sent you the preceding question, but started up the computer anyway. I wanted to run it a bit, see if it heated up, so thought I’d start a defrag to keep the hard drive busy and machine working a bit. While I was doing that, the small fan started whirling. So it seems okay. But the heat sink was hardly warm.
And then the computer shut down, blue screen, white text, “A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down … problem seems to be caused by ati2dvag …”
There is no apparent overheating right now, yet it’s shutting down.
Once the fans stopped, the fins got warm. But not so’s you could burn your fingers. Or cook your eggs.
I don’t know what to. It has definitely been very hot when it’s shut down before, but this is the first time I’ve seen it shut down when I can say for sure that it is not hot.
Thanks.
September 20th, 2006 at 11:37 pm
Sorry, I seem to be monopolizing this thing right now. Discovered that the Toshiba A40 runs no problem in VGA mode. Start it up at 1024×768 and bang, it’s dead with the ati2dvag gambit. I’ve tried copying ati2dvag from an identical A40. No change.
So what’s next? Remove all ATI stuff. Install a new driver? Someone suggested Catalyst 5.12. Someone else said they had to remove Catalyst. Oh, what do do? Guidance please.
September 21st, 2006 at 1:17 pm
Arthur,
Here are instructions that I’ve created for taking apart Toshiba Satellite A60 laptop (www.irisvista.com). You can remove the keyboard and get a clear view on the CPU fan and clean up it with compressed air if needed. I think, according to the name, ati2dvag error is related to the video module (integrated into the systemboard). This laptop also has integrated into the system board memory chip, I would run Memtest 86+ to test it first. If onboard memory fails, you’ll have to replace the motherboard.
I would also reimage the drive back to factory defaults. You can do that with a recovery DVD you got from Toshiba. Do not forget to backup your data before you run the restore. Re-imaging the drive will eliminate any software related problems. If after that you still encounter the same error, that’s a hardware problem. Most likely a bad motherboard.
September 24th, 2006 at 8:25 am
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I had already used your very usable take-apart instructions to disassemble the machine and clean it out. It wasn’t clogged up at all and I could see both fans working. Surprisingly, it wasn’t running hot – though before I took it apart it could get very hot. Perhaps the heat sink fan was stuck.
Anyway, it continued dying, and I turned my attention to the reported ati2dvag problem. Before you replied, I had begun an incremental removal of ATI software, beginning with the ATI Control Panel.
And that seems to have resolved the issue. It has been running for a few days now, no problemo.
Thanks so much for your helpful site which was exactly what I needed to start working through this project.
October 16th, 2006 at 2:30 pm
Hi,
I’m planning on cleaning my Toshiba A60′s fan and heatsink, and I’m trying to remove the securing strip as you advise, but it seems very difficult to remove. Do you have any tips? What did you use to remove yours in the guide?
October 16th, 2006 at 7:38 pm
Alan,
On some laptops it’s really hard to remove the keyboard strip because the latches are very tight but there are no screws that keep it in place, just the latches. I usually use an awl but you can use a small flathead screwdriver. Just keep trying.
October 20th, 2006 at 6:50 am
Hi
I have a very noisy hp compaq nx9010 and need to clean/replace the noisy fan. Unfortunatly i cant manage to dismantle the laptop. There must be some screws that i cant see perhaps?
Please help!!
Thanks
Georgie x
October 20th, 2006 at 9:13 pm
George,
Here’s a link to HP Compaq nx9010 maintenance manual, you’ll find it in the service and maintenance information table (not general reference). Open the manual and go to the removal and replacement chapter. This manual should help to take the laptop apart.
October 25th, 2006 at 7:18 pm
Hi,
I have a similar problem with my TOSHIBA SATELLITE A65 S1762 , it just wont turn on, not even if a plug the ac adapter to it. all i did is wen i was updating the bios in an emergency i turn it off, i need help on fixing it, can someone help me?, i will apreciate it a lot.
thanks in advance.
October 26th, 2006 at 8:17 am
Viry,
Here’s a quote from the help file that you can find when you run the BIOS update:
If your laptop will not turn at all and it appears to be “dead”, it’s possible that the BIOS was damaged.
October 26th, 2006 at 9:05 am
Hi there. Great little guide for ripping apart an A60
Just a quickie….. Can the internal ram be upgraded? I was thinking of 2×512 as I have a couple on my desk.
Is the internal RAM removable? Looks like it’s under the gold / copper sheet just by the memory expansion slot.
Many thanks
Sean
October 26th, 2006 at 9:56 am
Sean,
The internal (onboard) RAM is not removable or upgradeable because it’s permanently soldered on the system board. There is only one memory slot available for an upgrade, that’s the slot that you can access from the bottom of the notebook.
October 26th, 2006 at 10:56 am
Thanks for the really quick reply.
This is one website that has made it into my favorites list
Sean
October 28th, 2006 at 10:38 am
Hi,
I had an overheat issue with my Toshiba A65.(Shutdown/bluescreen after 5 minutes) I removed and cleaned the fan (only has one) and cleaned the CPU fins with compressed air (They were caked with lint). Fired it up, fan runs and all, but it still was overheating and shutting down. However, it ran well sitting on a cooling tray…but no sound. I corrected that with a driver download. Then, no keyboard recognition. (keyboard connection is fine at mother board).
I decided to reload factory disk to out of box state. However when I start it up it won’t recognize the disk. I get a message “NTLDR is missing” Press Control, Alt, Del to restart”. I do that and it restarts yet repeats this message. Any idea what could be wrong?
October 30th, 2006 at 11:11 pm
Bob,
It’s possible that old thermal grease (cooling compound between the CPU and the heatsink) dried out and cannot conduct heat from the CPU to the heatsink. In this case replacing thermal compound might help.
Did you finish reloading factory software? After you started the laptop from the recovery DVD, did you wait until ghosting is done and the laptop asks you to remove the disk and reboot?
October 31st, 2006 at 6:39 am
Hey,
Thanks for your reply. You may be on to something with the theremal grease. The compressed “air” I used, although made for computers, appeared to freeze for a few seconds as it hit the heatsink. Maybe that dried it out.
As for the recovery disk, I load it, start it, get the momentary Toshiba logo fow a few seconds and then the screen goes black and displays that “NTLDR is Missing” message. I can’t seem to get it past that point.
Playing around with it, I did stick another good hard drive in it from my son’s other laptop. It started, got to windows, (although with vertical lines running through the screen) and was asking to register it. (Which it couldn’t…as it was from a Symantec that my son had upgraded)
The recovery disk was in and I thought it would overwrite the above hard drive. But no go. So I reinstalled the Toshiba HD. Back to the “NTLDR”. It’s as if it won’t recognize the recovery disk in the drive.
I echo the comments above from others…you have a great site and appreciate your advice.
October 31st, 2006 at 3:26 pm
Bob,
Connect an external monitor and test the laptop with the son’s hard drive again. Do you get the same vertical line on the external monitor? Is it kinda like example 3 in this post? If yes, you might have a problem with the laptop RAM. If you have any extra memory stick installed, remove it and test the laptop again. Download and run Memtest 86+ utility, it’s free and pretty accurate memory test utility.
Unfortunately, Toshiba Satellite A65 has onboard RAM (memory permanently soldered on the motherboard) and if it fails, you’ll have to replace the entire board. I’ve seen Satellite A65s with faulty RAM before, and not just once.
October 31st, 2006 at 4:04 pm
hi,
laptop freak
what is the
BIOS Key Installation Method?
can yoplease tell me the steps
thanks in advance
November 1st, 2006 at 8:43 pm
Viry,
I read through the help file 3 times trying to figure out what Toshiba mean by “Key Installation Method” but I didn’t any straight answer. I think that it’s just a method of upgrading the BIOS: from Windows environment, from a floppy disk or from a CD disk. But as you mentioned in your comment 22, your laptop will not start at all. So you cannot use any of the above mentioned methods. Sorry man, I think you are screwed.
If the BIOS has been damaged so you cannot start up the laptop, it might be necessary to replace the motherboard. I don’t know any other solution.
November 13th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
Hi, I have a Samsung X15+ and it’s CPU fan is not working properly now. Sounds like it’s trying real hard to turn but keeps stopping while making lot of noise. If you’d know, how I can get to it, to get ot out and check or clean, I’d be most grateful. I removed the keyboard and can unscrew one of it’s screws but I thing it’s fitted with anotherone under the chassi where I don’t know hot I can get to. Thanks for any help about Samsung X15+.
November 24th, 2006 at 2:07 am
Would just like to say thank your for this guide. MY A60 laptop fan threw a complete paddy. It has been noisey for a while, but it started screeching very very loud.. i took the laptop apart and cleaned out the cooling fins etc, as they were rather cloged. then i took the fan out and tryed to clean that up as best as possible..
Put it backtogether and it worked for about 20 mins and the same again, This time i just took the keybored of, and was able to take the fan out from there. and just got one of ebay for £5 so im rather chuffed.
Thanks Again
Ross
December 13th, 2006 at 7:19 pm
Hello Laptop Freak and all,
I having the same overheating problem with my acer TravelMate 250.
Can anyone direct me to any post about how to open my laptop and assemble back again.
Thanks.
December 18th, 2006 at 11:54 am
Hi there,
my Toshiba Satellite A65 laptop recently shut down due to overheating because of a dysfunctional fan which I’d like to replace myself. This post is very informative and I took a look at your guide for taking apart this particular laptop. The only thing is that I’m still not quite sure just how much to take apart for the purpose of replacing the fan. To clean it, you said it’s enough to remove just the “keyboard” – so does that mean steps 1-8? Then you said to replace the fan, just remove the “top cover” – so is that steps 1-8 + 12 and 13? I would like to remove as few parts, screws, etc. as possible. Thanks in advance!
December 19th, 2006 at 8:18 pm
Rita,
In order to replace the cooling fan on this model, you’ll have to follow steps 1-10. After you remove the top cover assembly, you’ll get an access to the cooling module. It’s not necessary to replace the entire heatsink, replace just the fan itself (big one). You can find a new fan by the part number: V000042110.
The fan is secured to the heatsink by three screws. Remove the screws, unplug the old fan from the motherboard, and replace it with a new one.
December 27th, 2006 at 11:44 pm
hello there,
i have had my toshiba A60-692 for almost 2 years which has been running fine till recently where the laptop starts making a whizzing sound after like a few hours and apparently freezes up the whole system. i have carefully read your dismantling guide and all comments posted. i would just like to enquire if i open it up what do i need to clean the fan with and how ? secondly i would like to know if the part that you have mentioned V000042110 what is that ? i would really appreciate any further more information you would be able to provide me with before i actually start dismantling my laptop.
thanx
December 28th, 2006 at 4:36 pm
The solution I found to my numerous Toshiba A60 problems was to buy an Apple! The Toshiba (which has been disassembled and mounted underneath my tv stand, as to prevent overheating. It has a new life cross-dressing as a Tivo! It can no longer adveresly effect my business operations; at worst it will
December 28th, 2006 at 7:08 pm
Ariz,
V000042110 is a part number for the cooling fan. This fan is a part of the cooling module and helps to cool down the heatsink/processor. You can clean up the cooling fan with compressed air if you lift up the keyboard as it shown on the steps 5-9 . Remove the keyboard and blow off the cooling fan/heatsink so there is no dust inside. Blow inside the fan so the dust goes away from the heatsink grill on the side of the laptop.
December 30th, 2006 at 7:33 pm
Friend Freak,
I followed your beautifully illustrated instructions for the disassembly of a Satellite A-65 and everything went perfectly until I tried to remove the screen and case top(Step 10). Something has a serious grip on the top at the very front, seems like at the holes where the screen cover latch fits. Is there a trick to get a release at this point?
New Orleans Walter
December 30th, 2006 at 9:10 pm
I’m having a problem adding Ram to my toshiba A-65, it currently has 256 on the motherboard and I’m adding a 512 in the extra slot, after the computer has run for a bit and usually runing somthing like streaming video it will blue screen. Is it possible that the size of the two ram chips not being equal could cause this?
thanks
allan
January 1st, 2007 at 6:04 pm
New Orleans Walter,
There shouldn’t be any trick to release this point. Make sure that you removed all screws on the bottom of the laptop and also disconnected all connectors under the keyboard. The top cover in this model should separate pretty easy.
January 1st, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Allan,
Nope. I believe that in this model you can use 256MB, 512MB or 1GB memory stick in the extra slot. May be the 512MB memory stick is bad? It’s not very common, but possible. You can test memory with Memtest 86+ utility, it’s free and pretty reliable. First, run the memory test without extra RAM installed. After that install the 512MB module and run the test again. See if it fails. Make sure it passes (of fails) more than one time.
January 1st, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Dear Freak,
Thank you for your site and the information provided regarding the disassembly of the A-65. I asked for help prematurely. There are three tiny screws in the battery bay that can be overlooked when viewed with the hinge side away from you. All is well now and I have removed the motherboard to get at the BAD small fan.
Kindest regards and a little something in your stocking.
New Orleans Walter
January 2nd, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Hi laptopfreak,
I went ahead and replaced the fan following the steps you outlined – thanks for the information. However, the problem of an overworking fan restarted the minute I turned the computer on after the replacement – is this normal? Does this suggest another problem?
January 3rd, 2007 at 12:20 am
Rita,
What do you mean by “the problem of an overworking fan restarted the minute I turned the computer on after the replacement”? I thought your fan was dead.
January 6th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
I own a Dell Inspiron 1150; it has been running slower than normal but has been doing fine otherwise. THe other day, however, I just had it turned on and it was sitting on my desk not in use. It shut down on its own, and I have not been able to restart it since. When I hit the startup button the activity lights on the front of the computer blink on then off again, when they normally stay on once activated. Any help would be much appreciated. THanks
January 8th, 2007 at 9:45 am
Hi laptop freak – the problem I had was a laptop that began to overheat to the point where I would not be able to access any files, programs, etc. Before the onset of this problem, the fan was getting very loud, turning on from the instant I would turn on the laptop. I had the laptop diagnosed and was told it was likely a poorly working fan, broken barring (sp?). So, I replaced the fan, but have noticed that the laptop still gets warm pretty quickly when I’m using it and the fan is still louder than I’ve ever noticed that of any other laptops to be. Should I be concerned?
January 8th, 2007 at 9:49 am
Also, I noticed that there are two fans – a larger one and a smaller one. I was told to replace the larger one, but how am I to know that it’s not the smaller one that is the problem resulting in the overheating?
January 9th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Rita,
It depends on what laptop you have. Some laptops are cooler, some are hotter and I cannot say if it’s normal without actually touching the laptop. If the laptop works fine after you replaced the fan, probably there is nothing to worry about. It’s possible that the laptop runs hotter than before because the thermal grease is old and will not conduct the heat as it used to. I think replacing thermal grease might help.
January 24th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
I have a toshiba Satellite A60 w/ a dead motherboard….anyone have an A60 they would be willing to sell for parts? If so, contact me @ micahismyname@hotmail.com
January 25th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
I have a toshiba tos1905s303 laptop, it turns on sometimes and at times takes hours to re initiate turn on.
fans not dusted or blocked, working fine, what could it be causing this, I want to restore it but it stops halfway through?
January 27th, 2007 at 7:42 am
gateway mx6025
My laptop overheated because of fan failure. It just shuts down after a few seconds. Sometimes it goes all th e way to windows loggin screen.
I replaced the fan and added some thermal paste to be sure the heatsink was well connected to the cpu.
The new fan runs a few seconds and shuts down. So overheating starts again.
Any idea?
I think the cpu and mem are ok since it goes to windows.
January 27th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
my gateway laptop mx6025 overheated probably due to fan failure. I replaced the fan. The laptop still shuts down after a few seconds. Sometimes it goes all the way to windows loggin.
The new fan seems to shut down pretty fast.
Am I doing something wrong. Could the fan issue be due to something else?
January 30th, 2007 at 6:47 am
hi i have a hp pavilion laptop zv5000, i wanted to kno if both fans supposed to be on all the time cos recently i fixed the power jack so it was the first time i disasembled a laptop but now both fans are running but after 30 seconds the one fan switches off, i did check if it was plugged in properly, sooo is this supposed to happen or what….
February 1st, 2007 at 6:49 pm
MaireG,
Did you replace thermal grease on the processor, maybe it’s old and will not conduct heat from the processor properly anymore. I would try applying new thermal grease.
By the way, the new fan spins normal, right?
February 1st, 2007 at 6:54 pm
luqmaan,
I’m not sure about HP Pavilion zv5000 notebook, but I know that Toshiba Satellite A75 also has two fans. Both fans start spinning on startup, but later one of them goes off.
Does your laptop overheat and shut down by itself? If not, I wouldn’t worry about fans.
February 1st, 2007 at 8:25 pm
Hello. I have the Gateway MX6205. I want to replace the CD/DVD with a DVD-writer. What is the best way to remove the CD/DVD drive in this laptop?
Thank you in advance.
Tyke
February 4th, 2007 at 1:52 am
Laptop Freak, I thank you for stumbling on to this article… Google lead me to your article. I have been trying to “repair” my fiancé’s old Satellite A65-S1762 to make it into a decently usable system and this post opened up a lot of possible case scenarios.
I have been trying to repair the machine for almost 2 years… We had the motherboard and ports completely replaced as well as the hard drive when the machine was in for warranty work. You wouldn’t happen to have any insight if the shops just reuse fans, would you? I ask as it seems like they didn’t replace the fans or heatsinks at all.
The matter of the heatsink fan going out brings many things to my mind, as I remember I had burned myself a few times when I was browsing for a few minutes and the system got seriously hot. The mention of thermal paste is actually a good idea.
Quick questions, can the hard drive be replaced with any laptop hard drive? If so, what are the hard drive specifications? And on replacement, is it safe to assume that one would just have to run the necessary drivers to get all the devices running?
February 4th, 2007 at 10:11 am
ZeroXR,
If the cooling fan spins and not noisy they usually do not replace it. You can install any ATA notebook hard drive into this machine. 40GB, 60GB, 80GB, 100GB 4200RPM or 5400RPM drives made by Hitachi, Toshiba, Fujitsu, IBM should work just fine. You cannot install a SATA drive.
February 4th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
Thanks for the a60 instuctions, I could kiss you
I wouls have snaped something if not for you.
Cheers:)
March 21st, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Hi,
I have a Toshiba A40 that I got second hand. It was full of viruses and spyware so I reformatted. Got all the latest drivers and everything was fine for a few days. All of a sudden the screen went really, really dark. It has remained that way since. Every now and then it will be back to normal but most often it is dark… too dark to use
It is dark even as it boots…. Any suggestions?
April 23rd, 2007 at 12:46 pm
I have a Satellite A40-SP150 in spanish. After I upgrade the memory to 786 Mb I get a mesage that say “Caution, there is a refrigeration problem with the machine, turn off inmediatly and take it to service”.
I checked the fan and it runs but I´m not sure if properly. Could be a problem with the fan? if that, which part number is the correct fan for this machine?
Thanks
Jairo
(Venezuela)
July 11th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Hey guys,
I have a HUGE problem. I mean huge and I am getting sick of my Toshiba Satellite A65 failing on me. I bought it a while ago and updated an extra 512 megs of ram. Everything was fine. A year later or so the resolution changed to 4-bit and got a blue screen or sometimes had to restart it. So I turned off my graphics card and didnt get that problem. But then I cant play back movies and all the things with a graphics card. So here is where the fun starts. The laptop started to turn off for absolutely no reason. I dealt witht his problem and after a while it stopped. Ok so I then removed the keyboard and found plenty of dust in both fans. I removed it with a vaccum and q-tips. So I turn it on and the fan sounds quieter and everythings is running smoothly. I even got a laptop cooler to prevent this again. Now here is where Im really frustrated. I got the blue screen thing 6 months later. Restarted it and its all good. Then got the turn off thing once. Worked fine for 3 months. Now the ultimate problem. It turned off after being on nfor acouple of hours. The LED light doesnt even show up. Adapter is fine, tried the battery as well. Ok an hour later, i plug it in and the LED is on and green. I turned it on, it worked for about 20 mins and shut off. The LED light wont show up again. I checked and there is no dust in the fans. I rarely get the LED light on, and if it turns on, it will turn off in a minute or too. This is like the end for this laptop. Does anyone know what is causing this? Any solutions? Or should I just throw the piece of junk out the window with all my important files?
July 12th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Lex,
Here’s an article dedicated to Toshiba Satellite A60 and A65 problems. Check out the problem number 3. Maybe you have a loose power jack and the the power LED goes off because the laptop is not getting any power at all?
You can backup all personal files even though the laptop is not functional anymore. Remove the hard drive and use an external USB enclosure to access and backup all important files.
September 16th, 2007 at 6:17 am
my time laptop, when turned on makes a screeching noise and tells me to press f2 but the keys wont work please have you any sugestions
October 15th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
I have a toshiba a 65 and it has died on me, i have moved on to a newer model..however i would like my data that is stored on the hard drive. I bought an enclosure kit but i am not sure where or how to remove just the hard drive!! PLEASE HELP!! THANKS!
October 15th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
ineedhelp,
It’s easy. You can access the hard drive if you remove the hard drive door on the side of the laptop. Remove one screw, remove the door, pull the hard drive.
If you look at the keyboard, the right arrow key pointing to the hard drive door side.
October 30th, 2007 at 1:11 am
Hi Excellent guide, have followed the steps to clean the fans etc but on powering up my A60 all i get is the blue power lights up, the dvd drive makes a slight noise and the front panel power light lights up. Apart from that nothing. Guess mother board is fried but would welcome any comments from someone more knowledgeable
Cheers
December 3rd, 2007 at 7:45 pm
I also have a crappy Toshiba Satellie a60 whiuch during a BIOS upgrade froze and then overheated and shutdown. Now i have a dead laptop with no way to fix it. I’ve come accross on other sites a method with a crisis recovery disk and a power up method which is supposed to boot up the floppy disk and rewrite the BIOS. Have you heard of this method? No matter what i press I cannot get any thing to happen. I guess im SOL and Toshiba laptops I will never purchase again. Seems to me all teh issues with thsi system should be a recall, but they have chose not to do such a thing. If it was an automobile it would be recalled.
January 5th, 2008 at 3:27 am
hi,
i have just purchased an A60 – followed the stripdown no prob apart from the keyboard cable. does it pull out from the connector or does the connnector, the black bit act as a retainer as i dare not force it.
this a60 come to me with non functional dvd drive,touchpad and the r+l buttons and the larger fan sounds like its worn as its grating on its surround, is the sys board likely to be faulty with regards to the dvd and touchpad being dead? ps no dvd regognised in windows either,
cheers trev
January 7th, 2008 at 12:39 am
Shane,
No, I didn’t. But if your laptop is dead and will not turn on, there is no recovery floppy disk that can help. In order to use any floppy disk your laptop has to be in working condition.
Do you get any LED lights when you turn on the laptop? Does the power LED lights up when you plug the AC adapter. Maybe the AC adapter is dead and there is nothing wrong with the laptop? You can test the AC adapter with a voltmeter, it should output 19V.
January 7th, 2008 at 12:44 am
Trev,
Can you see the DVD drive in the BIOS setup menu? Can you boot the laptop from a bootable CD/DVD, for example generic Windows XP CD?
It’s possible that you cannot see the DVD drive in Windows and touch pad is not working because the operating system is corrupted. If you can boot from a CD, try reinstalling Windows, it might help.
January 7th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
I just wanted to add my thanks for the awesome instructions. My wife has an a60 that has been overheating and shutting off for a while. Thanks to your guide I was able to take it apart, clean it up and put it back together (correctly, with no left over parts :0) in no time. The laptop is much more quiet now an runs a lot cooler.
Thanks for making a hero out of me…for tonight anyway.
January 13th, 2008 at 8:56 am
well, many thanks for the great info, i have this lappy running mint now – fault free – i discovered the lappy was a victim of inexperienced hands…
touchpad ribbon on backwards !
the larger fans blades hitting the triangular spokes above it due to being snapped and reglued !
dvd writer had bad connection on the rear connector.
thermal fault due to old heatsink compound not being removed – someone just added more ! was very hard and dry.
but my worst discovery was a strange graphics fault / crashing / blue screen / rebooting/ no boot and thanks to previous posts i diagnosed the onboard ram to be faulty, this fault wouldnt show for days then would appear.. oh no a smt job.
removed the smt o/b ram – what a job – 11 years since i worked on smt and its got smaller !
i tried the wire pull option but far too aggressive for this one so opted for the pin cutting and solder pad clean up, took 3 hours – sorted it and have photographed close up every stage of it if any one needs help with this bit, quality head mounted magnifier,very fine soldering tools,sharp quality scalpel are needed, along with steady hands and a bit of courage – avoiding the other smt components.
note… the onboard ram doesnt need to be replaced, the machine will run off the extention slot ram fine.
thanks again to you mod and all the other contributors.
Trev j
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:59 pm
I’ve had my Satellite A65 since January of 2005. Almost never used it until the last 3 months. My problem is similar to a previous one already mentioned. With very little warning, the screen freezes and I hear a little “beep”. Then the screen blinks and the color quality falls to 4 bit. Sometimes I get the blue screen and a message saying, “The ati2dvag display driver has stopped working normally.”
I did a little research and down loaded Catalyst 6.5, but I don’t know how to install it or whether I should install it.
Any suggestions?
Thank you
February 7th, 2008 at 11:03 am
hey laptop freak, I have a problem with the a toshiba a60. when i tuen it on the blue light comes on and lights up for 5-8 secs then goes dead again.no system beeps or p.o.s.t. nothing at all.tried the batterey that tested fine and so does the ac cord. i took apart the laptop and there was no dust bunnies in the cooling cpu fan but it doesnt come on at all.any ideas ? and how could i test the motherboard or cpu ? thanks in advance….
May 11th, 2008 at 5:32 am
Dear Computer freak,
I have a Toshiba A60, and have an overheating problem.
Was reading all the mentioned information, and I think my problem could be or with the thermal grease or the fans.
Both fans seems to work properly, however, I could not see where the thermal grease should be.
I need to ask you if it is possible to see where the grease should be placed only when removing the keyboard, and if so, please do inform me where. Also, is there any specific thermal heats to each laptop? (sorry if it might sounds stupid question, but it is my first time to open it! hehehe).
Many thanks!
Rawad
May 11th, 2008 at 9:43 am
rawad,
I linked to the laptop disassembly guide in the post. If you want to replace thermal grease, you’ll have to disassemble the laptop and then remove the thermal module as it explained in steps 12 and 13. After that you apply thermal grease directly on the CPU.
Before you disassemble the laptop, try cleaning the heatsink with compressed air. Buy a can of compressed air and spray it inside air intakes on the bottom of the laptop. Or you can remove the keyboard (if you feel comfortable taking your laptop apart) and spray air directly into the fan. I’m pretty sure that cleaning the cooling module will fix your overheating problem.
May 11th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Dear Laptop Freak,
Many thanks for your help, I will do it as soon as the computer shop opens!
I just removed more than 4.5 grams of dust from the large fan, and the temperature of decreased from 77C to 56C, while the temperature of the HDD is more stable around 36C now, (before it was between 47-49).
I am pretty sure that with your advice, blowing air, and I will follow it by a serious vacuuming, the temp might decrease. I have already removed the keyboard as it was my only way to end 30min without shutting down.
Thanks!
June 9th, 2008 at 7:54 am
Dear Laptop Freak,
I have a toshiba satellite A65 SP176. It was working perfectly one day. When i finished working on it, i closed the display screen for it to go on suspended mode. I took it on some travelling and when i opened it again it would not turn on. None of the LED lights come on. I have tested the power cable and it is good.
The computer seems dead. What could be the problem?
Thank you very much for your help.
Arturo
July 14th, 2008 at 11:46 am
Hello Laptop Freak.
I have a Toshiba Satellite A60. The large Fan is broken. I need to find its number but can’t. Can you inform me where I should look? (It is already moved, so the number should be somewhere!)
Could I find the parts number when having the serial number of the laptop?!
Regards,
Rawad
August 24th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Dear Laptop Freak
i have laptop (Toshiba Satellite A110-135) i made Bios update .. my laptop stop workin, can’t see any thing on screen. i had (Crisis Recovery Bios) But not for my Toshiba satellite A110 .. so i need to change (bios.wph)file .. so please hellp
thanx so much
October 1st, 2008 at 3:21 am
I discovered that my A60 overheating was caused not only by dust but also by the extra 1gig memory I had installed.
It would shut down within 15 minutes until I cleaned the dust from the heatsink but then it would only run for 30 minutes or so.
After removing the extra memory it will run for 24 hours playing a dvd continuously.
Maybe a different brand of memory will not give off so much heat.
Try removing any extra memory and see what happens.
October 6th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Heya Laptop Freak!
I have an A60 and just like others on this forum, the small fan has stopped!
Since I wasn’t aware of this forum b4, I replaced it, having in mind to replace the thermal grease on both the cpu and the graphics card.
Still nothing :/ not working :S
So here’s my question, could the fan controller on the board be busted? If so, what can I do? I was on the verge of making an “y” from the cpu fan controller!
Is that possible to do, can the controller support both fans? Is it even necessary?
I’ll w8 for some answer and while I’m at it, just wanna thank u for the knowledge u’v been sharing!
Take care!
October 9th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
TOSHIBA SATELLITE P25-2526 CENTER FAN NOT RUNNING IN WINDOWS
All three fans run at Boot startup for 5 seconds.
Center fan (CPU fan) does not run in Windows.
Right and Left fans run in windows some what slow,
they start and stop depending on temperature.
These 2 fans seem to be OK.
I sometimes hear clicks when fans are starting.
It is the center fan that doesn’t run in Windows.
When it gets hot, I thinks CPU runs slower.
I removed fan case cover & cleaned fans with dust blower,
replaced fan case cover then vacuumed machine at car wash.
Looks like center heatsink is clean.
Toshiba Power Management Utility
Cooling Method = Max performance mode.
I updated Toshiba Console, Controls, E-Key,
Power Management Utilites and Software Upgrades.
Should I buy a new center fan?
I think the part number is K000006560.
Is that a correct part number?
BIOS shows no fan adjustment.
Would BIOS flash update make center fan run in windows?
Is it safe to flash?
——
Satellite P25-S526
Win xp sp3
Phoenix BIOS 4.0 Release 6.0
Bios Version 2.00 release date 6/29/2004
Video Nvidia GeForce FX Go5200
Seagate HD ST9120822A stays within 27C – 50c temp
November 15th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
My Dell Inspiron 1521 laptop keeps getting extremely hot and freezing up on me all the time, in the past 2 months i have gotten the computer completely wiped and still running into the same problems. I have noticed that my fan never seems to be on and that when i set my laptop on my lap it practically burns my skin. Someone told me to look under device manager and see if my fan is listed but i still cant even find it there, my laptop is just over a year old so this is disappointing. If anyone could please help me on this matter that would be grealy appreicated!
November 17th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Hi, I have exactly the same problem as on the previous note on January 23rd by Cri8tor but I can’t see a response above. I have had my laptop working perfectly for a couple of years and its a Toshiba A60 but now off and on it will freeze, screen will go black then it will reappear in 4 bit and come up with ‘The ati 2dvag display driver has stopped working normally.’ How do I fix this problem? Is it something to do with my Ati software?
Many thanks
December 2nd, 2008 at 1:15 am
i need help, this comes and goes but really scares me, sometimes my fan makes kkkkkkk noises,and it runs incredibly loud, is there a solution to this?
December 18th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Hi, I have a TOSHIBA SATELLITE M30 so I have been using the M35 disassembly guide which is similar. I got to step 14 where I have to disconnect all these cables. Is there a proper way to disconnect them so I do not damage anything? I’ve removed the antenna cables and the ribbon cable already, but for the others, I do not just want to pull them out.
Thanks!
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:47 am
Thank you so much for the info and the links!
About two months ago my laptop (Toshiba A60) started to give out strange noises and turned itself off only after a few hours. The surface of my laptop felt really hot. I immediately put a medium sized room fan right next to the laptop to keep it cool and it worked, it never got turn off again. But the noises got louder and louder everyday, it’s driving me insane. I thought it might also be my Hard disk, but when I unplugged the hard disk and turned my laptop on the noises remained, so I was certain it was only the fan. I’ve no idea how to fix it though, or what actually happened to the fan. Then I saw this article and I must say it really helped, it really showed me the problem. Thank you! I was ready to throw my laptop away because I couldn’t stand the noise.
Just like the article suggests, removing the keyboard alone is enough. Trust me, I’m basically very awkward with electronic devices especially computers but opening the keyboard is really simple, just read the guide and do it. The problem is, I don’t have compressed air with me. But that’s not an issue either. I got myself cotton buds, wet it a little with alcohol-based cleaner (now this might actually damage the surface of the fan and heatsink, I don’t know but I really didn’t care at the time. I don’t think so, though.), and reached the heatsink with the cotton buds. Particularly the area marked by the red line in the last link article’s picture (http://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop/2007/04/27/toshiba-satellite-a60-a65-problems/). Just by doing that I got chunks of clogging dust out. My intention was just to shake the dust off so I could vacuum it easier but I got more. But anyway, after that I used home vacuum and suck the remaining dust off the fan and the fan-heatsink area.
Now my laptop is much quieter and it doesn’t get overheated even after long hours of using. Hopefully it will stay that way for long.
I guess what I want to share is, that it’s okay to use vacuum for this particular laptop and particular area, and using cotton buds+alcohol first to get the thickest dust out would make things easier. Please note that in my case static electricity wasn’t an issue, but it might be for you especially in winter.
February 11th, 2009 at 7:24 am
Hi Laptopfreak,
The diagrams for opening up and cleaning the heat sink was very useful. I have a toshiba sa60.
I have cleaned the fan and heatsink and removed lots of dirt. The fan was making alot of noise before i cleaned it and still does after. Think i may need to replace it.
Any ideas where i can buy a replacement cheaply.
regards
Craig
October 15th, 2009 at 4:47 am
I have a problem on my toshiba satalite s60-102 series on the jack at the back of the laptop. I solred it out and asmeling again the power is work and the hdd an dthe cdrom the cpu fan as well not running theis means thre is no display on the screen i try a lot of things like changing the memory and cleaning the board but the led of the power switch is emitted what can id o for the laptop it is urgent please.
VBR
EYOB
June 17th, 2010 at 10:52 am
Just cleaned my Toshiba Equium AE60-191 using this as a guide. Only wanted to clean the fans as I was suffering from overheating and shutting down. As it says on the ‘tin’ take out the keyboard and all you need to do is carefully clean the fans. I also blew back the dirt and dust and fluff through the rear exit and collected all the muck on a cotton bud. can not believe how quiet it is now. Wow what an improvement.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:05 pm
So I have a Toshiba M300, and have a problem with overheating (I also hear that overheating in the M300 has always been a problem).
Anyway I have followed this guide to disassemble the laptop and used compressed air to clean the cooling fan and heatsink (what I could get to cause the motherboard is on top of it).
However despite doing this, the laptop still overheats to the point of not being able to use it. So hot you can barely touch it or use the touchpad.
A friend suggested it might be the processor so check the CPU usage when its idling and if its over 10% then that is the problem. However it idles at about 3-7%.
I brought a laptop cooling fan to help address the issue somewhat but it doesn’t seem to be doing any good.
The fan basically is basically blowing hot air out from the get go. Any help would be much appreciated?