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.
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 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 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 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 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?
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….
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 6:04 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.
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
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 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 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 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 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 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 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.
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
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 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.