I have Toshiba Satellite A75-209 laptop. Lately, after running for about 3 to 5 minutes the laptop shuts down
I bought a Toshiba Satelite A75-209 laptop about 1 1/2 years ago. I’m doing some software development and use the laptop as a test platform to see my programs performance in a Windows XP Professional environment.
Some of the routines in my program take between 5 to 60 minutes to run. Lately, after running for about 3 to 5 minutes the laptop shuts down. I mean completely off. First suspect is overheating. OK. I put a vacuum cleaner hose near the fan and suck out the dust and dirt. For a few days this works fine. Then, the problem comes back. Vacuum again, runs fine for a few days, then shuts down. The bottom of the laptop is not that hot, but I decide to disassemble the laptop and replace the fan. Actually, there are two fans. After looking at the disassembling procedure you have I quickly realize this should not be my first option. In addition, I went on Toshiba’s website and saw that the fans cost $60 each.
In all other programs the laptop is fine (i.e. Word, Excel etc.)
If anyone else has experienced this, or can give me some pointers, I would forever be in your debt.
Thanks in advance for any help you might provide.
I think that replacing the fan is not your first option either. You’ll have to replace it only if the fan stopped spinning or if it makes noise. When you turn on the laptop, both fans should spin. You can see them through the grill on the bottom of the laptop. If both fans spin and they are not noisy, wait with the replacement, try cleaning the heatsink first.
If the heatsink in the laptop is completely clogged, a vacuum cleaner will not be able to remove the dust and dirt and make it 100% clean. A powerful air compressor would be a better option. Blowing off the heatsink with a powerful air compressor might be enough to fix the overheating problem.
When I have to clean up a laptop, I usually take it apart. When I take it apart, I clean up the heatsink and also I replace thermal grease on the CPU. In my opinion, that’s the best way get rid of overheating. You’ll find more information here: Why my Toshiba laptop suddenly shuts down by itself without warning?
February 10th, 2007 at 6:56 am
Hi,
I am currently experiencing cooling problems on my Toshiba A25 Satellite notebook. There is a warning popping up saying this and the computer gets sluggish when it happens. I have removed the fan and took out all the lint, which was completely blocking airflow. The fan seems to be working properly and isn’t noisey but the problem persists. Is there anything else i need to clean out besides the single cpu fan on the bottom? The heatsink appears to have open passages.
Thanks in advance,
Dan
February 11th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
DanW,
In most cases cleaning up the heat sink will be enough to prevent the overheating problem but in some cases you’ll have to reapply thermal grease on the CPU. I think thermal grease in your laptop have dried out and cannot conduct heat from the CPU properly anymore. You’ll have to replace thermal grease.
1. Remove the heat sink. Be careful, the CPU might come out with the heat sink.
2. If the CPU came out attached to the heat sink, carefully separate it from the heat sink. I usually insert a flat-head screwdriver between the CPU and heat sink and slowly rotate the screwdriver until the CPU separates from the heat sink. Work slowly. If you are not careful enough you can bend CPU pins and damage it.
3. Open the CPU socket on the motherboard by turning the screw-lock into “Open” position. Insert the CPU back into the socket. Make sure the key on the corner of the CPU matches the key on the socket, there is only one correct way to insert the CPU. Lock the socket by turning the screw-lock into “Closed” position. If you forget lock up the CPU in the socket, the laptop will not start up.
4. Clean up old thermal grease from the CPU and from the heat sink with an alcohol wipe. Apply new thermal grease on the CPU surface and spread so it covers the CPU with a thin layer.
5. Install the heat sink.
You can buy new thermal grease in any local computer store.
February 11th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Laptop Freak,
Thanks for the reply.
I had thought of the Thermal Grease earlier today and it didn’t seem to fix it. How thin of a layer do you reccomend? Will a thicker layer give me issues? Any other ideas? The fan seems to turn on and not make any noise but it doesnt seem like there’s alot of air flow. Is it supposed to be a variable or multi speed fan? I seem to remember it being louder (probably from more rpm’s) and possibly blowing more air at some point. Could it be possible that since my heat sink was completely clogged for so long and the fan was probably working overtime, that it just wont kick into high anymore?
Thanks again,
Dan
February 12th, 2007 at 12:58 am
DanW,
A thicker layer of thermal grease shouldn’t give you any issue.
I think the fan was louder because the heat sink was clogged with dust and it worked harder.
At this point I’m not really sure what’s going on. Try reflashing the BIOS. Make sure the heat sink is seated properly and actually touches the whole CPU.
February 12th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Well, i think i found the problem. The small fan on the left rear corner of the laptop inhaled a small screw, which jammed it. I took the laptop apart and removed the screw and everything seems fine. Thanks for your help!
DanW
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August 20th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
I have a Toshiba Satellite Tablet, I believe the model number is R25-???, but I’m not positive as it was a customized computer and toshiba doesn’t even sell the satellite in tablet form anymore.
Anyway, the laptop has been overheating for a while, so I took it to Best Buy last weekend to get it completely cleaned. After the cleaning it ran cooler, but now its acting up again. I figure it’s not the heat sink–I’ve noticed that though the fan sounds like it’s running, absolutely no air seems to be coming out of the vent, which is really different from when I first got the computer, when it would literally gust out. How do I know for sure that the fan is the problem? What else could it be? If you suspect it’s the fan, what model should I look for?
Thanks for your help.
August 20th, 2007 at 8:00 pm
I think I found the model number, it’s a Satellite R15. Hope it helps.
September 15th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
I have an hp pavilion 2315 laptop. I think it is also heating up since it freezes when the cpu is busy and shuts down. I have tested the hard drive and the memory and cleaned the fan. But I cannot find the heatsink to clean it. Can you advise me where this might be and how I can locate it?
Thanks.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
I have a Satellite A75, I did a system restore to an earlier date and since then I have not being able to restore back. The restore button is not longer active, when you click on it, it does it opens a blank screen.
November 14th, 2007 at 10:09 am
I have a toshiba satellite A75 series. The screen is black on start-up. I can see a faint picture if I hold a flash light to the screen. I have tried replacing the inverter, but it is still happening. Is the problem possibly the backlight lamp? Are there other options things I should be looking at?? I would appreciate any help.
November 14th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Devin,
Check the display close switch – a small button that turns off the backlight when you close the laptop display. Make sure the switch moves freely. Try tapping on the switch when the laptop is on. Is the backlight flashing when you are tapping on the close switch?
If you installed a known good inverter board and still having the same issue, probably the backlight lamp is bad.
November 15th, 2007 at 6:46 am
Thanks Laptop Freak. I’ll try replacing the backlight lamp.
December 11th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
I have an A75, It seems to run a little noisy (when the fans are spinning), I brought it used and havent had it that long, so I dont know what normal noise levels are like. It seems to cool ok, fan comes on when it gets hot shuts off when cool. But one of the fans seem to be vibrating against something, it kinda rattles when its on and is more pronounced when i tilt the laptop certain directions. I was thinking of replacing the fans with some super quiet ones, but I assume that isnt possible, I dont mind doing some modifications to the new fans to make them fit, is there any special fans I should look for or will any good quality one the right size work?
April 21st, 2008 at 9:21 am
I used to have the same problem… Heats up and then shuts off. I called Toshiba and they told me my laptop had a factory default and gave me 9 months warranty. They changed the motherboard for free and I had the same problem 3 times. Now my warranty is gone and I still have the same problem… I put a fan behind my laptop… it’s all ghetto
… but works since im not gonna get it fixed … I will use it till it catches on fire or something and then buy a Sony.
August 26th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Cooling System Problem on Toshiba Satellite A40-211.
I have a four year old Toshiba Satellite A40-211 and it has worked fine. A couple of months ago I began getting a message “a problem with the cooling system has been detetected … shut down and send it for service”.
Interestingly, I cannot really feel the heat (not more than normal) and the computer does not shut down. However, the message keeps repeating itself every few minutes or so. I have opened up the heat sink and cleaned it thoroughly, cleaned and applied cooling grease (twice, once with a friend more knowledgeable than me) but the message keeps returning.
Assuming it to be a software problem, I decided to clean my HD and reinstall the system. I booted the system with my backup software (Acronis) bootable CD and backed up my whole disk. The process took almost 10 to 12 hours and the computer did not throw up any messages. Having reformatted the disk and reinstalling the system (XP Professional), for a very short while it seemed that the problem had gone away. But very shortly, the message was reappeared.
Recently, I got hold of a small programme that gives me temperature readings of the CPU and the HD etc. The system seems to function erratically (temperature-wise) with temperatures that are some times less than 40C. But at other times, these can run up to 59C or 71C (on the monitor) though I cannot feel the with CPU temperature around 30 – 40 C. But at some freak moment, the temp shoots up to 71 C and that is when the message starts popping up.
I am just bewildered at the situation and am hoping someone can throw some light on it. Is it perhaps an indication that the fan is beginning to go? If so, How to check it? and, where do I find the part number if I need to buy one (I am located in Europe).
thanks in advance for any help.
August 26th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Anil,
I think this laptop is similar to Toshiba Satellite A45 witch has TWO cooling fans. It’s possible that there is nothing wrong with the primary fan but the secondary one is failing.
Take a look at this disassembly guide for a Satellite A45.
You can see one fan on the picture 1 (through the grill on the bottom of the laptop) and the secondary fan is pictured on the picture 20 in the top right corner.
I think you have a problem with the secondary fan.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Thanks for the reply. Thanks to the disassembly guide, I did open up the laptop and basically cleaned everything up. The second fan looked all right. Both fans seem to turn on and off but I notice no direct correlation with the temperatures shown on NHC (Notebook Hardware Controller) or Speedfan. Only when the temperature hits 70 or above, the system complains about the heat problem I mentioned in my firstmail.
I am not sure if the problem is related to the fans not running at the full strength or if there is a problem with the fan controller(s) allowing the laptop to heat up more than it should before setting the fans on. Or, could it be a problem with the heatsink pipes?
The speedfan program does not even detect the two fans. There is therefore no way to check the fan speed and tell if these are working at full strength or not.
Is there a way to check on these issues?
October 12th, 2008 at 8:29 am
To be sure, your hunch that the 2nd Fan may be failing was right. The fan did fail. I got a replacement and put it in today. However, except for short periods, when the fan stops, the CPU temperature goes down to 28C. However, for most part, fan seems to be on and the CPU temperature has stayed high, above 60C (in the beginning it was as high as 71C).
I have been running the machine for about 4 hours now but despite the seemingly high temperature, I have not seen the warning that I was getting before “problem with the cooling system”.
Just wondering what is happening here. Did I put too thin layer of the cooling paste? Will a thicker layer help?
March 4th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Hi,
I am facing exactly the same problem on my Toshiba A40.
The 1st Fan is working alright. But how to check whether the 2nd Fan is working or not.
The temperature shown, CPU 71C and HDD 40C.
After this message ” “a problem with the cooling system has been detetected … shut down and send it for service”, the system becomes horribly slow (i tried to take backup). The CPU usage (in Task Manager) shows ~100%.
Please help.
Thanks.
March 5th, 2009 at 1:42 am
Check through the back grill on A$) near the power inlet. You can see it rotating fairly easily.
If the fan is working, I suggest you look at the cleaning and coolant problems mentioned in the posts in this thread.
For me, the problem is not completely gone away (I intend to go for changing the coolant once again when I have time). My laptop now starts at about 28C but if any programs are run, it shoots up to 70/71C then dropping down sometimes to 62 or so. In between it falls back again to 28C when the activity goes down.
Can’t explain why though!!
good luck
March 7th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Best option: get a new laptop
This is one of the all time worst laptops EVER. All of them have problems with overheating and they have horrible batteries. I got this laptop for free because the person was sick of it crashing. Don;t waste your money on it anymore.
March 7th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Sorry, one more thing. If you don’t want to spend a lot on a fan buy a cooling pad, they are really cheap.
March 8th, 2009 at 7:37 am
I have a Satellite A45 as well and am getting the same cooling-problem-shutdown-prompt. I took the computer apart soon after it displayed the message for about the 5th time. I found a ton of lint completely layered against the heat sink. But all of that is removed and cleaned now. Both fans are working, I just checked. The shutdown cooling prompt persists. The laptop used to make a whole lot of racket from the cooling fan, but now is totally quiet (still working however). Why does the fan not “power up” to full blast like it used to?
March 11th, 2009 at 12:01 am
Thanks Anil,
my problem got solved using an air compressor on the 2nd fan. Now there’s no warning. I guess the 2nd fan got clogged with dirt.
But the heating problem is still there. – processor temp is 71C after running couple of applications. Don’t know whether this is normal or not.
Couple of months ago, I had removed and refitted the heat sink with new thermal paste(ceramic). Started checking the processor temperature only after that.
March 12th, 2009 at 3:01 am
Kaisa, the quietness that you mention is a bit bothering. Can you really “see” the second fan spinning? If it is, may be it is on its way to the graveyard. To begin with I also thought my fans were working fine. Good to check again. How is the temperature (CPU). You cna possibly use hardware control center to monitor it.
Anish, good that you are out of the woods at least for the time being. If you do find a solution to high temps, let me know. I will get around to have a second look sometime in a monthor so.
March 26th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Put a book under it or otherwise raise it up a bit so air can circulate underneath. Lo-tech but it works, especially when on your lap.
April 13th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
I took the Battery out of my Satellite M30X-102 while it was plugged in and running.
But the Notebook ran fine afterwards, without the battery.
Only when I put the battery in once more (this time Notebook was off and disconnected) it started. I got the impression, that somehow it became slower, even when the power chord was connected once again.
After 20 minutes the BIOS and Windows said, that battery was at 0%, but I disabled the auto-hibernate and see there, the notebook ran 25 more minutes on DC.
I then reloaded the battery completeley and used the tool “Battery eater” to unload the battery on heavy usage.
The funny thing was, that the tool showed, that the battery was still OK:
Device Name PA3395U
Manufacture TOSHIBA
Serial # SEW 04 34 A SY
Unique ID 3658QTOSHIBAPA3395U
Chemistry Lithium Ion
Temperature Termal Control Not Present
Designed Capacity 59200mWh
Full Charged Capacity 59200mWh
Designed Voltage 14,4V
Current Voltage 16,573V
Manufacture Date 0/0/0
Cycles Count 0
Cells count 4
Force charge support Not Supported
Force discharge support Not Supported
The battery is 5 years old. I’m using the original power cable.
The notebook was again running longer than shown, on the heavy usage benchmark.
I recharged again.
That was the last test I could run, after that the notebook just went off without error message, whenever I started the test run with Battery Eater.
After that it even crashed when booting windows.After letting it cool down I could log in again, but as soon as the processor got tuned up to 100% it shut off again. No Error Message, no event log.
The problems occur on AC without battery, as well as on battery+AC and battery alone.
Now I have a serious problem (overheating?), NB shuts off even when booting into ubuntu from CD.
I’ve just cleaned the cooling block from the outside with a vacuum cleaner.
Maybe I damaged the fan by turning in passively. (I’ve done that before though and never had a problem)
Maybe all the testing destroyed something and now there is false voltage or something like that. Maybe it’s only the fan, that got hurt.
Now I’ve disassembled the Notebook to look for some heat problems (but the heatspred doesn’t seem to be that clogged). What else should I check / look for?
I’ve installed the latest ATI catalyst mobile ver. 9.02 and updatet the BISO to 2.0 lately. I thought that maybe the graphics driver was the problem for overheating, but when I installed the one provided by toshiba, the screen got black after the boot logo.
I’m also using a clean install of windows, not the recovery and lately heard about these “toshiba common modules”. Where can I find those for my model? They are not in the driver section for my Notebook.
Before I’ve taken out the battery while running, I’ve had it already two times, that my notebookjust went completely off, but under different circumstances.
One time when I just touched the back USB ports with a USB Plug, the other time when I unplugged my bluetooth stick (din’t savely remove it).
There was no Bluescreen or message of any kind, not even in the event log after booting up again or that fatal system error box when you boot up after a system error.
Just a complete power failure. I also tried to redo the scenario, but it didn’t work.
I cleaned this back – USB port it with a vacuum cleaner to remove the dust and took a good look at it, but couldn’t see any difference to the side port.
I also couldn’t determine any loose or unfirm parts at all.
What bothers me a little bit is that some time ago I had the notebook an my lap and forgot that a memory stick was plugged in at the rear. The stick got pushed upwards and got slightly damaged.
Still working though.
Oh yes, and I also have that “wobbly” power plug problem from time to time.
Notebook Specs:
Product : Satellite M30X-102, Version : PSA72E-008010GR
Mainboard:
NorthBridge : Intel i855GME
SouthBridge : 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge
Mainboard Model: Toshiba EAL20
Win XP Home SP3, all updates.
I hope that information is useable. It would be great if you would bring some light into this. It would be great if I got the Notebook running again.
Thank you very much for your effort.
Fabian