I had shut down problem with CPU intensive uses. Disassembled, cleaned, reassembled the laptop but it’s even worse now.
I had shut down problem with CPU intensive (games) uses on my Toshiba Satellite A75 notebook. Disassembly seemed to go fine. The processor was clogged with dust. (Not surprising to me really. I’d bought it in Dec 04, took it with me to Iraq through all of ‘05). Problem started slowly, in Iraq, about six months after I bought it.
So, I disassembled, cleaned, reassembled. All seemed, initially, to be OK. But then, as I was logging on, SHUTDOWN. Total. Tried plugging it in. Same. Total shutdown, and not even always after completing Boot process. In short, WASSUP?
This doesn’t match battery problem (since I’m not on battery). The machine is clean. What is going on?
So, you cleaned up the cooling fan and now the laptop shuts down even faster than before? Here are a couple of suggestions for you:
1. You disassembled the laptop and cleaned up the heatsink. Did you remove the old thermal grease from the CPU? And mostly important – did you apply new thermal grease or assembled it without grease? If there is no thermal grease between the processor and the heatsink, the laptop will overheat and shut down.
Make sure the processor is locked in the socket on the motherboard.
2. The cooling module has two fans. Did you plug BOTH fans during assembly? May be you forgot to connect fans and they do not work? Here’s how you can check them. When you turn on the laptop, both fans should start spinning. You can see both fans through the grill on the bottom of the laptop. Make sure both fans spin on start up. If one of them or both fans will not spin, probably you forgot to connect them. Disassemble the laptop again and connect the fans.
January 3rd, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Hi, can anyone explain in detail how to remove these tiny jacks in the motherboard? the ZIF are explained, but what about the other ones? These are either white (most) or black. They do not want to ‘unplug’ so there is a trick somewhere. They look very easy to damage so I have ruled out using plastic explosive on them, lol.
ALl the info in these pages is great but unfortunately to my current needs they do a litle “voila, the thing is disconnected” without showing how to remove these jacks.
It would be a great addition to this excellent resource, me thinks.
Thanks!
January 3rd, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Cattivo,
Because these guides were created for people who has some experience with taking apart laptops.
Just kidding.
Are you disassembling a Toshiba laptop? What is your model? Witch cable you are trying to disconnect? You mentioned the white and black cables and I can assume you are talking about the wireless card antenna cables. If yes, then grab the small round connector with your fingers and unsnap it from the wireless card. I cannot give you a better explanation, you have to feel it.
January 22nd, 2007 at 9:52 am
I have a Toshiba Sattelite A75 laptop and am experiencing a similar problem to the fellow above where the unit simply shuts off at start up. The key difference is that with mine it only shuts down if I’m running on battery power, if plugged in it will run indefinitly with no problems. I too had an overheating problem due to dust build-up at the heat sink and have rectified that problem with positive results. Two key points:
1. The “shutting down” problem pre-existed my disassembling and cleaning the computer, and
2. The battery is brand new (I replaced it when I first noticed this problem suspecting either a failing or failed battery.
Any ideas? I’m beginning to get very frustrated:(
Thanks!
January 23rd, 2007 at 7:37 pm
Robbie Nicosia,
If the laptop shuts down only when it’s running on the battery power but not on AC power, it’s not a heat related issue (some people forget plug the fan during the laptop assembly). The same problem appears with a brand new battery, so it’s not a battery fault.
Looks like you have something wrong with the system board, I cannot think of something else.
Check out this post, you might qualify for a free repair from Toshiba. Let me know how it goes.
February 24th, 2007 at 8:02 am
I have a Toshiba Satellite A45-S130 & need to replace cooling fan. Is there more than one cooling fan on this unit? Also, how do I remove cooling fan? Lots of screws to remove!
February 26th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
Terry Andren,
You are right, Toshiba Satellite A45 has two fans. You’ll find a disassembly guide for Satellite A45 on (www.irisvista.com). One fan you can see on the step 20. Another one – the heat sink fan is located under the motherboard. In order to replace the heat sink fan you’ll have to remove the motherboard.
October 2nd, 2007 at 9:47 am
Hi LF,
I recently replaced my hard drive in my Toshiba Dynabook V8. The old hard drive was faulty; it kept making loud noises and laptop would shut off. I used the recovery cd for the new hard drive and everything is working much better…but only for an hour. For some reason, after an hour, the laptop would just shut off (as if it lost power). It’s not an overheating issue and the fan is working. Could a faulty memory be the cause of this kind of problem? Thanks in advance for your help.
May 29th, 2008 at 6:52 am
Our Toshiba M35X shuts itself down now, too. A couple weeks ago there were a few times when it shut itself down after hours of use. Now it shuts itself down within a few seconds, long before it has a chance to boot up. We’ve had the laptop for three years, and it always felt pretty hot. Following the instructions here and on linked sites, I tried booting with & without the battery. Same result–shuts itself down after just a few seconds (I hear that fan loudly during those brief seconds). Tried it on just the battery–same result.
I also tried incrementally removing the hard drive and memory, thinking maybe it would at least boot to a black screen and give an error message about the missing components. But no, it still shut itself down in a few seconds.
Finally, last weekend I disassembled the unit carefully, cleaning out the dust, removed the fan & cleaned it. Carefully removed the old thermal “grease” (which was hard now, like caulk or spackle–is that normal?). Put down new thermal grease for the video chip and CPU, then reassembled everything. Same result–powers itself off after a few seconds. Arg!
At that point, I went online and ordered a new laptop.
Is there anything else I can try, or is this Toshiba a lost cause? Thanks for the help.
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:28 am
I have a similar shutdown problem, which seems to be overheating. Where do I find thermal grease to reapply what I ended up brushing off during the repair of the DC jack? Another question, if it is the lack of thermal grease that is my problem, should the heating coil still be getting very hot, because it is? And even though I have the fan plugged in it has not been running at all. Before this repair I did not have any problems with spontaneous shutdown. Now it shuts down normally within about 5 minutes. Thanks
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:54 am
coby,
You can buy it in a local computer store or buy it online. I believe even RadioShack has it.
It depends on the laptop model. Some laptops run hotter, some cooler, but you shouldn’t run it without thermal grease, you may damage the processor.
Again, it depends on the model you have. On some laptops (Satellite A75 for example) both fans should start as soon as you turn it on. On other laptops the cooling fan starts only when the CPU is very hot. Make sure that your cooling fan cable is plugged in.