Toshiba Satellite A35 laptop overheating problem. How to clean fans and heatsink.
If your laptop shuts down by itself without any warning and reason then most likely you experience a laptop overheating problem. The overheating problem occurs when the CPU heatsink gets clogged with lint and dust. A clogged heatsink cannot dissolve the heat fast enough and the laptop shuts down to protect the CPU. In some cases the overheating problem occurs because the CPU thermal grease dried out and cannot properly conduct the heat from the laptop processor to the heatsink. To fix a laptop overheating problem clean the heatsink and the CPU fans first. You can use a canned air to blow away the dust. If it doesn’t help, remove the heatsink and apply new thermal grease on the CPU.
Be very careful when you remove the heatsink from the CPU. Very often the heatsink comes out with CPU attached to it. Pay attention or you can damage the CPU pins. When you put the CPU back into the socket, do not forget to open it. After the CPU is in place, lock the socket or your laptop will not start after you assemble it.
Here’s Toshiba Satellite A35 disassembly guide.
February 20th, 2011 at 6:00 pm
i use Toshiba satellite L645D and it’s just 20 days of buy.
it has AMD Athlon P320 Dual core, 64 bit and 3 GB RAM.
While using 45 deg centigrade, but after opening just 4 browsers in goes 65 ……what is the problem??? how to solve it??
December 14th, 2010 at 6:56 pm
to take the cover off of the heat sink, you need a #9 torx head bit
July 17th, 2010 at 9:54 am
ajcarlos06,
Take a look at the comment 15 in this thread: http://www.laptopka.com/2008/01/16/toshiba-satellite-l20-l25-disassembly-instructions/
June 22nd, 2010 at 9:57 am
what is the processor socket of the satellite L25?can i upgrade the processor?
April 18th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
I’ve had overheating problems and shutdowns for the last 12 months, after finding this site and trying the vac method, problem solved in 3 minutes, thanks to everybody that left comments above. It’s a pity Toshiba didn’t it’s customers know about this problem.
July 4th, 2009 at 7:46 am
Wow, because of this tip i was able to fix a year long problem of my laptops fans running hard and shutting off automatically.
There was so much lint between the fans and the heatsink that it looked like a vacuum cleaner filter that belonged there.
Now i can play games again and watch videos, yippie…
June 29th, 2009 at 11:28 am
I just followed your instructions and cleaned the heat sink on my Toshiba a45-s250. The junk on there was amazing. It is now working like a new machine. Thanks for all the great information.
June 6th, 2009 at 5:18 am
Hello: I sent my Toshiba laptop to repair shop. They followed clean up heat sink as suggestion. But still not working. The laptop keeps shutdown after 1/2 hour. They said I have to replace a new CPU. It sounds weird, anyone has any suggestion please ?
April 8th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Hi, I found this info great! thank you so much. You can use a new thermal grease (Thermal Compound) from Coolermaster or Thermaltake
Regards
January 14th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Toshiba Satellite A210. Would the instructions work for this one, or would they be different, if different, can someone please post a link. I’m google-ing without much luck.
Tammy
November 30th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Thank you so much for this information. One question, what type of greese is used for the cpu? Im not a computer guy myself and would like to regreese if possible. Thanks!
Albert
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Can one hot wire the 12 volt direct on an a70
and use as a desktop or laptop only with 110 volt adptr pluged in?
September 2nd, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Your information was totally helpful. For a year my Toshiba always shut on and off. I even ended up buying myself another laptop because of it. Then I came across your site. I followed the directions and sure enough, its running again no problem. Even someone who knows nothing about computers (like myself) can fix this thing. Thanks!
June 4th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Hi! Just wanted to say thank you for your fantastic guide.
I have a Toshiba Satellite A30 which kept randomly overheating/restarting and decided to follow the steps to fix the problem.
The laptop is now working perfectly again!
Many Thanks!
April 3rd, 2008 at 11:21 am
where is the cmos located in the toshiba a65-s1065? i’ve done so much reaserch before i dig in to look for it my self, please help if you can
March 30th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Thanks, followed your instrutions, peeled away the lint from heatsink, totally blocked. My laptop is now working fine. Thanks again!!
November 27th, 2007 at 6:43 am
The “weird star shaped nail head” is called a torx drive. You can pick up a set anywhere. Thanks
October 26th, 2007 at 2:07 am
Hi!! a week ago i have tried to fix my Toshiba A35-s1592 for its overheating problem by following of the instructions on the web site: http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptops/ToshibaA35/Satellite-A35-fixing-overheating.htm
I followed it carefully espescially when pulled off the heatsink. I unlock the cpu first by turning left the lock screw (unlock position). By doing that it make easier to pull off the heatsink that often sticks with cpu because of dried thermal grease. Remember..unlock the cpu first because pulled off the heatsink by force could damage the cpu pins..
October 7th, 2007 at 2:09 am
Dear Sir,
Will you please guide me the way of opening the TFT screen of this model.
Regards,
Balu.
September 17th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
Roy Simons,
That’s funny. I was talking about cleaning up a Satellite A35 laptop but forgot to post a link to the disassembly guide. Fixed. You’ll find the link in the post.
Yes, I think dismantling procedure for A30 will be the same as for A35. Follow the link and you can compare my guide to your laptop.
Try cleaning fans with compressed air first, it might help.
September 17th, 2007 at 8:17 am
Is the toshiba A30 the same as the A35 when dismantling to cure overheating?
Regards
Roy
July 19th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Hi there, recently I cleaned heat sink of Compaq R3000 and paste thermal grease in processor. But I cant turn on my laptop. All LED is on, but screen is not. And 2 fans are not running.
June 23rd, 2007 at 10:07 pm
Hi
I know how to clean the clog of lint on heatsink and replace CPUs.
But can anyone tell me how I can find the right screw driver in order to “unscrew” these screws with star shape nail head. I can’t use ordinary +/- screw driver, it looks like I need special screw driver..
Can you tell me where to buy those and what they are called…
Thanks
June 23rd, 2007 at 10:03 pm
Optical Drive not recognized…..
could be fixed and must be tried at first… is…
1) Cmos clear…. is done usually by pulling out cmos battery clipped to motherboard, but in case of laptop I would suggest to upgrade BIOS first. Then BIOS starts up with default factory setup value. You then , without changing unnecessary value, save setting and restart the computer. Most of the time your Optical drive will be recognized by BIOS!!
But check first if BIOS shows CD/DVD rom with manufacturer part name. If it does show, then no problem with BIOS.
2) If BIOS recognizes your Optical drive yet could NOT read CD/DVD, HAVE yourself ready with BOOTABLE CD and boot up computer with that CD(like windows installation CD)to see if it boots up by CD.
3) If CD/DVD is not read under Windows environment albeit it’s read in BIOS or anything else than windows, then you probably need to reinstall windows.
4) Finally try to upgrade “firmware”(software upgrade for Optical drive) going to Toshiba support site
5) With your Optical drive fried or stricken by lightening and what you see is a wreck with smoke smothering around, that means your drive is DEAD, go find replacement by going to Ebay. There are mainly 2 types of drives either crammed to side or slide from front. go check with model also will help
June 12th, 2007 at 5:38 am
Hi
I havecleaned my =Toshiba A35 c159 LOPTOP with vacuum clean and not it is working fine without any heat problems. But suddently DVD rom stopped working. It does not recognise CD or DVD. Please suggest me
June 6th, 2007 at 8:52 am
Toshiba Satellite A65 S1065.
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Ringo
S
Toshiba satellite a65 processor fan running all the time.?
I just did a fresh install of the O/S a day ago and have a valid Anti-virus running. Plus about a month ago, I opened the back and manually cleaned the dust and lint from the heatsink and air outlets(I did not put in new thermal grease however). yet the processor fan is running continuously. the main fan that can be seen from the outside runs as normal but the other unseen processor fan is running all the time.any help is appreciated.
May 16th, 2007 at 9:27 am
I have a toshiba satellite a35-s209, and doing some research, i have seen some class action lawsuits brought to Toshiba with models that came out a little bit before the a35, I also have a Toshiba Qosmio G-25, and it unfortunatly is experiencing automatic shutdowns as well due to overheating. Althought these heatsink devices may become dusty, this is still not acceptable, i have been a loyal Toshiba customer with my last THREE laptop purchases. But all three laptops have experienced the same event. Does anyone know of any other lawsuits that are active where ic an get some compensation for spending too much money on sending it off to toshiba so they could “switch out the heat sync”
-Ayo
May 1st, 2007 at 12:40 am
Hello again! hmmm…as women I did not know what the CPU is, but after reading the comments from below and asking my husband: what is the CPU honey? We managed to solve our problem (pls see above) in 5 minutes:)) Anyway many thanks for all comments:))
Maybe I will start the new education..in IT:))
Have a nice day:)) Greetings from munich:))
Joanna
May 1st, 2007 at 12:27 am
Hello! We have Toshiba A35 and today we have tried to fix its overheating problem by following of the instructions on the web site: http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptops/ToshibaA35/Satellite-A35-fixing-overheating.htm
We did everything as it is shown, but after it the laptop is not working. When we try to start it only the power control is aktiv and the laptop is doing nothing (it is only heating itself). The screen is dark.
Does anybody know the problem and can help us?
Many thanks in advance for your help!
April 19th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Hi, I found your guides extremely helpful. I have a Satellite A45 (close enough to an A35), and I’ve been having a problem with the DVD-drive. It makes fluttering and “brrrrr” noises when the laptop is tilted to the side. It sounds like it might be ball bearings or something on the DVD-drive. Just wondering if you had any suggestions on how to fix this noise. Thanks!