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.
April 16th, 2006 at 7:26 pm
I spilled a small amount of coffee on the corner of my keyboard which is causing some problems with my Toshiba Satellite A35 S159. I purchased a refubished keyboard for it and would appreciate some tips on making the replacement. Hope you can help, Thanks.
April 16th, 2006 at 7:42 pm
Hey Brian,
Not a big deal. I had a spare keyboard and after 5 minutes my lappy was up and running. It is very easy to replace the keyboard on Toshiba Satellite A35. I do not have a guide for this particular model, but you can follow Toshiba Satellite A55 instructions. The keyboard strip on your laptop would be a little bit different, but it doesn’t make a big difference. Follow steps 1,2,3,4 and 6. You can skip the step 5 because the keyboard connector in your laptop is not covered. Be careful when you disconnect the keyboard cable from the system board. First you have to unlock the connector and then to pull the cable.
Last week I spilled coffee on my Toshiba Satellite 3005 too.
April 16th, 2006 at 8:43 pm
If I don’t have compressed air can, can I just clean it with brush? or something else?
Thanks
April 16th, 2006 at 9:10 pm
Sure,
If you want to clean Toshiba Satellite A35 heatsink then you can do it without canned air. After you remove the heatsink you’ll get an easy access to the CPU fans and the heatsink.
May 21st, 2006 at 11:00 am
Hi,
I followed the instruction on this page to clean up the heat sink, but accidentally the CPU also came off and when I re-assembled the cover, the system is not starting. Nothing is displayed on the monitor and Hard drive LCD on the front panel shows only for 2 sec. However power LCD is on. I regret doing this myself. Please let me know what are my options now. I am plannig to take it to a service center, but just in case the CPU went bad, can I buy just the CPU or the laptop goes waste.
I really appreciate ur response.
Thanks,
Venkat
May 21st, 2006 at 11:18 am
Hey Venkat,
Most likely your laptop will not boot because the CPU is not seated properly. When you remove the heatsink, the CPU might come off with the heatsink. To put the CPU back in the socket properly you have to separate the CPU from the heatsink first. You can use a flat head screwdriver. Put the screwdriver between the CPU and the heatsink and rotate it a little bit until the CPU separates from the heatsink. Before you place the CPU back in the socket on the motherboard, you have to open the socket. There is a screw on the side of the socket and it has 2 positions: Open and Locked. Turn it into the Open position and carefully place the CPU inside. There is only one position where the CPU pins layout matches the socket. The CPU and the socket are keyed. You do not have to push on the CPU to insert it into the socket, in most cases it will “fall” inside the socket. If it doesn’t go inside the socket, check if the pins are not bent or if the key on the CPU matches the key on the socket. After you insert the CPU back in the socket, you have to lock it. Turn the lock-screw into “Locked” position. Now you can clean old thermal grease from the CPU and the heatsink and apply new thermal grease on the CPU. After that install the heatsink and turn on the laptop.
You can also read this thread.
May 29th, 2006 at 7:23 pm
I followed the tutorial and everything went flawless, cpu came with heatsink because of excessive white silicon, after cleanning the dust from heatsink and removing the white silicon from processor I reapplied artic silver 5 over cpu, reassambled everything in reverse order and it worked great, now fans kick in after 15 mins of load, instead of every 2 minutes, thanks for the great tip
JG
June 6th, 2006 at 8:28 pm
Hi
Can you help me please? I have a Toshiba A-35 and need to replace the hard drive which is internal. Can you advise me on how to go about getting to the hard drive and replacing it? Thank you
Frank
June 6th, 2006 at 11:27 pm
Hey Frank,
I already answered your question here.
June 13th, 2006 at 1:17 pm
Conscerning my laptop overheating. I just turn it off close it and flip it over, then with a vacuume hose with the brush attachment I vacuume it until I see that all the lint has come out. I’ve been doing this for two years and it has been great!!!
June 14th, 2006 at 6:46 am
In the Last Part of the aseembly of a35-s159 it says to apply new grease.. what does that mean????
June 15th, 2006 at 5:55 pm
Thermal grease (compound) is a paste that you have to apply on the CPU before you install the heat sink. Thermal grease helps to conduct heat from the CPU to the heat sink. You can buy thermal grease in any local computer shop or you can buy it online. Arctic Silver is a good brand; they also have instructions with pictures how to apply it correctly (search on google for Arctic Silver).
June 26th, 2006 at 7:44 am
Hi. My Toshiba Satellite A35 turns on but doesn’t start. The energy led turns OK. When I press the start button it try to, but a recursive sound (tac, tac, tac…) begins, flashes the DVD’s led and the screen is off. If I open the DVD unit with a clip, then the sound stops but the computer does anything else. I was wondering if anyone can help me.
June 28th, 2006 at 12:52 pm
Jesus,
Remove the drive and try to start the laptop without it. The DVD drive might stop the laptop from booting normally.
August 2nd, 2006 at 9:55 am
The same problem that Jesus have.
The pc stars, but do not show anything on screen and no sound of any drive working in about 3 seconds after turn pc on… But leds say that pc is normally on.
My dvd unit dosen’t make the sound that Jesus said, but anyway y tooke it off, and pc dosen’t start again.
Think the problem was that when y take off que heat sink and cpu to clean, y forgget to take off the batery, can that be the problem?, maybe the power supply has $%$^ off??
Thanks
August 7th, 2006 at 11:43 pm
Enrique,
Did your laptop stopped booting after you cleaned up the heatsink? If so, check comment 6. I think that your CPU not seated properly.
If you didn’t disassembly the laptop for cleaning, then I would check the memory module first.
October 23rd, 2006 at 8:17 pm
HI there, I have a problem with my A35,
I reinstall windows few months ago and since then the cd/dvd combo drive is uable to read any DVD. Do you have any idea to fix this problem ?
October 23rd, 2006 at 10:38 pm
KKgusta,
What do you mean by “drive is unable to read any DVD”?
You cannot see files on DVD disk or the drive just will not play DVD movies? If it will not play DVD movies then most likely you are missing DVD player software. If that’s the case, you can download and install VLC media player, it’s very good free player.
October 26th, 2006 at 2:23 pm
If i put in a data dvd i can see the files but it having problem to read or run the files. (same with dvd movies)
November 17th, 2006 at 12:20 pm
A few days ago I changed the DC plug in the back of the laptop (toshiba a30). Once I put the computer back in one peace it would boot for 3 seconds(fan noise, no screen activity) then it shuts down 5 seconds later I restart for an other 3 seconds … I have reseated the cpu a few times to make shur it wasn’t that. Then I unplugged every thing, cpu, fans and ram where left on, but same problem as above. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
PS, there is a black and a white wire that come from the monitor that I don’t recall where to plug.
November 24th, 2006 at 8:26 am
I have a Toshiba A35 s159. The manual says the fsb runs at 400mhz. I was thinking about upgrading it to some faster Mobile Pentium 4 model running at 533mhz fsb with pc2700 memory. Would that work? or is there any bios limitation for faster CPUs of the same kind?
And also, if i replace the memory for pc2700 sticks, would the system run at 333mhz or it’s limited to 266mhz?
Thanks a lot!
November 24th, 2006 at 11:03 am
I’d like to upgrade it to something like this:
SL7NA (Intel Mobile Pentium 4)
Processor type Intel Mobile Pentium 4
Part number RK80546HE0831M
Package type 478-pin FC-mPGA4
Processor speed (GHz) 3.06
Bus speed (MHz) 533
L2 cache size (KB) 1024
Qualification sample Q72V
Previous stepping SL7DT
Core stepping E0
CPUID 0F41h
November 24th, 2006 at 11:36 am
One more last thing, i checked Intel’s site for my chipset (852gme), it says the chipset supports up to 3.06ghz Mobile Pentium 4 running at 533mhz. So, my only concern is that the BIOS gets in the way.
Thanks again.
November 27th, 2006 at 12:30 am
André,
The fastest CPU Toshiba lists for Satellite A35-S159 is Pentium4 2.8GHz (no information on FSB but probably 400MHz). I cannot say if it will run fine with a faster CPU.
Nope, it will run at 266MHz.
November 27th, 2006 at 11:19 am
Thanks a lot!
January 27th, 2007 at 10:18 am
Jesus and Enrique,
I have the same problem (I have not disassembled or cleaned anything yet). The way to make the laptop start is press “F1″. I know it’s strange but for some reason it makes the hardrive LED light up, and the start-up continues. I know it’s strange but I have to do it everytime for the last few weeks (my notebook is 3 years old).
February 11th, 2007 at 10:48 am
You rock! I pinched one end of the fuzz and literally peeled off a earthworm thick peace. My laptop is saved!
**FYI magnetic screwdriver is a must**
February 17th, 2007 at 8:00 am
hi cj,
thanks for the help on this website….i need to find out if the computer is going to work fine without the thermal grease..i actually cleaned my wifes laptop recently and placed the cpu back without the grease…is there something i need to be concerned about..or should i just go and buy it and open it again and put it on the cpu
April 5th, 2007 at 8:06 pm
You NEED the paste- it’s what conducts the heat from the processor to the heatsink. Without it- your processor will surely die thermal death.
April 10th, 2007 at 7:16 am
I need to replace the power jack on my Satellite A35. I can’t disassemble the laptop enough to get to the power jack which is near the heat sink. Does anybody know how to disassemble this model?
Thanks 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!
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!
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 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
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.
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 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 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
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.
September 17th, 2007 at 8:17 am
Is the toshiba A30 the same as the A35 when dismantling to cure overheating?
Regards
Roy
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.
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.
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..
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
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!!
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
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!
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!
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?