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.
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 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.
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
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**
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).
November 27th, 2006 at 11:19 am
Thanks a lot!
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 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 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 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 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.
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)
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 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 ?
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.
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
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.
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 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 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 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 6th, 2006 at 11:27 pm
Hey Frank,
I already answered your question here.
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
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
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 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
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 youll get an easy access to the CPU fans and the heatsink.
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 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 doesnt 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 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.