Laptop turns off (high temperature) 2

[electricpete]

I have a Toshibe Satellite A105-SS201 laptop.
Windows XP Home
Intel Celron M Processor
512mb ram

The problem is that the machine periodically turns itself off. Typically occurs after the machine has been running awhile and during intensive calcs. The problem seemed to get more frequent.

I bought a stand that puts a fan under the laptop. That fixed the problem for awhile. Now it occurs even when the fan is running.

I can understand maybe the machine has a bad design that tends to overheat. But why would it be getting worse over time? And more important, what can I do to investigate and correct the problem?

Thanks in advance.

 

[xit]

Could be a number of things causing your problem, seeing that the fan under the laptop helped for a time indicates that it yes indeed is a heat problem. My guess is that you either have a failing heatsink fan or a blockage from accumulated dust and such. While your system is running you should hear and feel air from the cooling fan exhaust, if not you need to have it checked.

xit

 

[kmcferrin]

If you're comfortable doing it yourself, I'd recommend opening it up and blowing it out with compressed air. Otherwise you might take it somewhere. Sometimes people use laptops on soft surfaces, and since they draw in air from the bottom that usually means that it's sucking up dust, lint, and whatever else from your carpet/tablecloth/pillow/whatever.

________________________________________
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MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator

 

[electricpete]

Thanks guys. I removed all the phillips head screws from bottom of my laptop (along with battery compartment, RAM compartment cover) but bottom wouldn't come off... it wraps around the sides and has stuff going through it like CD, usb ports, etc etc. So I gave up. (If there is any easy way to get it off, let me know).

Than I put my vacuum cleaner's hose (2" diameter) onto the fan air inlet port (1.5" diameter) with the laptop off. Because of the dimensions, the vacuum hose sealed well onto the opening and created a great suction. It sucked quite a bit of dust out... could see it now stuck to the other side of the inlet screen. I fished out / vacuumed out all that dust and fired it back up.

I could notice a slight difference in the outlet airflow (seems slightly more). I could notice a dramatic difference in the outlet air temperature (much cooler than before). I guess it is easier to "sense" temperature than flow by waving your hand in front of an opening.

Anyway, I think (hope) my problem is solved. Time will be the real proof. Thanks for your advice.

 

[Thehigg65]

Have you tried removing the battery to see if it is the souce of heat? It is dangerous to keep it out but if you keep it on a cooling stand it is off the table away from spills.

Best of Luck

Tim

 

[G0AOZ]

Quite often you need to attack both the bottom and the top to get a laptop apart. There is often a flat plate between the top of the keyboard and the bottom of the screen which will come off. (Could be just "popped" out, might be small bolts in the side or the back, or maybe it slides off right to left, etc). Once this is removed, you can often detach the keyboard which might reveal more bolts holding it all together.

Whatever you do, do it gently unless you are very sure of what you're doing, and make a note of where all the parts, particularly all the often different sized bolts are located. I have some small square plastic reagent trays which I place bolts in, with a note as to exactly where they go. There is nothing worse than having reassembled a laptop, and wondering where the leftover five bolts ought to go!

Good luck.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[docjohn52]

This happened to my boss, and all I did was turn off the FULL MOTION VIDEO AD that Toshiba had defaulted to for the screensaver.

(It cut down the temperature in his RV a ton too! He took back the fan...)

 

[electricpete]

Thanks. Good to know how to get into the laptop in the future if I need to.

The problem hasn't recurred in the last month since I vacuumed, so that seems to have done the trick.