Laptop shuts down without any reason

Does your laptop shut down in the middle of doing something without any reason and warning? Does your laptop run much hotter then before, the keyboard and the bottom part of the laptop feels very hot? If yes, your laptop overheats and has to be cleaned up. It happens because the heat sink is clogged with dust and lint preventing normal air circulation.

These are all the symptoms of a laptop overheating problem in or around the cooling system. The fan and the heat sink have a small gap in between them, this is where dust will be sucked into and will accumulate. Once all the dust and lint is removed, re-assemble your machine. This procedure is something that should be done periodically to ensure that your laptop overheating issues will be a thing of the past.

Alternatively, you can clean up your laptop without taking it apart by blowing off fans and heatsink with compressed air. This is not the best way to fix the problem because some dust will stay inside the laptop but it will work. By the way, if you’ve been using your laptop for a few years, it might be a good idea to replace thermal compound on the processor. It will help to keep your laptop cooler.
Here’s another resource with covers laptop overheating in more depth.

Laptop Overheating Issues:

Does your laptop shutdown at random? Does it slow down during heavy operations? Do you need to wait 10 min. before you can start it up again? These are all the symptoms of a laptop overheating problem in or around the cooling system.

What needs to be remembered is that a lot of the current laptops on the market today are running specifications that traditionally were reserved for desktops. Some even contain desktop CPU’s and a kick ass cooling system to match. Take a look at the cooling modules in some of the current Toshiba notebooks.

Anyhow, in order for these CPU’s to perform they have to be kept as cool as possible so manufacturers like Toshiba, Compaq/HP and the like struggle with the limited space and power to do this, hence they have had some laptop overheating issues.

If your laptop does show some of the symptoms mentioned before here’s what you can do..

On the under side of a lot of the machines you can gain access to the CPU/cooling module compartment, be warned – when tinkering around near the CPU, electro static discharge may be your worst nightmare - be careful to control ESD. Once you have located where the fan is you will be able to see quite clearly if this is your issue.. take a look below.

Laptop Overheating

1: Heat sink
2: Fan

The heat sink runs off to the right of this picture and sits on the CPU, you can see the copper pipe running to the CPU here (1).

The fan and the heat sink have a small gap in between them, this is where dust will be sucked into and will accumulate.

Dust build up inside a Toshiba Satellite A10

You can use a soft paint brush safely enough here to loosen all the dust and then use a vacuum with a brush attachment to remove it. If you're game you can take the fan out (2 screws to remove) and give it a good clean out. This isn’t always so easy, on other models of notebooks the fan or fans are only accessible by removing the main board, not a job for a novice.

Dust build up inside a Toshiba Satellite A10 with the fan removed.

Arrows mark what should be cleaned out before re-assembly.

Once all the dust and lint is removed, re-assemble your machine. This procedure is something that should be done periodically to ensure that your laptop overheating issues will be a thing of the past.

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