forThose Who Know About Computers

[pampchefsarah]

We have a Toshiba Satellite laptop which is maybe 3 years old, if that. For the past few months it has been turning itself off while in use. It does get very hot on the bottom, but even when we position it to allow airflow, it still happens (of course, usually when someone is right in the middle of a task!). Can anyone suggest how to solve this very annoying glitch?

I'm thinking it might need a new battery, and my husband wonders if it's the charger. I don't really want to spend $60 - $100 on either if turns out to be something else entirely.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

 

[cindylpal]

Walmart has this stand/fan unit...it was only $19, I'd give that a try if it's running hot!!!

 

[TrishPCMommy]

My husband was having a similar problem with his Toshiba Satellite... Is it turning itself off or is the screen turning black (computer still running)?

He was able to go online and update the video driver and some other drivers and that solved the problem. Everything was found online after Google-searching for "Toshiba Satellite screen going black..." He has a Toshiba Satellite A215 (underside of laptop).

 

[nikked]

Sounds to me like your fan needs to be replaced. Our Dell did that a couple of years ago. No matter what I did to keep it cool, it over heated. So frustrating!

Anyways, it was still under warranty, and they came out and replaced it. HTH!

 

[esavvymom]

My Toshiba did the same thing. What I found out was that when I ran on Battery-power, it didn't shut down. Under electric, it would shut off within just a few minutes. My battery wasn't that old- so it wasn't a battery issue. I didn't explore replacing the fan.I was able to get around it by putting it up on some items to keep the bottom open- and had a small desk fan that blew on it. It would stay running just fine.After several months, I was able to buy a used MacBook Pro from a co-worker who was upgrading.

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

The heat is likely coming from the battery. My HP does the same thing because some of the cells are dead, so the remaining cells are charging all the time, that's where the heat is coming from. I was able to download a battery checking program from HP to confirm my suspicions.Everyone knows that "HP" stands for "High Price" and that holds true for batteries. HP wants over a hundred bucks for a battery, but after checking with pricegrabber.com, I was able to find several vendors that offer the battery at 50% of the price. (I use it as a desktop now, so battery life is meaningless to me - it's always plugged in but the heat does get a little annoying.)Speaking of, fans and cooling aids treat the symptom, not the disease.Good luck with it all!

 

[pckellyd]

Try just getting a can of air and when the laptop is off blow it at the vents, most likely you have some dust bunnies that have formed and aren't allowing the fans to work properly.

If that doesn't work, check ebay for batteries and or a new charger, we found a new charger for our acer for $15 incl shipping.

 

[esavvymom]

On mine, I actually pulled the battery COMPLETELY out, and ran it via AC power alone. And we blew out the fans several times with canned air (My DH is a computer engineer of 20+ years- we tried everything short of ripping it apart).It still shuts down with all of those things....so I wouldn't think the problem is a battery issue - not entirely anyway. Do a google search and I'd bet you'll find alot of folks with the same problem with Toshiba.

 

[TrishPCMommy]

I'm jealous of my husband's laptop during the winters though... I'd place it on my lap to warm me up! But the fan was not the issue of the computer going blank/not working. His laptop still gets warm but at least the screen doesn't go black or stop working in the middle of his work (he's a computer programmer and is always on a computer/laptop or two).

 

[robochick84]

Since everyone seemed to give you the simple solution. There are resistors on the motherboard that can cause power dispersion and dispelling to not necessarily act correctly if it is faults.



.... $.02 from an IT Analyst

 

[Chef Endora]

My husband was having a similar problem with his Toshiba Satellite... Is it turning itself off or is the screen turning black (computer still running)?

He was able to go online and update the video driver and some other drivers and that solved the problem. Everything was found online after Google-searching for "Toshiba Satellite screen going black..." He has a Toshiba Satellite A215 (underside of laptop).

I had a similar problem w/mine (same model) when it was still under warranty. It would go into sleep mode on a very frequent basis :grumpy: which was VERY annoying. I took it to an auth dealer & they fixed it. It was a known problem. Try going to their website for some tech help. They were great!

Good luck!

 

[dclattimer]

I asked DH (he is a computer tech...for the school district....boy oh boy give a kid a laptop...there is nothing he has not seen) he advises:
"it might have a bad board...he said there is only so many times it can over heat" he said to ask you if it was shutting down or just turning off? He said that several things can make it over heat...virus(sometimes), poor air flow, bad fans, charging too much. He advises if it is already three years old and it has a bad board then you might want to look into getting a new one. He says that there are several great deal out there and it probably would be cheaper to replace the computer rather than try and fix a bad board. If it were me I would get a professional to check it out before you decide that its bad.

 

[pampchefsarah]

Thanks everyone for your responses. Hah! I wrote this before going to bed last night, and then totally forgot about it. Good thing I'm a little bored at work.

My Director's husband is an IT guy, too, so maybe I'll have him look at it. To answer the question though, it completely shuts down (the power light goes off and everything).

Robochick84, I almost understand your geek-speak, but am not knowledgeable enough to know, without asking, if the resistors can be inexpensively replaced, or would this mean the whole board is shot, as suggested by others?

 

[robochick84]

Thanks everyone for your responses. Hah! I wrote this before going to bed last night, and then totally forgot about it. Good thing I'm a little bored at work.

My Director's husband is an IT guy, too, so maybe I'll have him look at it. To answer the question though, it completely shuts down (the power light goes off and everything).

Robochick84, I almost understand your geek-speak, but am not knowledgeable enough to know, without asking, if the resistors can be inexpensively replaced, or would this mean the whole board is shot, as suggested by others?

Sorry... in theory if you can identify the specific bad component on the motherboard you can replace that component. I do it a lot. It is usually only done on large scale servers due to cost and TIME.

It would be the swapping of the whole board on a "normal" basis.

You can get them cheap on the internet through third party vendors if you no longer have the warranty. Usually around $100. Just have a nerdy friend replace yours!

Or depending on what you use it for, you can pick up one of these really cool mini laptops for a couple hundred dollars and it may serve the needs of what you need.


Ashley