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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.
March 2nd, 2008 at 8:30 pm
[...] For this upgrade you’ll need: 1. IBM ThinkPad T41p hardware and maintenance guide. The maintenance guide will help you to remove the keyboard and palm rest and get down to the CPU socket. 2. Small Philips screwdriver. 3. Thermal compound. Before you mount the heatsink back on the CPU, you must apply new thermal compound on the top of the CPU. You may consider Arctic Silver thermal compound. This stuff will keep your CPU cool and stable. 4. A can of compressed air. That’s would be a great idea to blow off dust from the cooling modules while you are replacing the CPU. Removing dust from the heat sink will help to prevent laptop overheating. Before I go any further, you should know that this upgrade is not for the novice or fumble-fingered. There are any number of ways you can completely destroy your computer during an upgrade of this type. From losing tiny screws to shorting out the motherboard with static electricity or dropping ascrewdriver into the open computer, this is not a project for someone who is not already fairly competent wielding a screwdriver and performing computer upgrades. [...]
May 10th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
[...] 4. The cooling module – fan and heat sink can be accessed through the cover on the bottom. It’s very convenient if you want to clean it. If you clean the cooling module with compressed air once a month, your laptop will never suffer from overheating. If you want to replace the cooling fan, just remove two screws securing the fan and unplug the cable from the motherboard. That’s it. [...]
July 3rd, 2009 at 10:48 am
HELLLO I HAVE A SONY VAIO THAT I BOUGHT IN FEB THAT ALL OF A SUDDEN ITS TURNING OFF FOR NO REASON WHAT CAN I DUE
May 28th, 2010 at 9:55 pm
hi
I am having Sony Vaio with similar problem as of Vanessa. Looking for solution.
May 29th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Lakshamanan,
Does it turn on while running multiple applications? Is the laptop hot on the bottom in the fan area?
Probably laptop shuts down because of overheating.
Have you tried cleaning the heat sink?
July 21st, 2010 at 7:00 am
pls help..i have the same problem with my ibm r50e laptop, i’ve been using this for 6 years, the problem started since last 3 years.. even though my laptop isn’t hot.. is still instantly shuts off every time i watch in youtube or rather playing games on facebook,, i already formatted my laptop a couple of times but the problem still exist…..even that time that i’m installing windows xp on my laptop it always shuts off.. i was just lucky when i installed the windows successfully because it didn’t shut down after 5 tries.. so, what might be the problem? please response.
July 22nd, 2010 at 12:48 pm
demz,
Have you tried cleaning the cooling fan and heat sink? Most likely the laptop shuts off because of overheating.
July 23rd, 2010 at 3:50 am
yes i did that already, any other idea ? pls help me, sir.
July 23rd, 2010 at 9:31 am
Demz,
Turn on the laptop and take a closer look at the cooling fan. Does it spin? Will it turn on at all?
Maybe the fan is not working?
July 23rd, 2010 at 9:01 pm
the fan is spinning.. one more thing, my laptop doesn’t shut down instantly when i’m in safe mode…. so in safe mode i can watch movies, because when im in normal mode every time i play videos, my laptop shutdown instantly.. or even when i play warcraft.. before the game start.. my laptop shut down instantly… but when im doing nothing like just using ms word for 48 hours.. my laptop isn’t shutting down instantly .. pls help me sir.. my laptop just only have 256 memory .. and the processor is 1.7ghz.. is there any connection with the memory?
October 18th, 2010 at 11:04 pm
[...] laptop was shutting down because of overheating. Cleaning the heatsink will fix this [...]
February 19th, 2011 at 10:55 am
same problem i have with my type laptop Sony vaio vgn cr 363… i am fed up now….
….
April 1st, 2011 at 4:53 pm
sir, i have same problem in my laptop also, but one thing i have notice if i remove the battery
and pulg the charger start it will run for 1 hour it will not turn off . what is the problem in my laptop and once again insert the battery ..the problem of automatically turn off start please suggest me what is the problem in my laptop and one more thing it dosent heat….
August 8th, 2011 at 12:30 pm
my laptop always trips of when i am trying to load anything, what shld i do
October 10th, 2011 at 11:01 am
I have a problem with my Sony Vaio VPCEH. It’s 1 month old. i have 4GB DDR3 RAM, Nvidia Geforce 410M 1GB, Intel Core i3…. But when i want to play almost any game (such as assassins creed, Medal of honor etc…), after some time (5 or 10 minutes) the laptop shuts down suddenly. The laptop is not hot or anything. I play FIFA12 almost everyday and it’s not happening, but when i want to play for example Assassins creed, it shuts down… What can be the problem?
October 14th, 2011 at 9:57 am
sir i m using dell inspiron. recently im install a fresh new window which is providing from with my dell laptop. but problem after install the windows (64bit windows 7) the laptop shutdown with out any reason. please help me and give me the proper solution.
thanks
January 11th, 2012 at 3:30 am
computer shuts off during reformat, can’t finish reformat
January 11th, 2012 at 3:27 pm
@ sol,
Does it feel hot on the bottom? If yes, probably it’s shutting down because of overheating. Clean up the cooling module and fan and you should be fine.
Check out this post: http://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop/2011/01/11/laptop-runs-hot-turns-off-freezes/
January 18th, 2012 at 12:30 pm
hi i have a Toshiba satellite a70 and as soon as it get near 50% it shuts down and its not overheating at all since i reasently changed the ac dc input box and cleaned the hole motherboard from a to z and it just shuts down no warning or anything at all any clue
January 19th, 2012 at 2:13 pm
@ mike,
Toshiba Satellite A70/A75 laptop has two fans. Both fans should run on laptop start up. Turn on the laptop and look closely at both fan. Do they both start? If not, it’s possible one of the fans failed.
Also, did you apply fresh thermal grease on the CPU during the laptop disassembly?
March 9th, 2012 at 2:41 pm
hi sir I have a Asus EEE netbook, it recently starts shutting by itself. It is very frustrating. How do I remove the dust in a asus eee netbook?
March 12th, 2012 at 11:52 am
@ aaron,
I don’t know your laptop model but here’s an example how to disassemble Asus Eee PC 1015PX netbook.
http://www.insidemylaptop.com/disassemble-asus-eee-pc-1015px-netbook/
You can remove the keyboard as it shown in the step 11 and it will give you some limited access to the cooling fan.
Now blow air into the fan. It should clean up the heat sink.
April 21st, 2012 at 8:57 pm
I have a asus eee pad transformer but it has started shutting down automatically
June 12th, 2012 at 2:57 am
My laptop lately has been shutting down randomly (not blue screens, just full shutdown) I find it both hard to believe that it is overheating and it isnt overheating, ill explain first off I believe it isnt overheating (due to the information I get by monitoring my cores temperatures by using a program called CoreTemp) I was looking at it closely while I had a game running in the backround, the highest the Cores reached was 61C which is no where near how hot it used to be without shutting down, which was 95C.
Now for the part on how I believe it is overheating, although the program CoreTemp says its at around 61c, the laptop feels pretty warm/hot on the top near the keyboard. My laptop model is: Sony Vaio VPCF116FX, I need a guide on how to clean my fan/heatsink. Thanks.
June 28th, 2012 at 3:16 am
hi, i have an hp model laptop,after repairing it because of loss connections to the memory, it work. but after a few hour of testing, my laptop shuts down without any warning. Until now, it doesnt open. Only fan and led are functioning. What can i do sir?Please helpme. Thank you.
July 19th, 2012 at 4:48 am
Hi
I have HP 520 Notebook. . .it’s 5 years old and still works pretty well. . .It’s Intel(R) Core(TM) Dua CPU T2300 @ 1.66GHz 1.67 GHz , 1.00 GB Memory . . . 32-bit operating system. . .When I bought it WIndows Xp was installed but later I installed WIndows 7 first one year it worked really well until recently. . . It’s showing random problems. . .First it kept shutting down and I showed it to some experts they said overheating problem then I came up with a solution by putting it on something when I use to let the fan work properly but recently it’s again showing that problem. . .Before when used to happen I used to take out the battery and unplug charger then press the start button for two minutes and then when i used to turn it on again it used to work properly but now it works bt again after sometimes it shuts down all of a sudden without any warning or anything. . .please tell how can I clean my fan ? or what can I do to solve this problem.
July 19th, 2012 at 10:26 am
@ Aditto,
Yes, it sounds like heat related problem. Probably the hetsink and fan are clogged with dust and it kills normal airflow inside the cooling module.
You can try the following:
1. Blow air into the cooling module until all dust is gone. Take a look at the last picture in this guide: http://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop/2011/01/11/laptop-runs-hot-turns-off-freezes/
2. Disassemble the laptop as it explained in the service manual for HP 520 notebook. Clean the fan.
July 28th, 2012 at 6:57 am
my compaq cq41 (Intel I3 2.13GHZ , 4 gb ram, 64-bit Win7) is still randomly shutdown even after sent for service. do you have any idea? thanks.
July 28th, 2012 at 10:30 am
@ jason,
What did they repair?
Does it run hot before shut down? Does the cooling fan spin at all?
July 28th, 2012 at 12:19 pm
I ask them to look after this problem and it seems to be ok after that (they clean up the heatsink, fan and applying thermal paste on the processor).
and after 3 days, the problem is back.
but when I check the temp with RealTempGT, the processor temp is around 41 – 45 and the bottom of the laptop is warm only at the cooling fan.
And this problem (sudden shutdown) occurs more often after service.
July 29th, 2012 at 9:00 am
@ jason,
Sounds like normal temperature to me. I guess the cooling fan works properly.
Are you using the laptop on a flat service? Is there a gap between the laptop bottom and desk?
If you are using it on a bed, blanket, it’s possible you are blocking the fan air intake on the bottom.
Also. Do you touch the laptop when it shut down?
July 31st, 2012 at 1:30 am
I’m usually operates my laptop on a flat surface, and I’m also using notebook cooler.
my laptop also feels cool when it shut down.
July 31st, 2012 at 9:45 am
@ jason,
I’m afraid this is some kind of motherboard failure.
September 25th, 2012 at 10:42 am
I have a laptop, it’s yonks old, but the fan and heat sink are cleared of any debris. It went through the similar problems as above. I’d start it, it’d run anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour and then shut off. Just before it shut off the mouse cursor would seriously spaz out and go everywhere on the screen before switching off. I’ve read that it could be anything from the battery supply to the power output needing to be resoldered to even a motherboard problem. I don’t really fancy spending a ton load of money on it as it is years old however I would like to save the data off it. I’ve tried taking it in to a specialist whereby they say they’d need to send it off and in that case there is no guarantee that the memory would be saved. So I was thinking…
I’m planning on building my own desktop PC, right now I know nothing about it, but there are books that offer step by step instruction. Is it possible I can salvage parts of my laptop and place them into a desktop version. I’ve taken the laptop apart on several occassions but I’m just not that proficcient with that piece of kit yet, it all looks alien. Would I learn enough from building a desktop in order to solve my laptop problem.
Oh yeah and now… I haven’t used the laptop for over a year, it’s just gathered dust (no not in the fan before you ask) and now there is nothing. I plug it in to the AC with/out the battery attached and there is no charge light, it won’t turn on it’s dead. How can I get the files off it in this state? Sorry to be a pain in the ass haha
September 25th, 2012 at 6:50 pm
@ Sam,
Probably you can use just the hard drive. No special adapter needed if this is a SATA hard drive.
You can use external USB enclosure as I mentioned in this post: http://www.insidemylaptop.com/recover-files-from-broken-laptop/
Also, you can connect your laptop hard drive to the new PC as a secondary drive and access it this way.
October 5th, 2012 at 1:59 pm
my lenovo z570 laptop is shutting down suddenly.. there is no heating problem. it just shut down without any warning .
it is shutting down rapidly . while loading windows also . tell me whats the problem
October 6th, 2012 at 8:01 pm
HEY MY LENNEVO THINK PAD JUST SWITCHED OF WITHOUT AN REASON ! I Dont know what to do!! do ! though i charge it its not switching on!!!! and no charging light is on when i charge it!
plz help me out!
October 6th, 2012 at 8:47 pm
@ samarth,
Check the AC adapter. It’s possible the AC adapter is dead.
October 20th, 2012 at 9:02 am
hi , im using a lenovo g460 laptop…
initially the problem started with the computer overheating and the battery not being able to charge…
so , i recenlty changed the hard disk and fan of the laptop ..cus the over heating i think has damaged the hard disk and the fan had problems..but now..this new problem of auto shut down arises..why ?
Please help me..
is it cus of motherboard?
is it cus of windows?
or somthing else?
or mabye is it the power chord problem?
im worried..cus my laptop has so much info in it still when has not been backed up yet
October 20th, 2012 at 9:05 am
the problem of auto shut down has already been there since the batteries had problems…now im on totally no batteries..i have taken the batteries out..and using solely the power supply …
hence, my problem below
November 19th, 2012 at 3:31 pm
Im having a problem with my laptop, whenever i play games within 5 -10 mins of playing or when i online my screen gets frozen with black screen, and everything is unresponsive. I cant even use ctrl+alt+del options, so i have to hard reset my laptop.
BTW before it gets frozen my screen use to flicker a few times and then it goes…
It doesn’t happen to me before and im using my laptop for more than a year now.
December 18th, 2012 at 3:47 am
Thanx for the post my laptop got shut down without giving any warning. Will try to clean ot upright away. will tell you if the problem is fixed.
January 14th, 2013 at 5:03 am
Sir i need your help, my Toshiba satelite a135 shuts d0wn last night and n0t turning on, i already check the power suply until n0w my laptop w0nt turning 0n,
January 14th, 2013 at 1:51 pm
@ Donnie,
Does it show any light when you plug in the AC adapter? Does it make any noise when you push on the power button?
January 15th, 2013 at 6:18 am
Yes there is a light when i plug the AC adapter, there is no n0ise when i push d p0wer butt0n..
January 15th, 2013 at 6:34 am
Yes there is a light when i plug the AC adapter, there is no n0ise when i push d p0wer butt0n.. & the light indicator for charging the unit w0nt light when i plug the AC adapter only the light indicator for pluging in the adapter.
February 22nd, 2013 at 1:52 pm
I have 2 compaq Armada 110 computers and they both shutdown after only a few minutes this happens even when they are in diagnostic mode. I have calibrated the battery,checked the heatsink and fans in both and I still have this problem. one of them will not even boot to cmos settings without shutting off. any help will be appreciated. Thank you very much. -Phil
April 1st, 2013 at 11:20 pm
thaks to ideya