Toshiba Satellite P15-S470 notebook/laptop overheating?

Hello,

My father's 3-4 years old Toshiba Satellite P15-S470 notebook/laptop
appears to be having overheating because it turns off by itself. It can
happen at any time: in Windows XP Media Center 2004 (SP2 and all
updates), at the BIOS' password prompt idling, during Windows' boot up,
etc. Also, I can feel the left side vent fan blowing hot air hard, the
battery area being hot, and the ejected CD/DVD hot. Note that hot does
not mean too hot to touch with my hands/fingers. I used a flashlight to
look through the dark vent, and it looked clean (not so dusty or clogged
up). I removed some small items to make more air room for the vents, and
that seems to help after a few minutes.

Is there a program/software to check the laptop/notebook temperature
sensor(s)? I checked the CMOS area, but didn't see one like desktop
machines do. Toshiba's Web site doesn't seem to have one either.

Are there any ways to fix this (out of warranty)? I assume the fan(s)
still work(s) because I can hear it spinning loudly (quieter if it is
cooler). I am worried that this will get worse when the weather warms up
(Los Angeles weather) especially this weekend when temperatures reach
near 100 degrees(F). It's only in the low 70s in the downstair kitchen
on a glass table. The laptop started doing this a few weeks ago, but
seems to be getting worse when the weather is getting warmer. Also, the
laptop/notebook is usually [powered on up through its AC adapter.
Battery usage is rare (will try removing the battery if the problem
happens again to see if it causes the problem).

Thank you in advance.
--
"Trivial hurts, tiny human accidents," said Firenze, as his hooves
thudded over the mossy floor. "These are of no more significance than
the scurryings of ants to the wide universe, and are unaffected by
planetary movements." --Harry Potter book
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Remove ANT from e-mail address: NT
( ) or
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.

"Ant" <> wrote in message
news:45f10004$0$16707$...
> Hello,
>
> My father's 3-4 years old Toshiba Satellite P15-S470 notebook/laptop
> appears to be having overheating because it turns off by itself. It can
> happen at any time: in Windows XP Media Center 2004 (SP2 and all updates),
> at the BIOS' password prompt idling, during Windows' boot up, etc. Also, I
> can feel the left side vent fan blowing hot air hard, the battery area
> being hot, and the ejected CD/DVD hot. Note that hot does not mean too hot
> to touch with my hands/fingers. I used a flashlight to look through the
> dark vent, and it looked clean (not so dusty or clogged up). I removed
> some small items to make more air room for the vents, and that seems to
> help after a few minutes.
>
> Is there a program/software to check the laptop/notebook temperature
> sensor(s)? I checked the CMOS area, but didn't see one like desktop
> machines do. Toshiba's Web site doesn't seem to have one either.
>
> Are there any ways to fix this (out of warranty)? I assume the fan(s)
> still work(s) because I can hear it spinning loudly (quieter if it is
> cooler). I am worried that this will get worse when the weather warms up
> (Los Angeles weather) especially this weekend when temperatures reach near
> 100 degrees(F). It's only in the low 70s in the downstair kitchen on a
> glass table. The laptop started doing this a few weeks ago, but seems to
> be getting worse when the weather is getting warmer. Also, the
> laptop/notebook is usually [powered on up through its AC adapter. Battery
> usage is rare (will try removing the battery if the problem happens again
> to see if it causes the problem).
>

Google for a utility called SpeedFan. Besides checking your fan speeds it
will also read the temperature sensors in the CPU, disk drives and so on.
It will also minimise to provide a temperature display in the system tray.
It is free.

On 3/8/2007 11:50 PM PT, M.I.5¾ wrote:

>> My father's 3-4 years old Toshiba Satellite P15-S470 notebook/laptop
>> appears to be having overheating because it turns off by itself. It can
>> happen at any time: in Windows XP Media Center 2004 (SP2 and all updates),
>> at the BIOS' password prompt idling, during Windows' boot up, etc. Also, I
>> can feel the left side vent fan blowing hot air hard, the battery area
>> being hot, and the ejected CD/DVD hot. Note that hot does not mean too hot
>> to touch with my hands/fingers. I used a flashlight to look through the
>> dark vent, and it looked clean (not so dusty or clogged up). I removed
>> some small items to make more air room for the vents, and that seems to
>> help after a few minutes.
>>
>> Is there a program/software to check the laptop/notebook temperature
>> sensor(s)? I checked the CMOS area, but didn't see one like desktop
>> machines do. Toshiba's Web site doesn't seem to have one either.
>>
>> Are there any ways to fix this (out of warranty)? I assume the fan(s)
>> still work(s) because I can hear it spinning loudly (quieter if it is
>> cooler). I am worried that this will get worse when the weather warms up
>> (Los Angeles weather) especially this weekend when temperatures reach near
>> 100 degrees(F). It's only in the low 70s in the downstair kitchen on a
>> glass table. The laptop started doing this a few weeks ago, but seems to
>> be getting worse when the weather is getting warmer. Also, the
>> laptop/notebook is usually [powered on up through its AC adapter. Battery
>> usage is rare (will try removing the battery if the problem happens again
>> to see if it causes the problem).
>>
>
> Google for a utility called SpeedFan. Besides checking your fan speeds it
> will also read the temperature sensors in the CPU, disk drives and so on.
> It will also minimise to provide a temperature display in the system tray.
> It is free.

Thanks. I hope it is compatible with this notebook. I wonder why there
weren't any sensors in CMOS.
--
"You feel the faint grit of ants beneath your shoes, but keep on walking
because in this world you have to decide what you're willing to kill."
--Tony Hoagland from "Candlelight"
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Remove ANT from e-mail address: NT
( ) or
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.

It is common for the cooling systems of laptops to become clogged with
dust. They need to be cleaned periodically, by "blowing them out" with
compressed air (canned compressed air works well). Sometimes this can
be done entirely from the outside, but the best "clean out jobs" will
require at least some degree of disassembly, and in some cases
substantial disassembly is required. You can start by doing what you
can from the outside and see if it's enough to resolve your issues.

Ant wrote:
> Hello,
>
> My father's 3-4 years old Toshiba Satellite P15-S470 notebook/laptop
> appears to be having overheating because it turns off by itself. It can
> happen at any time: in Windows XP Media Center 2004 (SP2 and all
> updates), at the BIOS' password prompt idling, during Windows' boot up,
> etc. Also, I can feel the left side vent fan blowing hot air hard, the
> battery area being hot, and the ejected CD/DVD hot. Note that hot does
> not mean too hot to touch with my hands/fingers. I used a flashlight to
> look through the dark vent, and it looked clean (not so dusty or clogged
> up). I removed some small items to make more air room for the vents, and
> that seems to help after a few minutes.
>
> Is there a program/software to check the laptop/notebook temperature
> sensor(s)? I checked the CMOS area, but didn't see one like desktop
> machines do. Toshiba's Web site doesn't seem to have one either.
>
> Are there any ways to fix this (out of warranty)? I assume the fan(s)
> still work(s) because I can hear it spinning loudly (quieter if it is
> cooler). I am worried that this will get worse when the weather warms up
> (Los Angeles weather) especially this weekend when temperatures reach
> near 100 degrees(F). It's only in the low 70s in the downstair kitchen
> on a glass table. The laptop started doing this a few weeks ago, but
> seems to be getting worse when the weather is getting warmer. Also, the
> laptop/notebook is usually [powered on up through its AC adapter.
> Battery usage is rare (will try removing the battery if the problem
> happens again to see if it causes the problem).
>
> Thank you in advance.

Yeah, the disassembly part is the scary part. I will do that if it gets
bad especially when the weather is going to be near 100F degrees outside
in a couple days.


In comp.laptops Barry Watzman <> wrote:
> It is common for the cooling systems of laptops to become clogged with
> dust. They need to be cleaned periodically, by "blowing them out" with
> compressed air (canned compressed air works well). Sometimes this can
> be done entirely from the outside, but the best "clean out jobs" will
> require at least some degree of disassembly, and in some cases
> substantial disassembly is required. You can start by doing what you
> can from the outside and see if it's enough to resolve your issues.

> Ant wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > My father's 3-4 years old Toshiba Satellite P15-S470 notebook/laptop
> > appears to be having overheating because it turns off by itself. It can
> > happen at any time: in Windows XP Media Center 2004 (SP2 and all
> > updates), at the BIOS' password prompt idling, during Windows' boot up,
> > etc. Also, I can feel the left side vent fan blowing hot air hard, the
> > battery area being hot, and the ejected CD/DVD hot. Note that hot does
> > not mean too hot to touch with my hands/fingers. I used a flashlight to
> > look through the dark vent, and it looked clean (not so dusty or clogged
> > up). I removed some small items to make more air room for the vents, and
> > that seems to help after a few minutes.
> >
> > Is there a program/software to check the laptop/notebook temperature
> > sensor(s)? I checked the CMOS area, but didn't see one like desktop
> > machines do. Toshiba's Web site doesn't seem to have one either.
> >
> > Are there any ways to fix this (out of warranty)? I assume the fan(s)
> > still work(s) because I can hear it spinning loudly (quieter if it is
> > cooler). I am worried that this will get worse when the weather warms up
> > (Los Angeles weather) especially this weekend when temperatures reach
> > near 100 degrees(F). It's only in the low 70s in the downstair kitchen
> > on a glass table. The laptop started doing this a few weeks ago, but
> > seems to be getting worse when the weather is getting warmer. Also, the
> > laptop/notebook is usually [powered on up through its AC adapter.
> > Battery usage is rare (will try removing the battery if the problem
> > happens again to see if it causes the problem).
> >
> > Thank you in advance.

--
"... Our world is not an ant farm!" --Duncan MacLeod (Highlander Season 3 Finale Part II)
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Please remove ANT if replying by e-mail.
( )

Check out this image of laptop internal dust accumulation. The source
website has detailed & useful info on laptop dissassembly.
http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptop...ite-A15-06.jpg

ArtFD <> wrote:
> Check out this image of laptop internal dust accumulation. The source
> website has detailed & useful info on laptop dissassembly.
> http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptop...ite-A15-06.jpg

Wow, that's a yucky photograph. What's the URL to the disassembly of
this specific notebook/laptop model?

So far, no new shutdowns after rearranging stuff on the glass
table/desk.
--
"When I was five years old, I saw an insect that had been eaten by ants and of which nothing remained except the shell. Through the holes in its anatomy one could see the sky. Every time I wish to attain purity I look at the sky through flesh." --Salvadore Dali
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Please remove ANT if replying by e-mail.
( )

> > My father's 3-4 years old Toshiba Satellite P15-S470 notebook/laptop
> > appears to be having overheating because it turns off by itself. It can
> > happen at any time: in Windows XP Media Center 2004 (SP2 and all updates),
> > at the BIOS' password prompt idling, during Windows' boot up, etc. Also, I
> > can feel the left side vent fan blowing hot air hard, the battery area
> > being hot, and the ejected CD/DVD hot. Note that hot does not mean too hot
> > to touch with my hands/fingers. I used a flashlight to look through the
> > dark vent, and it looked clean (not so dusty or clogged up). I removed
> > some small items to make more air room for the vents, and that seems to
> > help after a few minutes.
> >
> > Is there a program/software to check the laptop/notebook temperature
> > sensor(s)? I checked the CMOS area, but didn't see one like desktop
> > machines do. Toshiba's Web site doesn't seem to have one either.
> >
> > Are there any ways to fix this (out of warranty)? I assume the fan(s)
> > still work(s) because I can hear it spinning loudly (quieter if it is
> > cooler). I am worried that this will get worse when the weather warms up
> > (Los Angeles weather) especially this weekend when temperatures reach near
> > 100 degrees(F). It's only in the low 70s in the downstair kitchen on a
> > glass table. The laptop started doing this a few weeks ago, but seems to
> > be getting worse when the weather is getting warmer. Also, the
> > laptop/notebook is usually [powered on up through its AC adapter. Battery
> > usage is rare (will try removing the battery if the problem happens again
> > to see if it causes the problem).

> Google for a utility called SpeedFan. Besides checking your fan speeds it
> will also read the temperature sensors in the CPU, disk drives and so on.
> It will also minimise to provide a temperature display in the system tray.
> It is free.

Bad news. SpeedFan only found the Maxtor HDD temperature. I also tried
siw.exe (System Info. for Windows) and it reported no temperatures
including HDD.
--
"When I was five years old, I saw an insect that had been eaten by ants and of which nothing remained except the shell. Through the holes in its anatomy one could see the sky. Every time I wish to attain purity I look at the sky through flesh." --Salvadore Dali
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Please remove ANT if replying by e-mail.
( )

Hello

I hope you don't mind my breaking into your thread, but I'm having very
similar problems with my Acer Aspire 1350 (about 3 years old, so out of
warranty as well). It also just shuts down, especially when doing heavy work
(it starts blowing at max fan speed first and then shuts down) or when it's
hot outside. The curious thing is that this only happens when the AC power
is plugged. When running on battery, I can make it do whatever I want, but
as soon as I plug in the power chord, the problem occurs. The symptoms get
better and worse over time: lately it's so bad that it even blows at
full-speed when Windows just sits there doing nothing (no problem on idle
Linux though), but now I can sometimes even play a game for a while before
it shuts down (incidentally, outside temperature dropped like 10 degrees C
lately).

Cleaning out the fan openings with canned air will sometimes temporarily
help, as seems to do elevating the laptop (though other times it makes no
difference at all). The laptop also gets hot, especially at the bottom, but
I understand this is "normal" behaviour for an Acer. I'm not sure I can
reach all potentially clogged up places though.

Now it is true that the power chords seems a bit twisted (right where the
low-voltage chord comes out of the adapter it looks like it got twisted,
stuck between the door or folded over, probably most people who own a laptop
will regognize this problem), could this have anything to do with my
problem? I don't mind changing the adapter, but it costs around 200 euro, so
if it doesn't solve the problem I'd rather use it in a better way (send the
thing to the repair shop or buy a new laptop, for instance).

I don't really feel like opening up the laptop, since there are a lot of
very tight screws which seem to hold the entire bottom cover in place, and
I'm not all too happy about taking off the entire cover; especially since
I've never opened up a laptop before and I'm a bit scared with what can go
wrong

Any advise is very much appreciated

Kind regards

Michael

PS If you want me to start a new thread, just tell me.

"Ant" <> schreef in bericht
news:45f10004$0$16707$...
> Hello,
>
> My father's 3-4 years old Toshiba Satellite P15-S470 notebook/laptop
> appears to be having overheating because it turns off by itself. It can
> happen at any time: in Windows XP Media Center 2004 (SP2 and all updates),
> at the BIOS' password prompt idling, during Windows' boot up, etc. Also, I
> can feel the left side vent fan blowing hot air hard, the battery area
> being hot, and the ejected CD/DVD hot. Note that hot does not mean too hot
> to touch with my hands/fingers. I used a flashlight to look through the
> dark vent, and it looked clean (not so dusty or clogged up). I removed
> some small items to make more air room for the vents, and that seems to
> help after a few minutes.
>
> Is there a program/software to check the laptop/notebook temperature
> sensor(s)? I checked the CMOS area, but didn't see one like desktop
> machines do. Toshiba's Web site doesn't seem to have one either.
>
> Are there any ways to fix this (out of warranty)? I assume the fan(s)
> still work(s) because I can hear it spinning loudly (quieter if it is
> cooler). I am worried that this will get worse when the weather warms up
> (Los Angeles weather) especially this weekend when temperatures reach near
> 100 degrees(F). It's only in the low 70s in the downstair kitchen on a
> glass table. The laptop started doing this a few weeks ago, but seems to
> be getting worse when the weather is getting warmer. Also, the
> laptop/notebook is usually [powered on up through its AC adapter. Battery
> usage is rare (will try removing the battery if the problem happens again
> to see if it causes the problem).
>
> Thank you in advance.
> --
> "Trivial hurts, tiny human accidents," said Firenze, as his hooves thudded
> over the mossy floor. "These are of no more significance than the
> scurryings of ants to the wide universe, and are unaffected by planetary
> movements." --Harry Potter book
> /\___/\
> / /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
> | |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
> \ _ / Remove ANT from e-mail address: NT
> ( ) or
> Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.

On Fri, 20 Apr 2007 12:27:19 +0200, "Michael" <> wrote:

>Hello
>
>I hope you don't mind my breaking into your thread, but I'm having very
>similar problems with my Acer Aspire 1350 (about 3 years old, so out of
>warranty as well). It also just shuts down, especially when doing heavy work
>(it starts blowing at max fan speed first and then shuts down) or when it's
>hot outside. The curious thing is that this only happens when the AC power
>is plugged. When running on battery, I can make it do whatever I want, but
>as soon as I plug in the power chord, the problem occurs. The symptoms get
>better and worse over time: lately it's so bad that it even blows at
>full-speed when Windows just sits there doing nothing (no problem on idle
>Linux though), but now I can sometimes even play a game for a while before
>it shuts down (incidentally, outside temperature dropped like 10 degrees C
>lately).
>
>Cleaning out the fan openings with canned air will sometimes temporarily
>help, as seems to do elevating the laptop (though other times it makes no
>difference at all). The laptop also gets hot, especially at the bottom, but
>I understand this is "normal" behaviour for an Acer. I'm not sure I can
>reach all potentially clogged up places though.
>
>Now it is true that the power chords seems a bit twisted (right where the
>low-voltage chord comes out of the adapter it looks like it got twisted,
>stuck between the door or folded over, probably most people who own a laptop
>will regognize this problem), could this have anything to do with my
>problem?

No. Your problem is the heatsink is clogged and probably disassembly
is your only answer. The reason it happens on ac is because the
machine runs slower on batteries to save power. Either find somebody
to disassemble and clean hte heatsink or replace the unit.