Comments on: Clean a laptop heatsink

By: Will T

Will T — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:44:14 +0000

Thanks so much, this solved my problem after I had spent countless hours trying to fix an overheating A30

By: Aaron

Aaron — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 02:45:33 +0000

I don’t have any thermal paste, canned air or isopropyl alcohol. I know I could troll about town finding them, but I’m just wondering if I can take the heat sink out, remove the bulk of the dust like a clothes dryer filter and put it back in without dealing with the paste etc.
Is that an OK temporary fix? I’m not really confident with hardware :)

By: Mozzman

Mozzman — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 10:59:25 +0000

If you own a Toshiba and your having this problem, theres a very simple solution. Sell it and NEVER buy a Toshiba again. Overheating is a very evry common problem with Toshiba’s for one of 2 reasons. 1. They dont know how to cool thier systems properly or 2 they consume way too much power overheating the CPU. I have run comparison tests with Toshiba’s, Asus and HP laptops and found that the HP and Asus laptops would run at about 30 degrees celcius while the Toshiba ran at around 70. This was sitting idle. If you pushed it, the HP and Asus would reach around 40 degrees while Toshiba could get up to 100 and switch off. Its simple, stay away from Toshiba’s as they have no clue how to build a laptop. I have an A70 and an A200 with the same overheating problem and have many clients with the same issues.

By: Marty

Marty — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 01:06:59 +0000

The CPU is definitely NOT glued to the heatsink.

The thermal paste may be dry and require heating up with a hair dryer and sliding a razor blade between the IHS and the heatsink.

Mine didn’t even need this. Simply prying it off with a credit card did the trick. Cleaned it up, applied Arctic Silver 5 and put it all back together. No problem. No shutdowns.

By: Jay

Jay — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 13:56:35 +0000

Thanks, great guide :)

By: Yaf

Yaf — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:34:06 +0000

Hi,
I had the same problem, my laptop is less than a year old. It would shut down after long periods of simple surfing, however whenever i tried to play a game it would shut down after about 5-10 mins.

I tried opening up the laptop, Satellite A300D but it was a little more intimidating then i thought it would be so i settled with blowing pressured air through the fan outlet and all the other openings and that seems to have done it for me. Now can feel alot more air coming out and its still cool after 30mins.

worth a try before opening it up, but thanks for the info.

By: Phil

Phil — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 05:05:02 +0000

Hey, I have had my lappy shutting off like crazy, and now i know it isnt just a piece of crap, it is overheating wow!

By: » Issues playing games with X1400 on XP

» Issues playing games with X1400 on XP — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:35:29 +0000

[...] Issues playing games with X1400 on XP You could try to clean up the inside of your laptop, here’s an example of how it’s done and what you can expect to find inside (that’s just the CPU, you [...]

By: NorahBatty

NorahBatty — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 19:22:38 +0000

I was delighted when I found this article as my Toshiba A-30 was behaving just like all the others mentioned here. It is almost five years old. I did everything in the article but when I put it together again power came on but nothing else. The HDD light blinked once then went off. Went through process again and found one pin bent flat in the corner. Didn’t have a dental tool like Audsnends but managed to lift it upright with a sewing needle. Only problem is it still has a curve in it. I’m such a neophyte I don’t know if I should attempt to straighten the pin myself. How robust are the pins? Would it withstand using a tweezers to straighten it? Can anyone help please? The CPU seemed to move a bit on the paste but since it went back in o.k. I figured I had lined it up correctly but maybe not. I do hope I can get help on this as I reallly don’t want to have to spend money bringing it to the repair shop.

By: Pula Mathumo

Pula Mathumo — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:24:24 +0000

Can u give me some info on a HP Pavilion dv6700 with AMD Turion PROCESSOR. It has a nVidia GeForce dedicated GPU and i understand its situated near/below/somewhere in the vicinity of the processor fan. What other precaution (if any) considering a laptop GPU. I’m scared of opening it, the warranty expires tomorrow!!!

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 08:15:37 +0000

Great howto, works perfectly. Just did it to my Toshiba Satellite for the first time since I got it 5.5 years ago. I’m pretty sure the performance is improved and it’s definitely running cooler and quieter. I had to make due with a T10 instead of a T9 bit… if you do this, try to have the right tools on hand!

By: mrmac

mrmac — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 23:04:50 +0000

Thankyou SOOOOO much for the pics & info; laptop is now running like new AND I’ve got a new stick on goatee made of fluff.

You rock :o)