Laptop Adapter Expanding/Melting

Hello everyone!
I was wondering if anyone could help with this problem we have.

Not sure if this really has anything to do with what happened but, this laptop (Toshiba Satellite P100) always gets extremely hot to the point you cant keep it on your lap for even a second. It was too hot that I knew it couldnt be normal. Not only does the laptop get hot but so does the adapter which was bought online. It has always gotten too hot to touch. We have had both for about a couple months.

Last night I had the adapter under a pillow (we usually have it somewhere it cant burn us like between seat cushions, and it has been fine), fell asleep and when I woke up we found the adapter all warped and the sides are splitting open.

Anyone know if this is the laptop? Or the adapter? Or both? And what can be done to stop this from happening in the future?...

Thank you in advance for any and all help!

 

There's something wrong with the laptop if it is too hot to keep in your lap for even a short time. Is everywhere hot or is it a specific part? I wonder whether a fault means it is drawing too much power (which gets converted into heat). The power board is usually near the power socket.

The PSU is probably getting very hot because it is having to supply more than the design amount of power. They can get hot, but should not be too hot to hold. However, PSUs should be somewhere where the heat can radiate / convect. Putting it under a pillow will make the overheating worse.

One way to diagnose the problem is to check the power the PSU is drawing from the mains socket. However, it is time to call support and complain about the heat. I'm surprised that the PSU is still working.

John

 

John, has it right, if that is the case. You may as well have a short somewhere. Power bricks are made of a very rigid thermoplastic, and for it to melt, you would need a faulty transformer or a short inside their. The way to know for sure, is to leave the ac power adaptor plugged into the wall, but not plugged into the laptop. If the power brick gets hot, with no laptop connected, than the power brick is causing the problem. If the power brick does not get warm than their is a short somewhere in your laptop.
The P100 series is maybe 1.5-2yrs old, so if you have warranty, now is the time to use it. Excessive temperatures and exploding power bricks is not a very good sign. Just dont leave the laptop plugged in if you know you are leaving the room for more than a few minutes. You do not want it catching your house on fire. This can happen if their is an electrical short.

K-TRON

 

Hello,
thank you both for your replies!

John - The laptop only gets hot on the left, (left while facing it/in use) bottom and side (where the fan is located!). It gets hot like this when its plugged in any room, but have only tried 2 or 3 rooms. It's still doing its job but like in the past, I can smell the plastic.

K-Tron - I notice that when still plugged into the wall but not the laptop, the PSU cools down and then isnt hot at all.

To find out if the laptop has a short, should it be taken into a computer store?

Thanks again!

 

Thanks for the extra info.

If the PSU is cool when not plugged into the computer then there's no basic fault with the PSU. Does it stay cool when plugged into the computer but the computer is off?

Also, what is the power rating of both the computer and the PSU? There should be a label on the bottom of each with numbers such as 19V, 3.94A. Normally the rating on each will be the same, but the current (A) rating of the PSU can be higher than rating on the computer. It should not be less. If the computer is trying to draw more power than the PSU can deliver then the PSU will get hot since it is always running at the full rating, or more.

The next aspect is to look at is the computer itself. For example, is the CPU always running at full speed, even when on idle. The process page of Task Manager will show the CPU utilisation. The monitoring page of RMClock will provide a graph of the CPU speed and voltage and probably also the temperature.

If you have been using the computer on soft surfaces for some time then it is likely that fluff has been sucked in and is partially blocking the cooling system. This would help explain why the computer gets hot, but not why the PSU gets hot. If the idle CPU temperatures are higher than 70C then it is time to clean the cooling system.

John

 

it could be one of two things at this point,

1) as john mentioned your cpu may be running at full load from some background processes which may be running, causing it to overheat.

2)you could still have a short, but it could be from the battery.
I remember on my Mitac M8355, when I plug in the power adaptor, the battery would continually charge past 100%, causing the battery to overheat, and cause thermal issues. The system would get really hot just plugged in without the system on. You could have a similar problem, but I am leaning towards what John said about the cpu more

Simply go to the run command and type in MSCONFIG, than shut off backgound processes, services and applications which you are not using, and that should free up cpu, memory and harddrive cycles, lowering system resource usage, and thus making your system run cooler

K-TRON

 

We can also try running the computer connected to the PSU but without the battery. If the PSU doesn't get so hot then it suggests a battery problem.

John

 

I have to double check if the PSU remains cool when plugged into the laptop while it is turned off, but it may be the case.

Computer - DC 15V, 8A
PSU Output - 15V, 8A

I am charging my laptop now and suddenly now I am hearizg a buzzing sound, which stops when unplugged from the wall or the laptop.

And another new problem that I do not know if its related, my mouse pointer will barely move, even after restart (took forever to open this thread and post - used notepad to type this up)

I constantly check CPU Usage by habit and it never seems to be high. Right now since I have restarted, it is moving from 0%-9%.

Although usually I have many firefox tabs open, which results in a usage of over 200,000k. But this heat problem was noticed soon after first using the laptop.

I've already altered msconfig but tried again and found 3 more to shut off. There are many I dont like to touch b/cz I dont know what they are.

I will have to try the battery suggestion.

Thank you both for so much insight and all your help!

If you see this, then I have found a way to get this to post without a working mouse, haha

 

15V x 8A = 120W. It almost needs its own air-conditioning system. What CPU / GPU have you got in there? It's evidently designed to be a power-hungry system.

I'm wondering if we should also be looking at the CPU / GPU power management and see if it is possible to reduce the power consumption without affecting performance. Undervolting the CPU using RMClock or similar could help a little but I wonder if its the GPU which is using the power.

John

 

John I looked up and yea 120w. Some have 7900GTX. Could OP give us more specs or more detailed model #. This looks like a beast not meant for the bed.

 

yeah, but even with high powered hardware, his power adaptor should not have split open. Their must be a short somewhere in the charging circuit of power circuit somewhere for current to surge back to the power supply.
Could you please post a picture of the power adaptor. If it opened cause of heat, that is definitely bad, but if it opened cause you dropped it, than electrical shorts may not have caused it.
Either way, you will have to buy a new power brick, cause using one which overheats and one which is split open, is asking for trouble.

K-TRON

 

Same opinion even with the acknowledged prevention of ability to dissipate heat, ie: smothered with pillow?

 

The mouse issue IS related, we cant move the mouse while the laptop is charging! But its fine once unplugged. So I gotta write fast!... *grr*

When charging the laptop while its turned off, the laptop cooled down and so did the PSU.

I dont know what the details of the GPU are and what specs are needed?

The PSU still buzzes while in use. It may be b/cz its getting worse(?).

 

I did take a picture but would like to take a lighter one and need to upload it.
The PSU split open from heat, basically expanding more and more that the sides split apart and its now a totally warped brick...

 

As KT said PSU is on it's way out. John said an adapter having a higher voltage PSU is fine. I agree he might be correct. On mine I noticed my voltage is the same but Amps are less. Same idea PSU puts out more than notebook needs. Yours is matched. If you can give a more complete model # I can look up things and see if any red flags pop up.

 

First, if you have XP then you can use the Image Resizer Powertoy (one of the most useful bits of software to come out of Microsoft) to shrink any photos. However, they realised the error of their ways so you have to go here for the Vista equivalent.

Second, inadequate cooling must be a factor in the PSU splitting. If this gets as far as a warrant claim then don't mention it was under a pillow!

Third, the PSU buzzing may be because the components are no longer held in place as tightly as designed. Some parts have high frequency power and will tend to vibrate unless restrained.

However, we have still not figured out where all the power is going and why the mouse isn't happy when the computer runs on the mains. Something somewhere is sucking a lot of power when running on the mains but not when running on the battery. This may be at the hardware level or could be some problem software process (we already know the CPU utilisation is reasonable, but the GPU may be sucking power on mains but throttles back when on battery). Is there a GPU power / performance control panel?

One test I would also try is to boot off a Linux Live CD and see what happens. If the computer works better and runs less hot on Linux then this points to the software, somewhere, as being the cause of the power consumption.

John

 

well I took the pic with my cell so it wasnt very good.
The mouse either stays in one spot or goes bizurk and acts like you asked it to open a million things, only while plugged into the PSU.

powerpack - thank you for your response, Im not sure if you want the model # for the PSU or laptop,

PSU - "Replacement AC Adapter, PA3237U-1ACA"
Laptop - Satellite P100, PSPA6C-SD802E

 

Update: I have the PSU plugged into the laptop with the battery removed. Although this hot, the laptop and PSU are not as hot as they usually get. I can hold the PSU in my hand for awhile and I can put te laptop on my lap for over 5 seconds. Ive had it this way for at least an hour. Also, my mouse is fine this way!

Also, could someone tell me if this matters? This is the info for the laptop's battery: Model # PA3480U-1BAS, DC 10.8V, 6000mAh

Thank you!

 

Update #2 (Sorry): An hour and a half in and they are both again getting very hot. I dont think its an issue with the battery. And maybe the mouse is acting up b/cz the PSU is no longer in the proper working state, so the mouse reacts when the PSU actually charges the battery. Pic(s) soon....

 

Here is the hardware spec for the computer. The combination of the T2500 CPU and the 7900GS GPU are likely to use significant power when under load but should no be too hot under light usage.

The effect that the battery charging has on mouse behaviour is interesting.

It will be interesting to look at the battery charge behaviour. Can you get and run MobileMeter which will draw a graph of battery charge and discharge? (Or, if you are using Vista, use the battery info tab of RMClock). What is the discharge rate of the battery when the computer is not plugged in to the mains and what is the charge rate when it is plugged in? You can also right click on the MobileMeter window and see the battery properties. Does it charge to full?

It would also be interesting if you could get hold of your local equivalent of this mains power meter. This will reveal how many watts is going into the adaptor.

John