Reason and sollution for overheating M30

Hello people,

Less then week ago I bought Toshiba Satellite M30-852 (1,330 Euros). Before I decided which model of laptop to buy I did extensive research. When I saw configuration of M30-852 I was delighted - that was the right thing for me. But! In forums on the net I found out that many owners of laptops from M30 series complaine about serious overheating problem - the whole bottom and left beside touchpad, they said, got extremely hot. That scared me a lot but at the end I still went for this machine.

What I found in these few days that I used it is that M30 indeed gets very hot but only if you put it on some soft surface which blocks air circulation on the bottom. In such condition heat doesn't get realeased fast enough and accumulate in the body of the laptop, and a lot of that heat goes up - on the left front side.

I was returning by train after I bought laptop and put bag on knees, opened it and used it. After I got home I found out that skin on my left hand was very very irittated because of that overheating and I tought that in few days I will return machine.

But, at home and work I always put it on solid surface, tables, and I didn't had same problem not even once more.

My solution for the overheating in M30 series:
put it on solid surface and don't block release of heat

Satellite M30-852
Pentium-M (Dothan) 1.5GHz - 512MB DDR - 40GB - 15.4" - NVidia Go 5200 FX 64MB - DVDRW Multi Drive

 

There should be no reason for that system to be overheating. Well, Toshiba's do overheat very quickly and stay that way until the system is shut down. However, try this. (If you haven't already done so) Make sure that in the battery settings that the fan is running on Max Performance Mode. I know it might cut a few extra minutes off the battery time but unlike the Silent Mode setting it does a much better job of cooling the system down. It vastly helped mine![ ]

Windows - The operating system that runs the world.

Toshiba - Quality, price, and features!

 

There are few logical reasons why this machine could overheate. First of all is that it is much thiner that most of laptops in this category. Further, it has video card and wirelles card. Both of them produce significant amount of the heat. Anyway - I found out in forums that many people complained about overheating in M30 series.

What you mentioned is true. Turning fan on its maximum helps a lot. But - that setting (maximum performance) does two things:
1. set processor speed at maximum all the time!
2. set fun turn on much more frequently than on other settings

Other part of your reply was not correct. Such setting takes much more of batteries than "few minutes". If you have processor runing all the time on full speed that takes a lot of power and result is much shorter life of battery.

Because for me longevity of battery is very important I prefer some other preventive sollutions:

1. Hold laptop on solid surface. In this way its process of releasing the heat is functiong normaly (at least in way Toshiba assumed it should).

2. Put some support object under battery so only the back part of laptop get raised a bit from the surface (I don't use anything thicker than 2cm). In this way realease of the heat through the bottom is even better. I assume that this has almost same effect on cooling as turning on "maximum performance" setting and it doesn't eats away the battery. Try this and you may, also, find that it is easier to use keybord in this way.

Satellite M30-852
Pentium-M (Dothan) 1.5GHz - 512MB DDR - 40GB - 15.4" - NVidia Go 5200 FX 64MB - DVDRW Multi Drive

 

:Overheat:

Here are my two cents for overheating notebooks....

I purchased a Toshiba P35 S611 about 4 months ago. Even though this machine is super bulky, i still like it. Its price is by far the lowest i ve seen for a P4 3.3GHz with a 17" display. So i was pretty happy with that machine for a while.
:toshiba:

Well, pretty happy and not VERY happy cause:
1st the keyboard is pretty crappy (cheap quality)
2nd the graphix card sux (shared memory) - but then again, who plays games on a notebook (awaiting flames from alienware users 8o) )
3rd there is no region-free patch for that matsh*ta DVDrw drive

A two weeks ago i decided to expand the memory to 1gb with a kingston value ram module. Everything worked fine right away.
Now, one week ago, the machine started to overheat on heavy CPU usage (e.g. encoding an XviD movie) after about 20minutes (processor usage 90-100% all the time). VERY ANNOYING. So i started reading forums bout that issue and found tons of ppl complaining about their overheating notebooks - doh - made me feel like an idiot since i presumed Toshiba must be good as they are the number one notebook fab since ages.
I decided to call the Toshiba support, hoping that they had a BIOS- or driver-update for badly calibrated cooling systems or so - got a very friendly guy that spared me any stupid questions like: are you sure the vents are not blocked etc. as i clearly described the problem to him right away. After five minutes of talking with him he decided that i should go to the next Toshiba repair center and have the machine checked. Trouble is, i am currently totally depending on the machine and cant do without for even one day. So i decided to take the problem in my own hands....
Since the problem occured after a while (4months) and not right away after the purchase, i figured it might be either the memory expansion or simply dust.
Hoping that it wasnt the memory (Kingston has such a great reputation), i tried my luck with one of those air-cans. Basically a spray can that emits a strong flow of air through some kind of attachable straw. Guess what, when holding that thing into the vents of my notebook (rear side), a big cloud of dust flew out of the fan holes (bottom side). I kept holding the air-can into any accessible hole of the machine and got plenty of dust out of it.
Then, i kept my fingers crossed and ran another movie encoding for 3 hours - guess what, the problem disappeared, no more overheating !!!

--> If your notebook starts overheating later than 3months after the purchase, try to get rid of possible dust inside the vents/fans/cooling channels using an air-can (youll get those in any serious office shop).



Satellite P35-S611
Pentium 4 3.3GHz - 1GB DDR - 100GB slomo HDD - 17" - crappy ATI 9000 UMA - crappy Matsh*ta DVDRW (no region free available )

 

It should be common knowledge to always prop up your laptop, since the cooling fan is at the bottom where it sucks in cool air and blows it out at the left side. If you live in very hot conditions like southern US, you should seriously consider getting a notebook cooler, it helps immensely and lowers temps by as much as 5-8 degrees.

 

True

Well, that might be true for the M30 but it is not a general rule. Usually (NOT allways) the fan/s is/are at the bottom, the vent/s is/are on the left and/or right and/or rear-side.

True - those things also enable you to put even hot notebooks on your lap for the ultimate convenience.

 

When I used to repair Toshiba notebooks in the past, I did come up with this specific problem. The copper "fins" usually get clogged with dust which reduces airflow and therefore the unit heats up. Toshiba uses thin vertical sheets of copper placed side by side that draws the heat away from the CPU. The CPU fan then sucks air from the underside of the unit and blows onto the fins out the side/back to keep things cool. But I believe it has to to with the small gaps between each fin. Dust easily collects on the edges of each fin and quickly blocks airflow out of the unit, and this is where the unit heats up. Over 90% of the P4 based Toshiba's I repaired had clogged vents. With the P4 based notebooks, since they run hot, the fans must always be on, either in a slow or fast spin. Soome even have 2 fans to keep things cool. Because of the constant spinning of the fan, dust tends to build up a lot faster.

Using a can of compressed air to clear out the vents should be a regular step in maintaining your notebook. It doesn't cost a lot and it'll ensure the cool running of your notebook.

-Vb-

 

Also, if you purchase the Vantec notebook cooler... it's only $20/$25 - it definitely helps.

 

There is a similar problem with A75 model. The fans are at the bottom and the air dosent get a path to flow out when operated in a soft surface. When i initially started working i faced this problem but i never knew why it was happening. I t took me some days to realize the problem. Guys dont u think toshiba should be giving this as a precaution to all buyers?. If they do not want to reveal it when it is bought at least it should be part of the users manual that they provide. I am disappointed with toshiba for this reason.

 

I own an A75 2112 and I had the same problem with dust a few days ago. I had to pick up the machine and actually blow into the vents. The dust that flew out of the fan was outrageous! I had to use a vacuum cleaner to dislodge the dust bunnies. I use my laptop primarily in my bedroom and dust builds up on everything. I would wipe the cover down and clean the screen and keyboard, but neglected to do the fans for some stupid reason. It would over heat if I looked at it wrong. Now it runs so quiet that I have to check to see if it's working. :toshiba:

 

I have a Toshiba Satellite A15-S157, and a couple days ago I started getting overheating messages. I took it to the tech guys, and they tell me the sensor in the motherboard is not working. Is there a way to ensure the fan will go on 100% of the time? My laptop does not have all the bells and whistes, but it is a die hard machine. I love my laptop, but if I cannot find a solution, it looks like this laptop will have to be trashed. Does anyone have a viable solution? Thanks!

 

Tried undervolting?