Is this Toshiba running too hot? Repaste CPU?

gregrocker · 08 Apr 2015

I'm visiting a friend who has an old Toshiba laptop he uses in his room on his bed. I'm surprised it has lasted this long as it gets thrown around a lot and I think the air vent gets blocked too much on the bed.

He said it's been shutting down so I checked it out and it seems that Core Temp was sending it into Hibernation after I enabled Overheat Protection in November on it, trusting the CoreTemp designated TJMax at 185F, which for some reason it triggers an overheat around 177F and goes to Hibernation. He says it does this too much to use it.

So I researched the CPU (Speccy attached) and found it's max is 100C, reset Core Temp to that for Overheat shutdown and it has been running OK but at about 60-80C with a hot keyboard in the torture tests I've done for 2 two hour sessions today.

I blew out the tiny air port underneath which vents a working fan to the side. I don't really want to disassemble it to repaste CPU unless it's too seriously overheating to ignore. But I don't trust Core Temp now, and don't see anything in BIOS about any overheat protections there. Is it known that Intel Core Duo shuts itself down if it overheats before it burns up?

Times like this I really miss Gary who I could call about these hardware issues. What would you suggest? Thanks!

paul1149 · 09 Apr 2015

Hi Greg,

79C is getting up there, depending on what work is being done. The first step is to blow out the fins, which you have done. But I have gotten in trouble doing that when cats are involved. Their short hair often balls up and impedes or outright stops the fan, which is disaster.

If that's not a problem, the next question is whether the fan is blowing air at a temperature commensurate with that of the CPU/GPU. This is an intuitive thing. If the exhaust is about the right temp, that means that the thermal paste is doing its job. If it's not hot enough, a repaste is called for. If there's any doubt, a repaste with quality paste should be good for a few degrees relief at the least.

If you do break it down to repaste, oiling the fan can reap great results.

BW,
Paul

gregrocker · 09 Apr 2015

Thanks Paul for some good info. Yes the fan is blowing the hottest air in the area, so can we assume it is working correctly? I saw the fins spin while blowing it out (was concerned about them overdriving) and they seemed clean and uninpeded. THere is no visible dust in the small 2" round bottom intake port or the 3" long side exhaust port.

Do you happen to know if these CPU's will shut down before burning up? If not I will probably rely on Core Temp Overheat Protection set it's default 90c to trigger Sleep unless there is a better idea. But I believe that is the same 185F that was shutting it down on him too much, and at lower temp.

He uses it for watching videos, email, web searches. I'm stressing it now for two hour stretches listening to music, playing a video, doing forums work, shopping for plane tickets.

I'm typing on it now with Core Temp showing low 60's and the keyboard is less hot than many other overheating laptops I've dealt with. I have repasted laptop processors including one which was about 100 parts to disassemble but consider it so risky that I don't really want to do it except for practice on a rig which is being thrown out otherwise. But one HP in Boston is still running five years after I repasted it, although two of mine at home never started back up. So I'm wary.

Just now:

Is this Toshiba running too hot? Repaste CPU?-capture.png

Is this Toshiba running too hot? Repaste CPU?-capture2.png

On second though I'll use Hibernate so work is saved but if he leaves it sitting for a month it won't wear the RAM the whole time.

ICIT2LOL · 09 Apr 2015

Greg having worked on a few Toshys one needs the PART NO: before disturbing the machine. It is on the underside of the machine and relates to where it was built and for where plus any new parts needed required that number to be quoted.

My L550 Satellite for example is PART NO: PSLWSA-01000Q and it was made for out here.

Renewing the thermal compound is easy enough but there are certain things about taking them apart that requires some care especially the ribbon cables.

The site you or he needs to read from is this one Disassemble, repair, upgrade Toshiba laptop yourself. - read very carefully the tips for newbies to see what I mean about those cables etc.
Plus a little ditty of mine
TAKING LAPTOPS APART
I always spread out a large white bath towel on the work top and using cloth or ordinary duct tape to keep it stretched out and fixed down to the work top. This is because when removing the sometimes very small screws it stops the screw from being dropped onto a hard surface where it almost always will bounce and even land on the floor never to be seen again. Of course if that happens you can scour the floor with a strong magnet in the case of steel screws the brass ones (there are some that have brass screws in certain spots) unless brightly coloured you will not find especially in carpeted floors. Also take care to keep the different sized screws in separate and preferably labeled containers - plastid with a magnet stuck underneath is good.
I prefer to use a battery driven slow speed screwdriver as in pic and leave the screwdriver bits stuck onto a strong magnet or stroke then longitudinally to magnetise them it make retainingthe steel screws so much easier especially when replacing them. (If you drop on into the machine you will need to completely disassemble it again to remove it)
It is also advisable to keep the screws in separate containers as they will be of different sizes and locations.

PS
CLEANING A LAPTOP FAN & COOLER RAD
The thing you do is to turn over the laptop and shine a very bright light into the air intake aperture (you will see the fan there) and then while doing that look at the outlet vent on the end of the laptop you should see the light quite clearly shining through the cooling " radiator" if not it is clogged and will need cleaning as will probably the fan opening.
You can do this by blowing it out using a compressed air can in short bursts.
BUT ONE WORD OF WARNING DO NOT blow the air into the fan opening without inserting say a plastic rod or large cable tie to stop the fan from spinning as the air blast will spin the fan at a very high speed that it is not designed to take and may wreck the bearing!!
To clean the "rad" I use those pipe cleaners to GENTLY loosen the crud and then blow it outof course disassembly makes life so much easier

rvcjew · 09 Apr 2015

If its 70c at load on a T5800 that seems fine to me since its idling at 54c you might want to repaste. Just take your time with the dis-assembly and use a guide like Icit2lol suggested. Take pictures when you start to take apart the inside and label your screws.

paul1149 · 09 Apr 2015

Yeah, overdriving when blowing out is a problem. I try to pin the fan with a needle, or just take it easy with the air.

I think the CPU will shut down. I think that's a bios function, but not sure. But more often than not it's the graphics chip that's the problem on laptops. I usually use SIW, which monitors both. Not sure if Speccy does.

essenbe · 09 Apr 2015

Greg, I would repaste it if it is getting within 20° of shutdown temps. To me, that's entirely too hot. At the same time I can understand your reluctance to do it. But, to me, within 20° of shutdown is entirely too hot.

gregrocker · 09 Apr 2015

Thanks John. Why do they make you remove everything before you can access the heat sink? Toshiba Satellite L355 L355D L350 L350D disassembly

How about a powerful shop vac? Even then all I see with a bright light in the intake port on bottom is a whistle-clean fan, assembly and vents in and out.

I understand Steve and agree. He is telling me we can wait for my next visit since I've used it for two long 2-hour stretches today without problem. But is it cooler in Palm Springs today with a window open I am sure is affecting it by at least 10c given the role ambient room temps play in this.

The highest it's gotten is when I tried to install SIW and it nearly locked up everything while I watched temps climb to 85c.

I still really don't want to do this. I'm going to let the owner decide after reading this thread. He has three laptops including a brand new one, a 3 year old Dell I'm about to replace the keyboard and battery, and this 7 year old beater.

ignatzatsonic · 09 Apr 2015

ARK | Intel® Coreâ

Above link at Intel says TJmax on a T5800 is 85 C. Not 100. Or am I misunderstanding?

85 C is 185 F.

gregrocker · 09 Apr 2015

Yikes!

Thanks for the correction. I only plucked the temp I saw first in the Google Search results for the CPU.