Why is my Toshiba laptop so hot?
What can I do to remedy this? Would wiping the drive and reinstalling Vista solve anything? Would you recommend going back to the store with it? I bought the 3 year warranty.
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M$6 Answers
That said, you can download a program called Speedfan that will tell you how your fans are doing and what temp your compy is at. http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
It can serve as a great troubleshooting tool.
I think there's probably an issue with the fan not being controlled properly or something mechanically wrong with it. There's also the possibility of something being lodged in the fan preventing it from spinning properly. A blast of compressed air can help this issue. But be careful with the compressed air as it can possibly damage components and void your warranty. So be sure and check your warranty status first.
To answer the question of how hot is normal. It should never burn you or be so hot that it has to turn itself off. Warm to slightly hot is normal. It shouldn't be burning your lap.
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M$Your problem sounds as though it is related to the power supply in the laptop. This is one of the components (along with graphics card and CPU) that heat up in a laptop. It may also be that if the laptop has a fan to help dissipate heat that the fan isn't doing it's job right.
I seriously doubt that your problem lies with software but it never hurts to check. Open your task manager when the laptop is really hot and see if the CPU is running at a 100%. The other test would be to let the laptop sit idle (no programs running other than Windows) and see if it gets hot.
Regardless of that, you shouldn't have to deal with that heat. Take it back to the store and have them check it out.
Personal experience with many laptops and computers.
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M$
It's hot all the time. Left idle all night it will still be burning when I wake up.
Thinking further, why do you think it's a power supply issue? It could just be a fan issue made obvious by the fact that when the computer is in powersave mode it runs at a lower clockspeed and so the fan is not needed in the same capacity and when it's plugged in there's a higher clockspeed and thus more heat. I'm mostly just curious about the whole thing.
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Yeah it sounds like a power supply issue. Take it back to the retailer and complain. Maybe get a gift card out of it too for them selling you a fire-in-a-box.
There are couple things that tip me off:
1. I had the same occurrence with a Dell Inspiron laptop. Power supply was the issue.
2. Components in a power supply that fail will generate more heat as they ask for more voltage and will thus try to pull more from the transformer (or the brick) on your power cord. This results in heat dissipating from the laptop.
3. The issue appeared suddenly. The laptop worked normally and then began to overheat. This suggests a failed component.
4. Random shutoff. This is almost always a heat issue. Now it COULD be heat from the powersupply overheats the CPU or a motherboard component.
5. Again, regardless of the cause, he should take it back as it has become dangerous and not worth the money he paid for a working machine.
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M$
If you leave it on overnight often then it's quite possible that the layer between your CPU and the thermal device in your notebook has diminished in capability.
No matter what the reason i would recommend that you bring it in for maintenance and since you should be still under warranty go to Toshiba
personal experience
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M$
But then I got to thinking more maybe you have some kind of damaged battery, in which case it should be replaced.
You can find tutorials for opening up your laptop and cleaning off the heatsink online, so try that before taking it in to Toshiba.
Either way, it doesn't sound like a software issue, though replacing Vista with XP, 7, or Linux might be a good idea anyway.
My brother's laptop used to get really hot and shut down, and we'd have to leave it off for a while for it to cool down before the cpu could handle the heat and run for a few more minutes. I cleaned off the heat sink and he got a cooling pad and that worked fine until he broke down and got a MacBook.
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M$
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M$
Good answer. Most likely the fan.