Laptop prob

[peahouse05]

Hello All,
Have been crunching with daughter's Toshiba Satellite A30, P4, 2.8GHz, XPSP2, 1Gb RAM, 30Gb HDD for about a month, 24/7 with no problems. Since the weekend it has been switching off (not shutting down) overnight. This morning it switched off and I heard a click like a thermostat and it stopped. It has worked through the hot weather and it was a lot cooler today but this has repeated several times during the day.
Took out battery, removed CPU and heat sink (bonded together) and found fan side of heatsink blocked with the sort of stuff you get off the filter of a tumble dryer. Replaced everything and switched on - fans ran for about 5 seconds then nothing (on/off LED stays lit). Reset and the same happens.
Re-checked seating of CPU - no luck. I thought I handled the CPU carefully but perhaps I touched the pins.
Any ideas?
Sorry this is a long post but she will kill me if I have ...... it up.
Thanks in advance,
peahouse05

 

[TriplexDread]

Oh dear m8 I hope the CPU aint fried!

 

[crazylegs]

Sounds like one of your power invertors is fried.....

Back to shop for warranty...

 

[peahouse05]

Thanks for the replies,
Laptop is over two years old I'm afraid.
Cheers,
peahouse05

Can see three bent pins on CPU - don't know if I did them first time or since. Trying to find a way of straightening them.

 

[crazylegs]

I suggest next time you leave well alone and get a pro to look at it.....

 

[Anon_F]

Upgrading & Repairing Laptops

Not all is lost, yet. Go to your local library and see if you can get a copy of Upgrading & Repairing Laptops by Scott Mueller. This should give you some help towards may be fixing the problem.

If you can not get a copy PM me with your email address ... [mucks edit: please think next time ]

 

[muckshifter]

Thanks for the replies,
Laptop is over two years old I'm afraid.
Cheers,
peahouse05

Can see three bent pins on CPU - don't know if I did them first time or since. Trying to find a way of straightening them.

oh boy ... not an easy job.

Use plastic ... you can buy plastic tweezers, they will break so get several ... and all I can say is be as delicate as you can ... if any pins snap, you then give-up.

I think you may be buying a new laptop for somebody. I would not like to be in your shoes.

 

[peahouse05]

Thanks Muckshifter,
Managed to straighten the pins with small tweezers wrapped in tape. Fans start on slow then fast then loud click and its all stop. Sometimes has another little go with being reset. Not much different than before.
Cheers,
peahouse05

 

[Anon_F]

Best 2 books i have bought, both by Scott Mueller: Upgrading & Repairing PC's and Upgrading & Repairing Laptops, both books include on the CD or DVD "how to" tutorials that when you dont know what you are doing comes in very handy.

Enjoy your copy when you get it peahouse05

 

[muckshifter]

Thanks Muckshifter,
Managed to straighten the pins with small tweezers wrapped in tape. Fans start on slow then fast then loud click and its all stop. Sometimes has another little go with being reset. Not much different than before.
Cheers,
peahouse05

Never thought of that, wrapped in tape.

The 'click' is the power switching (PSU), switching off due to a 'short' somewhere ... on a desktop we just pull out all non essentials and hope it ain't the MB ... invariably it is the MB.

An Intel P4 has a "built-in" thermostat that should just slow the CPU down ... not all P4s had this, but Tosh' build some damn good lappies I'd be very surprised if they didn't use that particular P4 CPU ... what I'm saying here is I do not think your CPU would have been cooked. Though nobody can be 100% sure unless you can swap it out for a known good CPU.

 

[peahouse05]

Best 2 books i have bought, both by Scott Mueller: Upgrading & Repairing PC's and Upgrading & Repairing Laptops, both books include on the CD or DVD "how to" tutorials that when you dont know what you are doing comes in very handy.

Enjoy your copy when you get it peahouse05

Thanks Feckit,
Have now arranged it as a birthday present. From advice by Mucks it loks like this lappy could now be a plaything.
Cheers,
peahouse05

 

[peahouse05]

Hi Muckshifter,
Your reply hit me just where it should - in the brain. Went out to paint my fence to think about it, as staring at a £1000 lappy (when new) which I thought I had b.....d did not help. Forgive me for being a pain but here goes....what I think your advice is telling me is some or all of the following:-
When the lappy was switching off during crunching it was nothing to do with overheating - the click/clunk was the PSU cutting out.
Any overheating would have slowed the CPU down and be controlled by a solid-state device, eg diode or thermistor - it would not make a noise and would not have just switched off the power.
The remains of somebody's pullover on the heat sink would cause the fans to run continuously but has nothing to do with the main problem.
In addition;-
I see on a US forum that some models have the CPU permanently bonded to the heatsink and I can see no signs of the CPU frying.
This first happened after a lightning strike cut all power on Saturday - may not be relevant.
I most likely touched CPU pins on one or more attempts to re-fit the CPU and probably bent the pins at a later stage.
I am guilty of the power now cutting before booting rather than after.
Do I get suspended for a post of this length?
Regards
peahouse05

 

[Anon_F]

I have seen longer posts.
The best way to learn is to take it apart & put it back together and working.
My first laptop i rebuilt i was left with two screws, only found out what they did when a friend picked it up and the battery landed on his foot

 

[peahouse05]

Hi Feckit,
I'm going to get the book and do just that.
Cheers,
peahouse05

 

[muckshifter]

You know what peahouse, you do bring a smile to my face ...


I have had a few, too many, laptops brought to me for 'repair' and I usually make some comment ... "yep, 'tis a laptop, so what do you wan't me to do with it" ... wish I had a camera then.

This first happened after a lightning strike cut all power on Saturday - may not be relevant.

oh boy ... many a PC has surcumed to the dreaded power cut ... when everything is turned back on you should see how much "juice" is being generated ... go get some 3amp fuses and replace ALL your 13amp plugs with them, two exeptions, the 3 bar electric fire (needs a 5amp) and err, now what was the other one?

I could never understand why the british 3pin plug came fitted with a 13amp fuse ... sorry, but it's no wonder we have so many house fires.

A 3amp has a power rating UP TO 700wats ... maybe I should tell you to use 2amp fuses instead ... oh and a 13amp fuse is rated 700- 3000 ... that's three thousand watts - 3,000.

The only plug I have ever seen, and I'm going back some years, correctly sold is the 'shaver' adapter which has a 1amp fuse ... still wouldn't drop my electric shaver in the water though.

You'll find another post like this around here somewhere ... British Safety Standards has a lot to answer to ... I think they are slowly coming round to my way of thinking.



EDIT

Unless the appliances have motors, in which case the start-up current may well be more than the running current.

At 230V, 3A fuse is good for max 690W
At 240V, 3A fuse is good for max 720W

5A @ 230 = 1150 W
5A @ 240 = 1200 W

10A @ 230 = 2300 W
10A @ 240 = 2400 W

13A @ 230 = 2990 W
13A @ 240 = 3120 W

You can get 1A, 2A, 3A, 5A, 7A, 10A & 13A

 

[peahouse05]

Hello Muckshifter,
The fuse in the laptop's power supply is 3A ie 690W, I guess far more than is needed for a laptop, input to the transformer is 1.5A, so a 2A fuse would do.
I was fooled by the fact that my PC survived.
However I seem to remember that lightning strikes also raise earth and neutral voltages so the possiblily of damage is clear, its a matter of luck.
Thanks,
peahouse05

 

[peahouse05]

Hello All,
Have had daughter's Toshiba in bits for weeks but got a full manual yesterday. Previous generic instructions for cleaning cpu heatsink advised 'gently levering out the heatsink/cpu'. But the A30 Satellite manual shows a cpu locking cam controlled by a nearly invisible slotted screw, so the cpu would not seat back properly with the cam locked. All back in one piece now and working fine.
Original fault must have been overheating due to the blocked heatsink but it was cutting the power rather than slowing down the cpu.
Probably paranoia but the power supply is running really hot although I never had reason to check it before this.
Thanks for the advice.
Cheers,
peahouse05
and daughter

 

[muckshifter]

well well well ... the man gets to keep his head after all.

I dib my hat to PH, a lesser man would have given up.


Does help to have a manual though.

 

[peahouse05]

well well well ... the man gets to keep his head after all.

I dib my hat to PH, a lesser man would have given up.


Does help to have a manual though.

Thanks Mucks - it would also help if I could see - must get a new pair of specs.
BTW this laptop has shutdown problems- BRVS needs to close - have had it on and off for ages. Would like to re-install XP but only have a recovery disk. I think you will say 'buy another XP disk'.
Regards,
peahouse05

 

[muckshifter]

BRVS needs to close

Sorry, what's that? ... new one on me!

Does the 'Dear Lady' have any important data left on there, if not, use the recovery CD ... most just install to a factory default, some will give an option to just install Windows, if your lucky.


Failing that, "buy" a FREE Linux CD ...