Fixing a Toshiba A75-5229 which Shut Down Suddenly in 10 Minutes after Boot-up (In Richmond)

I picked up this Toshiba A75-5229 from a pizza shop on 23Mar2012 after work. The girl told me that this laptop shut down suddenly after running for 10 minutes. Before shutting down, the fan was very noisy. I told her that I would return the laptop on Monday.

When I returned home, I checked this laptop briefly. It can be powered on but the fan was running heavily. No air was blowing out. On Sunday afternoon, I disassembled it. First, I found a dead cockroach inside. When I took out the motherboard, there are two fans. Both were very dusty. I removed the fan covers. The bigger CPU vent was completely clogged. The small fan was almost clogged. This is causing the overheat that the laptop to protest itself had to shut down immediately.

I removed the dust and vacuum the vents. When they were all clean, I assembled the laptop to test it. I pressed the power button, it was running good. However, the power button didn't return to top position. I had to disassemble the laptop again. The power button is tapped to the top cover. I added a rubber to the upper part of the power button to support it. The lower part has a short stick which presses the power switch on the motherboard. I assembled the laptop again. The power button is in good position.

I powered on the laptop and let it run for an hour. Air is blowing out from both vents and is no longer shutting down suddenly. This laptop has a very fast 3.2 GHz CPU. It is fast even the memory is only 512 MB. I tested the keyboard, touch pad, left and right button to ensure all connections are good.

It is ready to serve again. I will return this laptop to the owner on Monday after work.