Heri

I got 2 years ago a Toshiba laptop from Best Buy, a P35 with a P4 3.6Ghz processor – with other “great specs”. I had a deal back then and thought it would make a good desktop replacement.

It soon had overheating problems. It would shut down without any warnings (or if count full speed fans as warning). I sent the laptop to Best Buy because I had the full guarantee. They took the laptop for almost 3 months, just to tell me that they monitored the CPU’s processor temperature and found it to be “ok”. I know they didn’t open the laptop. I know also they just switched on the machine and see if it shuts down. Of course it won’t. You have to run photoshop and other processor-intensive apps to see the problems. Doh!

What I learned from that is: Never buy again from Best Buy and never get a guarantee from those kind of electronic shops (ie Futureshop for instance). Their tech guys are completely incompetent. And never get again a Toshiba laptop.

Now, because I was stuck with the overheating problem, I needed to find a solution. And I decided to go for the radical way, which is open the laptop, get the dust out and put a new and more efficient thermal grease. Irisvista has a guide so I did it.

After removing the LCD screen, the keyboard and all other removable elements

The motherboard with cleaned heatsinks

Still some dust left

Applying new thermal grease

I woud say that it was straightforward. The most difficult part was getting the keyboard latches out. You have to be very good with your hands.

Now the laptop runs Ubuntu and I haven’t heard the fans starting. The laptop seems like new.

I also have to say that even though Apple laptops seem perfect on the outside, the Toshiba engineers have done a better job with their laptops. Of course, it’s just an opinion seeing the build quality of the P35 vs an iBook’s motherboard but, still, it’s a great suprise.