Automatic Shutd down when HDD temp gets too high?

[mizr3en]

Hi,

I have a Toshiba A205-S4607 laptop with an Intel Core2 T5300 1.73gHz CPU and 2gb of RAM and recently got a virus. The reason why I think I got a virus is because Symantec Antivirus went down (Windows notified me) and then within a second or two the computer automatically cut power without warning. I wiped my hard drive with a quick NTFS format using my system and an external hard drive case, I reflashed my BIOS and I'm still having issues. I think the problem has something to do with my hard drive temperature getting too high. This is likely similar to this issue but instead of the CPU being the reason for shutoff, it's the hard drive. The core temperatures are definitely reading wrong because SpeedFan says they're around 98degC and very few programs are running as you can see here: 4200rpm and 7200rpm

I am convinced the temperatures are being scaled somehow because the computer is not really that warm to touch compared to some of the temperatures it had reached in the past when I wasn't having problems.

I have two different hard drives with fresh Win7 installs and the faster, 7200rpm drive shuts down the computer within minutes of use sometimes. The 4200rpm drive is what's in right now and the computer only shuts down if I copy files, browse the web and listen to music and even then, it takes longer than the 7200rpm drive when it's just idling. Any advice would be appreciated - I can't find a program to change the temperature limits and there aren't any options in the BIOS (phoenix is the company which wrote the BIOS or manufactured the chip or whatever it is - BIOS ID is NAPA0001.86C.0000.D.0710251110 -None).

The reason why I think it's the hard drive temp that hits the limit and not the CPU is that I will see its temperature slowly rise when copying gigs of data, then all of a sudden it drops and immediately after SpeedFan shows this temperature drop the computer shuts off.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Nick

 

[nhasian]

based on your description it does not sound like a hard disk issue. it does indeed sound like a cpu overheating issue.

 

[Outlander_04]

It sounds like the cpu cooler has become detached from the cpu

 

[tsnor]

...and the SW you are using to read the temps is not 100% reliable on laptops. No software is, the MB is too tailored for the laptop.

Suggest you go into your laptop power management and create a CPU profile that forces the CPU to MINIMUM frequency. Use HWMONITOR from cpuid (google it) to read cpu frequency to make sure the profile stuck. Then see if the PC stays running longer then the 'max performance' setting. If so the PC is overheating.

One simple fix to try, buy a can of compressed air (staples, office depot $7) and see if you can blow debris out of your laptop by blowing both ways through the air vents.

If laptop keeps failing you'll need to open it up and make sure the heatsink is attached to the CPU as Outlander suggests.

 

[mizr3en]

Thanks guys, I pulled apart the computer completely instead of just the top piece where I could only access the fan blades and found there was a "brick" of dust in front of the heat sink fins, I didn't touch the CPU to see if just removing the dust and further cleaning the heat exchanger helped - I've been running the computer all day and temps from SpeedFan are reading ~80C in the cores at near-idle and upper 30's in HDD. Thanks for the info on setting the CPU to a minimum frequency tsnor - I suppose it would be better to run the computer with less usability if it's randomly shutting down! Your method of using compressed air probably would have lead me to the problem.

Thanks again,

Nick