Toshiba Satellite laptop keeps shutting down
 

Hello,

I have a Toshiba Satellite L750 laptop, with the last version of Mint installed on it. It used to shut down frequently, especially during browsing. Alto, it used to heat up. So I disassembled it and cleaned it quite thoroughly. Now the cooler works much better and it doesn't heat up anymore, but it keeps shutting down.

Some things:
- it shuts down with battery or without battery
- sometimes, with the battery, it discharges instead of charging, even though it looks like charging
- If I unplug and plug the cable several times, it may work and will charge properly
- it takes a while for my Mint to boot (10 minutes - yeah, I know) - I've heard that Toshiba is not that compatible with Linux
- I've changed the battery
- I've tried it with two different cables



Some questions:
- Could it be from the power jack?
- could it be from the Linux? (viruses, incompatibility)

Thanks,

In general if it even boots up you don't have to worry about compatibility. If it wasn't, it wouldn't boot. Viruses? Highly unlikely as they are extremely uncommon. I've not even ever had a single one in 20 years of Linux use, up many hours 7 days a week. Shutting down is usually a hardware problem either heat or power problem.

First I have to ask how you know it cools better than it did? Do you monitor temps? Secondly, something is wrong with the Power and you may be right that it is in the jack. The jack has built-in switches and if they fail or worse, are intermittent, that could indeed account for all the problems you have.

It is likely helpful if you list the model name/number to check common problems.

Check to make sure the cooling vents and the CPU are not fouled with dust causing the machine to overheat. Overheating is the most common cause of unexpected shutdowns.

My apologies. I don't know how I missed that you listed the model info. From what I can see heat is not a common issue but it is still worth knowing if you monitor temps. I still suspect the power system, possibly the jack, to narrow down the field.

Just did this Linux install on a Chromebook. Did a John Lewis Full rom Bios change. Jumpered write protect on the mobo. I needed to do this. Thought I would share. You can do this in mint linux also.

also in Mint linux after you do this. You can post the output of

So members can see more info on your hardware. Like video driver used.
Enorbet suggestion to check the power jack is easy. Touch it with your fingers. If it is too hot and burns. The jack needs to be replaced. I have done this on a Panasonic Cf-48 before.

You say you cleaned it. How so? Describe it.

Virus? No.No.No. Even porn sites cannot harm you.

Oh yeah. 10 minutes to boot you say? Hard drive probably needs to be replaced is a guess off the top of my head.

https://community.linuxmint.com/soft.../smartmontools

Any clues in /var/log/messages?

Thank you all for your help.

I've decided to:
- change the thermal paste with a better one;
- try some different distro (I have a lot of options here);
- if it doesn't work, change the jack;
- if not, buy a brand new laptop, what can I do or take it to a specialist.



The temp is at 60 degrees. Celsius. 145 Fahrenheit, I believe.
Before I cleaned it, it used to heat up. And now it doesn't. At all.


About the compatibility, I've read that Linux is not that compatible with some laptop brands, Toshiba being one of them.


The viruses part, I've asked because I've also read in an article that it might be it, I know that it is a very very
small chance.

Thanks, but like I said, I cleaned it. And I found dust, I removed it, I cleaned it with alcohol, I've added some lubrificant for the cooler.

I will add another thermal paste. I don't know how good was the last one.





It might be, but it worked fine when I had Windows. Also, I remember trying other distros (Kali, Debian) and it booted normally.

Thank you,

I will try the power jack tip.
I opened it entirely, I cleaned the fan (lots of dust), I used lubrificant. A brush for the dust. Also, the CPU, there was some dust there too.


System: Kernel: 4.4.0-98-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 4.8.4)
Desktop: Cinnamon 2.8.8 (Gtk 3.10.8~8+qiana)
Distro: Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa
Machine: System: TOSHIBA product: SATELLITE L750 v: PSK30E-03D004G5
Mobo: Intel model: N/A Bios: INSYDE v: 3.10 date: 02/10/2012
CPU: Dual core Intel Core i5-2430M (-HT-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB
flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 9578
clock speeds: max: 3000 MHz 1: 799 MHz 2: 799 MHz 3: 799 MHz
4: 803 MHz
Graphics: Card: NVIDIA GF108M [GeForce GT 525M] bus-ID: 01:00.0
Display Server: X.org 1.15.1 drivers: nvidia (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,nouveau)
tty size: 80x24 Advanced Data: N/A for root
Audio: Card-1 NVIDIA GF108 High Definition Audio Controller
driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1
Card-2 Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio Controller
driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-98-generic
Network: Card-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express)
driver: ath9k bus-ID: 09:00.0
IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Card-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR8151 v2.0 Gigabit Ethernet
driver: atl1c v: 1.0.1.1-NAPI port: 2000 bus-ID: 0a:00.0
IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 750.2GB (32.5% used)
ID-1: /dev/sda model: TOSHIBA_MK7575GS size: 750.2GB temp: 39C
Partition: ID-1: / size: 32G used: 7.9G (26%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
ID-2: /home size: 647G used: 211G (35%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3
ID-3: swap-1 size: 10.00GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda2
RAID: No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 70.0C mobo: N/A gpu: 0.0:54C
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 213 Uptime: 1:02 Memory: 1491.7/5949.3MB
Init: Upstart runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.4
Client: Shell (bash 4.3.111) inxi: 2.2.28

Yes, 60C is the threshold of human pain though even 55C causes me to pull back...fast. What temps does it run now, post clean? It sounds good but it is important to quantify it.

AFAIK the main incompatibility between some laptops and Linux is some wireless (wifi) chipsets. I've never run across any that would exhibit enough capability to install and boot but be incompatible in a manner that boot times are long, but succeed, and then randomly shutdown. That's almost certainly a hardware issue, not merely incompatible with Linux, but incompatible with any OpSys because it is failing.

It is at least a phenomenon that we all consider when things go awry but, yes, extremely unlikely for several reasons.

Did you use alcohol to clean the power jack? What lubricant did you use on the fan? Some lubes are not "electrical grade" so it must be considered.

If you have to remember then it seems that was enough in the past that it was possibly before what is likely a hardware failure. I agree that a disk or format failure is likely the cause of 10 minute boot times but I still find the weird power related events needs immediate attention. That most certainly is not a software issue of any kind.

My panasonic cf-48 runs that hot. But it is 11 years older than yours. I re-pasted the cpu with artic silver and that is about where the temps range. 60 -70.

Still wondering about the multi - plugging the power jack till it works. Because loose connections generate heat in electrical because air is the ultimate insulator.

Maybe the adapter is toast inside where the cable is soldered into the male jack.
Thing is. Male jack gets hot. It tranfers heat to female jack. Which melts down solder on the mobo.

I know because I have seen and fixed this.

I take this laptop incompatibility thing with a grain of salt. Knowing how the kernel handles all the hardware. Most distros like Mint have that covered real well. You can see why I am kinda biased. Because I now run Google Chrome Linux laptop.Made by Acer.

Something that was more difficult to do in the past than today.

My chromebook is 2014 and is supported by a distro for older machines. Kinda funny. Huh?

That should have your toshiba covered real well.

I see nothing weird there. Though the nouveau driver is usually good enough for me. Cuz I am not a gamer.

10 minutes to boot that. My internet is down. So I am on IBM laptop. Just because I have my hotspot phone password stored in Wicd when I use my phone as a router for my laptop.

I boot in seconds. Not minutes.

But I have always prefered IBM laptops over Toshiba. My IBM T23 Thinkpad P3 still has not died.
My Dells are pretty bullit proof also.
Panasonic Toughbooks? I consider over rated. Cuz I own one. I massage it with my repair skills from time to time.
Replaced inverter and LCD cable. Mobo female power jack. New adaptec universal power adapter. Battery is still dead. Refurbish cpu. It is just a Test bed for the distro team I am a member of.

With a pentium 4 and 1.2 gig of ram. It is still relevant.

Good luck I guess figuring this out. Try a live run of something else small. Like salix . fluxbox or slackel. Or SlaX
See if boot times, overtemps, and shutdowns are the same. A live usb run with persistence will narrow something down I bet. Or confirm suspicions .

forgot to show my temps on this IBM laptop compared to yours

I have been on this rig since I last posted. That is when my ISP went down.

I've checked and it doesn't heat up.



Salix Linux looks OK. I will try it.
During my transition from Windows to Linux, I've tried different distros and I've had problems with quite a few (booting part, mostly). Being a noob at Linux, I've started reading some articles from different sources and some of them said that it is the hardware incompatibily. But who knows...
If I remember right, Debian, Kali and Tails booted fine, but I prefered Mint because the "experts" said that it's the best one for Windows users and Kali and Tails are for users who know their Linux.



By the way, your links from your signature are interesting. I will check them. Thanks!


You might laugh, but 60C is the post clean temp. But it doesn't heat up. By the way, it hasn't shut down in 2 days and I've used it quite a lot.

English is not my primary language, but as a rough translation it would be "Oil For Fine Mechanisms"
I used alcohol to clean the dusty plastic areas. The power jack does not look dirty.

I just purchased my 6th Thinkpad, and 8th laptop this morning on ebay. I picked up a Thinkpad T400 with Intel Core2 Duo T8600 @ 2.40GHz, 4GB RAM (upgradable to 8GB), 160GB HDD (that will be replaced), and 14.1" screen. I'm not sure if it has Intel or Intel/ATI integrated graphics but both work with FreeBSD.

Best part? I paid $55 for the laptop, but it didn't come with a battery, so buying one gave a total price of $67.70 delivered. The T61 I use the most went for about the same price and is my favorite of all my laptops.

With business lease returns it's the luck of the draw as to which one they grab. The image shown may not be of the one they pick if they have multiple laptops. Check their feedback profile. Something that looks good from a seller who had a lot of bad reviews is probably best passed for something a few $$$ more.

With a private seller you know more what you're getting and can query them. I've bought both types and always had good luck. It's in knowing what to look for in signs of wear, like shiny keys or spots on the spacebar, and if it still has the tags on the palmrest it's a sign of light use.

A lot of it is looking to buy at the right time, too, but there re some real deals to be had on vintage Thinkpads. This morning was right for me and I got the last one of that bundle of lease returns.

With 7 laptops I hadn't planned on buying another but it was such a good deal I couldn't afford not to buy it, and I do love getting a good deal on something.

jaxqen you do understand since the translation is accurate BUT many oils conduct electricity and are bad for electronics. This is why other lubricants like Silicone are used and even some of those are not electrical grade. My all time favorite was Cramolin which was even used by NASA until it was pulled from production for some toxicity issue. It has been fairly effectively replaced by CAIOG's DeOxit and aI wouldn't use anything less for a laptop... at least one that I wanted to continue to function.

Regarding the "clean" appearance on the power jack/plug the "dirt" we are talking about is an often invisible film of oxidation. Something is wrong with that jack and it needs immediate attention to have any hope of narrowing down the problem.

Trihexagonal I'm not much of a laptop person but I bought a used Thinkpad T61 because of Joanna Rutkowska's study of the security of Intel CPUs which seems, now to be a warning not many including Intel paid any heed to which may cost them dearly. Aside from the peace of mind from the superior isolation of the T61 compared to later models I completely agree with you that it is a superb machine and it is a marvel that it came so cheap. Apparently when Win 7 was released it's increased hardware requirements caused an avalanche of those and others to enter the used sales market... cheap. Mine cost me $85 USD with battery and it runs Slackware beautifully. Everything works and the nvidia Quadro graphics are just superb. I'd recommend a T61 to anyone running Linux. I had to learn about the "blob" firmware support in Linux to get WiFi work but once that was done there is literally no feature that doesn't work and work flawlessly and it is quite snappy. I'm extremely pleased with my T61.

I went ahead and got a 250GB WD Scorpio Black HDD and 2 x 4GB RAM to max it out.

I have a birthday coming up and if I don't buy myself something I won't get anything, so I'm good to myself. :)

Thanks, Trihexagonal. For some odd reason I didn't realize I could use 4GB RAM (great news btw) so I'm at 4GB total which is how it came. I did get a Seagate 7200rpm 320GB hdd at the same time I bought the Thinkpad even though I was a bit worried about temps from such a fast drive. It's acceptable at 45C upon initial boot and login to KDE. GPU idles at around 48C. A heavy compile will take the system to 70C which bothers me but as I keep saying I am obsessed about thermals and it has never frozen up. Those temps just make it not exactly one to use while reclining in bed unless one's electric blanket is on the fritz LOL. If I am fortunate to recover sufficiently my fine motor skills damaged by stroke I will very likely employ a copper shim with Arctic Silver applied as a film to both sides to get a better thermal coupling, and possibly nibble a few chassis holes to improve air intake and overall flow as I have done with every previous laptop I have ever owned. That will very often result in a 10C - 15C reduction but between it's solid operation and my infirmity it is low on my list. I still love it.

enorbet, I use 7200RPM HDD on all my Thinkpads. The T61, X61 and T400 are all supposed to be upgradable to 8GB RAM, though I had bad luck trying to upgrade my T61 and must have got a bad stick. But I know plenty of people have done it. The wiki is a good reference guide for Thinkpads:

Thinkpad Models

I have one I need to take apart and clean because it gets abnormally hot when compiling ports. I use my Opolar Gaming Fan with it when doing so and it really works. It pulls air through the laptop, has a digital temp readout, multiple fan speeds and is well worth having at approximately $30-$35. I got a syslog warning in one of my consoles stating it had reached 100C, plugged in the fan and brought it right down in seconds.

I've got a lot more use out of it compiling ports than gaming.

Touchscreen. Wacom pen included. cheap < used ocz ssd because harddrive was missing >

Total cost . About 59 bucks. Nothing radical here because costs were kept down. Came with no camera. Use a external logitech clip on. Which travels from Laptop to desktop.

I put Linux-Lite/Ubuntu on here because of touchscreen and wacom pen back when 14.04 was current. It was a out of the box everything working experience. This is built like IBM as far as rugged goes. It is not the latest and greatest. But with a SSD and 5 gig of ram.
Nothing to sneeze at either.

Happy Birthday Trihexagonal and get well soon Enorbet. Stroke is no joke. I bet salt has left the building on your diet. At least I bet that is what the docs nag about.
Gallons of fish oil. Ugh.

When you try Salix jax. You will be pleasently surprised. You should be OK with XFCE or Mate version also. I ran SaliX fluxbox and Slackel on my Atom Netbooks with touchscreens. SaliX is as easy to run as Mint in my opinion. But you know how opinions are. They are infinite.

I need to put android i386 on those and put those up for sell on my local hotline < radio show free advertising > to recoup some beer money.

Updates:
- I cleaned the laptop, I added thermal paste and it keeps shutting
- the CPU goes 100% for a very short time while the browser loads a single tab (I deleted cookies & co)
- from 50 C it can go to 80 C in a matter of a couple of seconds and then back to 50 C
- I tried to install Arch Linux and I was getting the "Probing EDD (edd=off to disable)" error

So tell me... how do you type wearing "kitchen mittens"? All joking aside, it is certainly possible that I'm mistaken but it seems to me that a piece of electronic gear designed to be handled by humans is unlikely to idle at 50C and hitting 80C (getting rather close to the boiling point of water) is frankly absurd. This leads me to believe that either there is less than ideal contact between the heatsink(s) and electronics and/or fan(s) are not operating ideally.

Please remember that thermal paste is not a good thermal conductor. It's just better than air. It is designed to be applied in a film, a very thin amount that is only supposed to fill microscopic "pits" where air bubbles are trapped. A thick coating like a wafer of paste or those rather silly injected foam pads are just slightly better than no contact at all. An ideal contact would be metal only which is immediately compromised by the plastic housings of chips and the difficulty (and expense) of perfectly polishing both metal and plastic to match. CPUs commonly have some form of metallic heat spreader to help such surface contact but in mass production it is costly to pair up mating surfaces. This makes the only recourse one of getting the best out of a compromise and usually involves good design for compression springs and bolts (something like cross tightening lug nuts when mounting an automobile wheel) or in some cases User intervention to polish metallic surfaces to extremely flat, mirror like smooth surfaces. That can be difficult, sometimes extremely so, to do to both surfaces with laptops whose CPUs and GPUs may be soldered in place. The risk of electrical contamination from fine metal dust precludes doing good work on the chips in such notebooks, tablets and phones, but the heatsinks can be addressed and "dressed".

I doubt you want to polish your heatsink even though I am so strict about thermals that I do that, but it isn't difficult to at least avoid thick wafers of thermal paste and uneven tightening of compression devices. If it has a fan be certain that it operates properly. There are after market devices that place a high output fan on the exhaust port but that is akin to using a bandage when internal damage exists. The source is better to address even though anything that increases air flow helps and it is a fast, cheap and easy convenience.

Not knowing your mechanical expertise nor your inclinations, and since the Toshiba is all but inoperable in it's present condition it seems to me that the only two possibilities is to carefully get the most out of the thermal removal system or replace the entire unit. Since you have already taken it apart and cleaned it and applied thermal paste it shouldn't be beyond your skill level to improve physical contact by at the very least properly applying the paste or if need be improving the physical contact by removing any obstacles, often only possible by getting and inserting a copper shim (pasted thinly on both sides), and insuring tight springs or evenly tightened bolts whichever you have. A mere 10C improvement could be HUGE and I have seen 20C improvements on a few laptops, especially some budget models... not saying that your is one of those, just noting that manufacturers look to saving mere pennies when considering millions of units, even on the best

Good Luck and I empathize with your difficulty and frustration. "Fingers crossed" it will be a simple solution to getting some improvement.