Question Laptop overheats when any USB device is connected

Oct 25, 2020
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Hello

I have this old laptop that i really like, i use it mainly for programming. I've had overheat problems several times in the past, due to clog in the airflow or a intermittent fault in the fan. All those times the problem was really simple and obvious to solve.

But this time, the problem is a little more complicated. The computer only overheats when a USB device is connected (more like, when a USB device is drawing power, since the webcam its connected by USB, but the system only heatsup when i turn it on). If no USB Devices is present, it works perfectly. This problem seems to be present since some time already, only now i got to isolate the problem and identify that the USB devices are the cause. Also, this time when te laptop overheats, the screen glitches for around 10-20 sec and then shutdown (when the overheat was due to no enought airflow in the heat pipes, the screen will go black and shutdown). After the shutdown, i get a pre boot error screen saying that the system has overheated, the same that apears when the cpu overheats. That's why i assume that the problem is heat.

Here is a image of the screen when this happens.

And thats a really big problem, given that i do microcontroller programming in university, i am always with at least one programmer connected by USB.
I have tested both windows and linux, and always all the temperatures just before the overheat are, at most, 50 ºC (122ºF), and usually even below 30 ºC, thats where i get lost. This CPU is rated for a maximum of 105 ºC

I have replaced the thermal paste in the CPU and GPU, cleaned everything in the airflow path, i have replaced the thermal pad in the chipset (where i suspect, is the problem). I dont know what else to do.

My last option is to find the schematic for this laptop and check everithing in the power path for USB, but i lack experience in this field, so it could take me days.

My english is probably a little broken, but i did what i could, please correct me if you will.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
Whatever you have hooked up might be drawing too much power than it can supply causing some issues. I actually had an issue where I couldn't use my of my controllers with my smart tv since it drew too much power and would throw it into a boot loop.
I'd recommend disconnecting all other items from the usb port and only have that one thing connected and see if that fixes it. Quite possibly even having your laptop connected to it's power brick to see if that helps (the powerbrick is what you use to charge it).
 
Oct 25, 2020
2
0
10
No, i have tested several devices, like USB drives, Bluetooth recivers, mouse, keyboard, allá off them cause the notebook yo overheat. And always tested them bye conecting only one at the time. As i said, even turning on the webcam causes the PC to overheat, whitout any USB devices conected