Question Toshiba Satellite C55t-C5300 shutting off on its own after hardware upgrade.

[Venerabela]

Hello!

So I have had this Toshiba Satellite laptop for a while, and recently decided to upgrade the hardware inside.
I had 6 GB of RAM in this laptop which I upgraded to 16 GB.
I had a 2.5" 1 TB HDD (that was actually close to failure from being constantly floored) that I replaced with a 2.5" 1 TB SSD.
I replaced the battery with a new one since the old could barely run an hour or so on a full charge.

Now the installation went without issue. It booted up fast and ran smoothly. It worked for about 2 weeks with zero fault. I thought it was fantastic that I had given new life to a laptop that could barely even run anything without maxing out ram and disk usage before.

However, today, I have come across an issue.

When I booted up the laptop this evening, it stayed on and worked fine for about 10-20 minutes, then it randomly shut off, ending the shutdown with the laptop power button blinking 3 times in rapid succession.

I have tried pulling the new battery and putting on the old one.
I have cleaned the contacts for the battery slot on the laptop.
I have tried holding the power button for a minute with the battery out with each swap out.
I have tried batteryless and on the AC adapter only.

It is still doing the same thing.
All the information regarding these power button blink codes is missing from Toshiba's website. Or if it's not, I cant seem to find it.

Any thoughts as to what I should do or what the problem might be? I hate to think that I just wasted $250 on a lemon.

 

[LazerTechX]

Temps okay? maybe dust accumulated during that time.

 

[Venerabela]

Temps okay? maybe dust accumulated during that time.

I have not checked temps. I can do so. As for dust, I thoroughly cleaned out dust while I was doing the parts swap. (It was an absolute mess before I started swapping hardware)

 

[LazerTechX]

I have not checked temps. I can do so. As for dust, I thoroughly cleaned out dust while I was doing the parts swap. (It was an absolute mess before I started swapping hardware)

maybe the heatsink wasn't repasted properly or thermal pads were not aligned. Check temps first

 

[Venerabela]

maybe the heatsink wasn't repasted properly or thermal pads were not aligned. Check temps first

I have checked the temps. It seemed to remain between 40 and 45C before dying. I will look into thermal paste just in case. I didnt pull off the heatsinks. Just replaced the ram, battery, and hard drive, but I guess you can never be too careful.

 

[GeorgeIP]

Does your CPU support 16GB of memory? if there’s a memory card soldered to the MOBO, your stuck with replicating that volume of memory. A mismatch will cause issues.
Have you checked to see if you’re swap file is now dramatically bigger? Larger memory needs a larger swap file. It may be crashing if it tries to write to the swap file and it’s not there or is too small. If it’s set to let Windows manage the swap file all should be OK.
Another thought is the size or setup of your SSD. If there’s not enough SSD space for internal operations you can get the same type of crash. (Happened to me!) SSD’s need ~10% extra space for garbage collection procedures.
Did you install the SSD management program for your brand of drive? (Samsung = “Magician”).
it’s doubtful that heat is an issue because the machine ran fine with the larger rotating disk drive. Still, put the laptop on an active or passive cooling platform and give it plenty of room to get cool air in and vent out the heat.
Along those lines, put a vacuum cleaner nozzle against all the grills on the machine to suck out cat or dog hair, dust and whatever else might be clogging the radiators. Better yet, pull the bottom cover get some toothpicks and do an even better job. Then blow it all out again with a can of air before reassembling it.
my Toshiba laptop was a pig with a mechanical disk. Once I put an SSD in, it ran acceptably. Still, my Toshiba occasionally crashes for no good reason, too. The screen will go blank as It kicks out all programs then comes back instantly with the main display with out going through any rebooting process. I haven’t been able to figure out why either. If you find out, let me know too.
— Good Luck — George —

 

[LazerTechX]

I have checked the temps. It seemed to remain between 40 and 45C before dying. I will look into thermal paste just in case. I didnt pull off the heatsinks. Just replaced the ram, battery, and hard drive, but I guess you can never be too careful.

try reverting back to the original 6GB of RAM to see if it is a memory issue

 

[Bob.B]

Hello!

So I have had this Toshiba Satellite laptop for a while, and recently decided to upgrade the hardware inside.
I had 6 GB of RAM in this laptop which I upgraded to 16 GB.
I had a 2.5" 1 TB HDD (that was actually close to failure from being constantly floored) that I replaced with a 2.5" 1 TB SSD.
I replaced the battery with a new one since the old could barely run an hour or so on a full charge.

Now the installation went without issue. It booted up fast and ran smoothly. It worked for about 2 weeks with zero fault. I thought it was fantastic that I had given new life to a laptop that could barely even run anything without maxing out ram and disk usage before.

However, today, I have come across an issue.

When I booted up the laptop this evening, it stayed on and worked fine for about 10-20 minutes, then it randomly shut off, ending the shutdown with the laptop power button blinking 3 times in rapid succession.

I have tried pulling the new battery and putting on the old one.
I have cleaned the contacts for the battery slot on the laptop.
I have tried holding the power button for a minute with the battery out with each swap out.
I have tried batteryless and on the AC adapter only.

It is still doing the same thing.
All the information regarding these power button blink codes is missing from Toshiba's website. Or if it's not, I cant seem to find it.

Any thoughts as to what I should do or what the problem might be? I hate to think that I just wasted $250 on a lemon.

When you upgraded the ram was this 1x16GB or 2x8GB?
If 2x8GB was it a kit of 2 or 2 separate sticks?

 

[Venerabela]

Does your CPU support 16GB of memory? if there’s a memory card soldered to the MOBO, your stuck with replicating that volume of memory. A mismatch will cause issues.
Have you checked to see if you’re swap file is now dramatically bigger? Larger memory needs a larger swap file. It may be crashing if it tries to write to the swap file and it’s not there or is too small. If it’s set to let Windows manage the swap file all should be OK.
Another thought is the size or setup of your SSD. If there’s not enough SSD space for internal operations you can get the same type of crash. (Happened to me!) SSD’s need ~10% extra space for garbage collection procedures.
Did you install the SSD management program for your brand of drive? (Samsung = “Magician”).
it’s doubtful that heat is an issue because the machine ran fine with the larger rotating disk drive. Still, put the laptop on an active or passive cooling platform and give it plenty of room to get cool air in and vent out the heat.
Along those lines, put a vacuum cleaner nozzle against all the grills on the machine to suck out cat or dog hair, dust and whatever else might be clogging the radiators. Better yet, pull the bottom cover get some toothpicks and do an even better job. Then blow it all out again with a can of air before reassembling it.
my Toshiba laptop was a pig with a mechanical disk. Once I put an SSD in, it ran acceptably. Still, my Toshiba occasionally crashes for no good reason, too. The screen will go blank as It kicks out all programs then comes back instantly with the main display with out going through any rebooting process. I haven’t been able to figure out why either. If you find out, let me know too.
— Good Luck — George —

I researched what memory was compatible with this particular brand of laptop and purchased accordingly.
The RAM cards were not soldered to the board. It is a chip port that allows for removal of the RAM chips and replacement if necessary.
I went ahead and upped the Swap file size to 8 GB minimum. It was maxing out at ~2.3 GB. I will see if this works.
The SSD has only about 100 GB used out of 1 TB. I dont think that's the issue.
I will set up Magician now.
I dont think it's heat either, given that the temps are not going above 50 C most of the time. I swapped to the SSD for the lower heat and power draw as well as the increased read speed.
I have already gone through the entirety of the insides with a can of air and cleaned it out thoroughly. It had a lot of detritus and hair in it, so I'm sure it was more than pleased that I cleaned it out.

 

[Venerabela]

When you upgraded the ram was this 1x16GB or 2x8GB?
If 2x8GB was it a kit of 2 or 2 separate sticks?

It was a kit of 2. I looked up which RAM sticks would be compatible with this particular laptop brand and model and purchased accordingly