While working, did you hear your laptop fans making a ton of noise? Or did you feel a decrease in performance, and your laptop suddenly started to lag? Chances are, what you are experiencing is your laptop getting overheated. Overheating is when your laptop’s temperatures reach abnormal values under which the laptop is not designed to work.
One of the most common ways to fix your laptop getting overheated is to clean it. Remove any dust from external and internal areas, and then use an external laptop cooler to maintain proper airflow.
Laptop overheating can result in various issues, including data loss and seemingly sporadic blue screen failures. Before you know it, you might burn your motherboard since you may not even be aware that overheating is the cause of your problems. Read on to find out how to fix your laptop overheating!
Laptop Overheating
Laptop overheating is not a very unusual problem. However, since these devices are compact and boast performance that comes on par with desktop computers, it is not unlikely for them to work at such rates that the components inside of them start to produce heat.
Your laptop may be getting heated for a variety of reasons. For example, the equipment will overheat if your laptop is in an area with a high ambient temperature. Likewise, the laptop is prone to overheating if you use it in a location with insufficient air circulation.
Moreover, your laptop’s air exhaust ports may be obstructed, which would restrict airflow and cause problems with overheating. The issue can also occur if you are not utilizing the original charging adaptor. A program or service that uses a lot of processing power in the background while operating in the foreground might be another factor.
A laptop may also overheat if the internal parts are covered with dust, restricting the passage of clean air. The issue could also manifest if the thermal paste on the CPU has dried out, resulting in ineffective thermal control. Finally, if any of the laptop’s internal cooling mechanisms, including the heat sink or cooling fans, are broken, then this can also result in overheating.
Considering the abovementioned factors, we will explore various solutions to help you fix your overheating problem.
Fix #1: Cleaning Your Laptop
Nowadays, CPU fans are mostly found in laptops to ensure optimum cooling. But unfortunately, a laptop is more likely to accumulate dust over time than gadgets like cell phones. So the first thing you should check if your laptop is overheating is if there is a lot of dust gathered in the air outlets in or near the CPU and the cooling system.
You can check if the fans are operating correctly or are clogged with dust by feeling hot air coming out of the vents. If you detect little or no air, the fan may be clogged with dust or stop working. You may access the machine and blow the dust away with compressed air. Find a replacement fan if the old one has failed. A professional should open the laptop if you are uncomfortable doing so.
Fix #2: Troubleshooting Battery Malfunctions
Batteries come in various shapes and sizes, and there are several schools of thought on battery care and lifespan. Still, one thing appears to be fairly universal: batteries aren’t intended to be stored at 100% or 0% capacity.
Many people purchase computers, never remove the charger, and never utilize the battery. Since you’re effectively storing the battery when it’s full, this may shorten a battery’s lifespan. And malfunctioning batteries don’t just stop working overnight, but they produce a lot of heat.
If you’re your laptop’s problem, you need to replace your batteries. Even for older computers, purchasing replacement batteries online is easy. You only need to be aware of the battery and computer models. If unsuccessful, you may think about utilizing your laptop as a desktop instead, doing away with the overheated battery.
Fix #3: Managing Excessive App Usage
Many unnecessary programs and services can launch while you’re logging in, which causes the laptop’s CPU to work harder and perform worse. Having your laptop hooked into a power source simultaneously just makes matters worse. You can kill programs that are not needed while the computer is starting to prevent such a disaster.
You may use the Windows Task Manager to kill these programs or navigate to settings and disable any apps which are not required. Furthermore, you may disable several starting tasks. However, please be careful not to deactivate any programs or processes essential for a successful Windows boot.
Fix #4: Using Windows Troubleshooter
You can run a power troubleshooter to check if any software-related problems are overheating your laptop. One of the ways that you can do this is to run the Windows power troubleshooter.
To run the troubleshooter, follow these steps.
- Go to Settings (type “Settings” in the Windows search bar).
- Click on “Update and Security”.
- Click on “Troubleshoot”.
- Click on “Power”.
- Click on “Run the troubleshooter”.
Fix #5: Setting Up an External Cooler
Laptops come with a built-in fan for cooling the CPU; however, buying an external cooling fan or pad will make it stay even cooler when charging and working for long periods. A laptop cooling pad offers additional cooling support to assist the laptop’s function as intended. However, you should be aware that every device has its own distinct cooling system; therefore, you should ensure the cooling pad you choose is compatible with your laptop.
Fix #6: Checking the CPU Thermal Paste
Heat is transferred from the CPU to the cooling system via thermal paste (cooling outlets and heat sinks). Unfortunately, a laptop maker that employs cheap thermal paste occasionally loses its effectiveness after several years. Moreover, using the laptop in hot, humid weather can diminish its effectiveness even more quickly.
If this happens, you should take assistance from a certified service store to purchase a new thermal paste of better quality. Therefore, check the reviews before purchasing to select a suitable thermal paste.
Then, with the assistance of a licensed laptop service, replace this lower-quality or worn-out thermal paste with a new and high-quality one. Most of your laptop’s overheating problems should be resolved by this.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this set of solutions can help you fix your laptop’s overheating problem, and you can get back to your tasks in no time!
