Today, a laptop is a part of our daily life. Whether you’re checking your email at the airport, reading the news while waiting for dinner, or watching YouTube videos while on the bus, laptops are always with us.
And if they’re not being used on their own accord, many people place them in bags or laps which may cause their temperature to go up and potentially ruin them.
In this article, I’ll show you how to prevent your laptop from overheating to prolong its lifespan.
How Can You Tell If Your Laptop Is Overheating?
If the fan sounds like it’s constantly running, that means your computer is likely overheating. If you’re having trouble performing basic tasks like opening a new browser window, and strange error messages are popping up when you’re not expecting them to, you might also be experiencing an overheating laptop.
If your laptop has lines on the screen or if it kicks a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death), this indicates that your computer is struggling to keep up and should probably cool down before trying to use it again.
If the system freezes or shuts off abruptly on its own, this may be because the components inside are overheating and have reached a critical point where they can no longer operate correctly.
If certain areas of your laptop’s bottom just start getting very hot, and your computer is unresponsive, you may also be experiencing overheating.
What’s Causing Your Laptop to Overheat?
Your laptop is overheating due to a few reasons. One of the main causes is due to the fans going on overdrive.
The other main cause is a blockage in the air vents.
Other possible reasons include running too many programs in the background and dirt and grime clogging up your cooling fan.
Can a Passive Cooling Fanless Laptop Overheat?
Fanless laptops are designed to be less likely to overheat due to the lack of a cooling fan. This is because they utilize the body as the cooling mechanism.
These laptops have a different architecture and do not require any sort of cooling fan since they don’t need the high-speed spinning movement that makes fans work.
They are designed to avoid overheating and have higher performance expectant. It is because, in a fanless laptop, the components are either placed on top of the motherboard, in its edge, or at the back. The airflow is directed by the motherboard or back panel.
The fanless laptop is the future or it can be said that it is an environment-friendly device since no moving parts for fans and there is no risk of overheating. One more advantage is that the laptop has a longer life span.
10 Tips for Keeping Your Laptop Cool
1. Keep the Laptop on a Hard and Flat Surface
If you keep the laptop on a hard and flat surface, it will help circulate air. If this surface is not flat, then the air will just pool at the bottom of it.
The more time that your laptop sits with its vents blocked off by blankets or clothing, the hotter it gets.
This can cause permanent damage to your computer over time. So, make sure that you put it on a hard and flat surface where air can circulate through the vents.
2. Purchase a Laptop Cooler or Cooling Pad.
A good laptop cooler will allow you to maximize your device’s potential without any stress on its parts from overheating.
Their design provides an easy way to keep your laptop cool during prolonged use, and it will allow you to work with your laptop while on a bed or any other surface.
They are also highly effective when it comes to cooling off the laptops under intense processing tasks such as gaming or video editing, which can cause severe overheating and damage to both your hardware and battery life.
3. Make sure the air pathways and fans are clean
Laptops can get clogged with dust quite easily. It is important to take time out to clean and maintain your laptop.
Make sure that the air pathways and fans are clean by using compressed air products or blowing compressed air into the vents.
Also, it is important to clean the fan and heatsink to avoid overheating; if the heatsinks are clogged with dust, the CPU can overheat.
If you have an external monitor, you can clean your laptop’s screen by running the compressed air into it. Make sure to do this when no one is using the laptop and then dust it off. Note that this method can potentially damage the LCD.
If your laptop gets wet, remove the battery and battery door. The keys, hard drive, and bottom of the laptop should be wiped dry with a soft cloth. The best way to get rid of moisture buildup is to take your device to a professional.
4. Avoid exposing it to intense sunlight
It is important to avoid direct sunlight because it can result in overheating the laptop. Heat causes some plastic parts inside the laptop to warp, potentially reducing the lifespan of those parts.
Heat also affects other components like battery life and speed of certain components, as well as overall performance. If you are using your laptop in a hot location, keep it covered or make sure it has good ventilation.
If you have a laptop that is always in danger of overheating, get an external cooling system to provide air circulation. External cooling systems help divert the heat produced by the computer away from the internal components and out into the exterior of the device.
If you are going to travel with your laptop, plan ahead. Pack the right power cord and a new battery if you have one.
5. Make sure the laptops fans are working
If your laptop seems to run out of battery really fast and you can’t figure out why you might want to check if there are any noises coming from the fan.
This is often the case when you start hearing rattling or other strange clicking noises coming from your laptop, which means that your fan is worn out and absolutely needs to be replaced.
Of course, if your laptop overheats and you notice that the case becomes really hot when you are using it, this is a clear indication that your cooling fan is not working properly.
6. Use software to monitor temperatures and fans
Many people who have computers will notice that the fans will start to spin up and down randomly when they are looking for signs of overheating.
One of the best ways to monitor temperatures is via software monitoring, which can often be installed on a laptop without any hardware modifications.
You can monitor the temperatures of your laptop’s components by installing software on it.
7. Is the hardware capable enough?
It entirely depends on the specifications of your laptop’s hardware. If your laptop’s hardware is capable enough, then it will not be a problem to run a Windows 10 operating system and software.
However, if your laptop’s hardware is outdated, then it may be difficult for your laptop to perform basic tasks, which may cause the temperature of the system to increase.
The CPU will also have to work hard and consume more power from the battery in order for the operating system and software to function properly.
To continue using this setup for long periods of time would be inadvisable as eventually, you’ll need to upgrade your laptop’s hardware with newer components or replace it altogether.
If you are an avid gamer, External graphic cards could be a good choice for you to optimize your gaming experience.
8. Check the BIOS settings
One of the reasons your fan may be running too slowly is because your laptop’s BIOS settings are too conservative for the hardware.
The BIOS settings on a laptop are set to automatically boost the CPU speed, but if you’re trying to run it in sleep mode with no worries about performance, you need to either change these settings or use something like ThrottleStop to keep your computer from overheating.
9. Don’t overload it with too many programs at once
Don’t overload your Laptop with too many programs at once. Running too many programs at the same time will lead to a bottleneck. It’ll take up more memory, which means that there is going to be less available for other things you’re trying to do on your laptop.
For example, if you’re loading a video from YouTube in one tab and working on an essay in another tab, this will leave very little memory for your Laptop’s CPU to do anything else until the video finishes loading and you close it.
It is always best to keep programs closed instead of opening up more tabs. The reason for this is that it will let your processor operate a lot faster. And it helps your laptop from overheating issues.
10. Check the power settings
Your laptop’s temperature will increase when it is plugged in for long periods of time. The power plan settings can protect your laptop from overheating by reducing the amount of power given to certain components when they aren’t being used as much.
Windows 10 has an energy-saver setting that reduces the temperature of your laptop and saves power when your laptop is plugged in.
This does not restrict the performance of the machine, rather it optimizes its performance and keeps it cooler.
Final Verdict
Overheating is a serious problem. but you can easily keep your laptop cool by following some of the tips and tricks listed above.
You should always have your laptop on a flat surface where the air can circulate. You should also make sure that the fans inside are clean and that the heat pipes are not clogged up with dust.
