As technology advances, laptops today are becoming more powerful and compact. While the performance of the CPU and GPU increases, the inside of your laptop becomes more crowded with components.
The improved performance, however, also translates into more heat produced, which is the greatest threat to the life of a laptop, aside from spilling a cup of coffee on it.
The problem with an overheating laptop is not only that it slows down your laptop, but that it could cause irreversible damage to the internal components, which could ultimately render it unusable.
The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how you can keep your laptop cool by using a few simple tricks.
Is there any way to determine whether your laptop is overheating?
Even though your laptop is hot to the touch, it does not necessarily mean that it is overheating. An overheating laptop will sound loud when it is overheating. The fans running at maximum speed all the time indicate that your laptop is overheating and it is seeking to cool it down.
This can also be a sign that a laptop is overheating, since the laptop is automatically lowering the clock speed of the CPU in an attempt to generate less heat.
Overheating can be caused by several factors.
Overheating is usually caused by inadequate cooling. It may be that dust has gotten accumulated in the air vents, that the fan has become obstructed by something, or that the thermal paste on your CPU is too old and is no longer able to transfer heat effectively.
Fortunately, most of these issues can be addressed at home.
The first step is to clean the vents and fan on your laptop
People usually experience laptop overheating due to dust building up inside their computers, which then causes the fans to become clogged. You will hear a substantial increase in noise when your laptop fans are spinning at a higher rate.
In the event that the fans cannot dissipate the heat produced by your laptop’s internal cooling system because the vents inside are blocked, the heat will remain inside the computer, causing dust to accumulate.
Therefore, your fans will be unable to spin properly, which will result in increased heat.
For this particular fix, you will only need a can of compressed air, a screwdriver, and a few cotton buds.
Step 1: Remove the motherboard from the laptop
To begin, you will need to take apart your laptop. It is usually fairly easy to do, and if you type the name of your laptop brand and model into YouTube with the term “disassembly” there will be a lot of videos available to assist you.
The purpose of this step is to ensure that no dust accumulates on your fans as simply blowing compressed air into your vents may not be sufficient to remove the dust.
STEP 2: Using compressed air, clean your laptop.
Following the disassembly of your laptop, you will need to blow out the dust. The best way to blow out your computer is to hold it vertically and use a can to blow out every part of it.
Ensure that the can is held vertically as well, as if it isn’t, some propellant might end up on your laptop or your hands, which is likely to cause them to freeze.
Using cotton pads to protect your laptop was the third step.
When you have finished completing Step 2, take a cotton pad and use it to remove any residue or dust that the air did not remove.
Reassemble your laptop after completing Step 4.
Reassemble your laptop and ensure that all cables are reconnected to the motherboard.
Placing your laptop on a flat surface is recommended
On the bottom of most laptops are air vents that allow cool air to enter. The air vents may be blocked if you place your laptop on a pillow, blanket or in your lap while you are using it.
This can result in your laptop overheating, so it is important to always keep it on a flat surface.
Consider using a laptop cooling pad
You may need a laptop coolpad if your laptop is not keeping cool enough. Laptop coolers are intended to create more airflow under your laptop, blowing cooler air directly onto the bottom of your laptop where the most heat dissipates, and into the vents.
It is possible to keep your laptop cool by using a laptop cooler if none of the methods above work.
Restore your laptop’s functionality
You might want to get your laptop repaired if your computer still runs hot after using a laptop cooling pad. The fan within it might be damaged and may require replacement.
Keeping in mind that laptops have only one fan to prevent overheating, if it breaks, then the laptop will turn from active to passive cooling.
Using a software application to resolve the problem
You can keep your current computer cool by lowering its performance if you cannot afford to purchase a new one.
You can also boost performance by removing junk files.
In that case, you will end up with a laptop that is much slower than the one you were using before, but this may give you some time to accumulate some funds for a new machine.
Concluding remarks
In order to keep your computer running cooler, we recommend at least trying one of the above methods if you find that it is overheating.
In the event that none of the above solutions work, it may be advisable to get a new one.
