Overheating is a common problem implies on laptops. However, this is one of the greatest threats for any laptop. It would cause hardware failures or permanent damages and will deduct the lifespan of your laptop. Nonetheless, most of the time overheating is a fixable issue. The reasons for overheating mainly because of dust blocking intake grills, issues in cooling fan or degenerating thermal paste, or any other.

In this article, we bring you how to aware of whether your laptop has overheating issues and ways of fixing it by keeping the overheating at bay.

Signs of laptop overheating

*Just having excessive heat, doesn’t mean your laptop is overheating.

1. Unusual hot in the certain areas of laptop- keypad, the bottom of laptop where the battery, CPU, RAM, GPU located 
2. Cooling fan running at maximum speed all the time.
3. Sudden shutdown or hibernate to prevent hardware damages
4. Reduced performance 
5. Appearing lines in the screen
6. Unnecessary error messages occurring all the time

Ways of fixing overheating of laptops

Insufficient cooling is the main reason for a laptop’s overheating problem. So, when we look at the ways to fixing this issue, we have to provide enough cooling and ventilation to the laptop.

1. Clean intake grills and exhaust ports

At first, you have to look over and clean exhaust ports by brush or vacuum cleaner. You can find those on the back or side of the laptop. Then you should clear intake grills as same above. Most of the time, intake grills take place at the sides or bottom of the laptop.

2. Clean the fans

Still having cleaned intake grills and exhaust ports, but when you feel your laptop is getting hot more than ever, place your hand next to the exhausting ports. Then you would be able to feel whether the cooling fan works or not. If not, you have to disassemble the laptop according to the manual and check is it working. Maybe, you have to replace it with another one or clean the fan with Isopropyl alcohol. Somehow, make sure the alcohol has evaporated before you plug in the laptop to the power.

3. Apply fresh thermal paste to the interface of heat sink and CPU, GPU 

There is a toothpaste-like thermal paste there between CPU, GPU, and its heat sink. The purpose of it is to transfer the heat of CPU and GPU into heat sink effectively. When the heat sink expires it doesn’t work efficiently and it would cause overheating.

You have to refer to the user manual and adhere to the instructions when applying thermal paste between CPU, GPU, and heat sink. Although, we advise you to hire a professional to do this if you are not an expert by doing these things.

4. Keep your laptop on a flat and stiff surface

It’s better for the laptop to keep it on a flat and stiff surface like a desk as it helps to elevate the laptop’s backside. Elevating of backside enhances airflow underneath the laptop. It’s not bad to invest in a lap desk to avoid overheating. 

5. Invest in Cooling Pad

Having not enough ventilation under the laptop is one of the main reasons to overheat. Besides using a lap desk, it’s worth to buy a cooling pad. It will not only elevate the laptop but also cooling the intake air sucked by intake grills. Now you can buy top-notch cooling pads online. Read our guide to choosing the best cooling pad for your laptop.

6. Keep your laptop away from heat

By continuous exposure to a higher temperature will expand the hard drive and battery and will cause the laptop’s overheating. Make sure to keep your laptop away from heat and hot places. 

7. Using software

Eventually, you can use software to monitor internal temperature and others like fan speed, CPU temp, GPU temp, clock speed. Then software programs manage those factors by giving up laptop performance in order to preserve internal hardware from overheat. But, make sure to choose compatible software with your OS processor.

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