5 Minute HelpDesk – How to Prevent My Laptop from Overheating
Overheating is one of the greatest threats to your laptops. It can damage both the external and internal components. Our IT Helpdesk from Perth will help you understand why your laptop is overheating and how to prevent your laptop from overheating.
How to Know If Your Laptop Is Overheating?
The most common signs indicating your laptop might be overheating are:
- The laptop fan running the entire time at maximum speed, and you can audibly hear it.
- If it hurts to touch the laptop’s base.
- Performance is drastically slowed. This is caused by the CPU reducing the clock speed to lower heat stress.
- Unexpected shutdowns. The fail-safe system gets triggered by overheating. It shuts down the system to limit hardware damage.
What are the Causes of overheating?
Some of the common reasons for overheating are:
Faulty Laptop Fan
Laptops generate heat even during normal working, and for the same reason, they’re built with internal fans. The fans will blow out hot air and suck in cooler air. When these fans stop working properly, it leads to overheating.
The fan can get faulty because of dust and dirt clogging, or the air vents are being blocked, restricting airflow.
Incorrect Placement
Another possible reason is your laptop’s improper placement, leading to blocking the airflow through the laptop’s air vent.
Old Battery
Laptop batteries are mostly lithium-based. As the battery ages, this chemical naturally decays. The older the battery gets, it becomes less efficient and produces more heat.
Overcharging
If your laptop is being overcharged, it may also result in increased heat production from your system.
Software
Overheating can be induced by running too many apps and programs in the background. It can overwork your laptop leading to producing heat more than normal.
How to Prevent Your Laptop from Overheating
Laptop overheating can be prevented by following the below methods.
Clean Out the Accumulated Dust
As time passes, the air vents in your laptop get clogged by dust accumulation. This will block airflow leading to overheating. You can remove the accumulated dust using a can of compressed air. Spray the compressed air into the air vents in quick and short blasts. Before doing it, ensure the laptop is switched off and unplugged.
Use a computer vacuum to suck out the dust or a cotton swab to remove any noticeable dust. If you are not very familiar with servicing laptop hardware or your laptop has a guarantee, it’s wise to take your laptop to a professional to clean the air vents.
Use Lap Desk or Stand
Use a lap desk to increase ventilation and maintain constant airflow to keep your laptop temperature under control. If appropriately placed on a flat surface, the small rubber feet on the laptop’s bottom is enough to provide the elevation required to enhance airflow.
However, if they are placed on your laps or bumpy surfaces, the airflow can get restricted, leading to overheating. So, it’s always best to keep your lap on flat surfaces.
Elevate
Elevate the laptop to prevent overheating due to lack of inadequate ventilation. You can purchase a laptop cooling mat to provide enough ventilation under the device.
Monitor your laptop temperature
Install a program to monitor and control the temperature of your laptop. You can also control the fan speeds with these programs. If you find your laptop overheating, you can adjust the fan based on your system temperatures.
Adjust Your Settings
Check your laptop settings to ensure it is set up to manage a heavy graphics load. Some of the adjustments you can make to settings to decrease your CPU’s workload are reducing the screen’s brightness, closing idle apps, unplugging U.S.B.-powered devices etc. Also, ensure the power-management settings are activated. Another factor that gives workload to the CPU is video flash in browsers. Use a FlashBlock in your browsers; that way, the flash videos will only be turned on whenever you need them.
Keep Your Laptop Away from Direct Heat
Put your laptop away from direct sunlight or other external heat sources. Excessive exposure to direct sunlight or heat sources can lead to laptop overheating caused by battery damage or the hard drive’s expansion. These are some simple tips on how to prevent your laptop from overheating. If your laptop still shows signs of overheating, you may need professional help. Contact us or email us at helpdesk@computingaustralia.group. Our IT HelpDesk in Perth is 24/7 available to help you with all of your IT problems.
Jargon Buster
Central Processing Unit – CPU – The part of a computer that retrieves and processes instructions. It is the system’s brain and consists of an ALU, a control unit, and various registers.
USB Devices – Any external device that plugs into the computer through the USB port. E.g. External hard drives, flash drives etc.