Is Your Laptop Overheating? How Can You Fix It?

Last Updated on September 29, 2022 by Rupesh Patil

Laptops, just like most modern-day gadgets, are becoming more compact with each passing year. While there is no way the brands would stop improving the performance of their laptops, there’s a problem that is often associated with such high-performance machines: overheating. A lot of times, you might have noticed that your laptop gets warmer than usual. If it overheats to such a degree that it’s hard to operate and the performance is affected, it could be a matter of huge concern.

Have you been facing laptop overheating issues? In this article, we’ve listed some common solutions to the problem so that you can identify why your laptop is overheating and how you can fix it. In some cases, you might need to get it repaired via a professional laptop service engineer. In such cases, you can take the help of Onsitego’s Laptop Repair service for quick, high quality, and cost-effective repairs.

Why Does A Laptop Overheat?

There could be multiple reasons behind your laptop getting hot. For starters, if your laptop might be in a place where the ambient temperature is high. In such a case, it is fairly normal to expect the machine to overheat. If you use the laptop in such an area where the air circulation is not sufficient, the laptop is prone to overheating.

There is also a possibility that the laptop’s air exhaust vents might be blocked, preventing airflow and resulting in laptop overheating issues. The problem could also arise if you are not using the original charging adapter. Another reason could be a piece of software or service that’s running in the background and consuming a lot of processing power.

A laptop could also overheat if the internal components are clogged with dust, preventing clean airflow. The problem could also arise if the CPU’s thermal paste has worn off, leading to inefficient thermal management. If the laptop’s internal cooling components such as the heat sink or cooling fans are malfunctioning.

Most Common Ways To Fix Laptop Overheating Problems

1. Remove Dust From The Laptop For Efficient Airflow
2. Check For Wear And Tear
3. Use The Original Or Certified Laptop Charger
4. Prevent Unnecessary Apps And Processes From Starting Automatically
5. Use A Laptop Cooling Pad
6. Keep The Room Cooler
7. Update BIOS Settings
8. Run The Power Troubleshooter Menu
9. Change The Power Plan
10. Replace CPU Thermal Paste

1. Remove Dust From The Laptop For Efficient Airflow

Modern-day laptops usually feature CPU fans to ensure proper ventilation. A laptop is more prone to collecting dust over time when compared to devices like smartphones. If your laptop is overheating, the first thing that you need to check is if there is a lot of dust accumulated in the air vents or around the CPU and the whole cooling system.

If there is dust inside the duct, you can clean it using a soft brush or a soft cloth. You can also use a can of compressed air. Make sure that you don’t damage any laptop components while trying to remove the dust. This should solve a lot of laptop overheating related issues.

2. Check For Wear And Tear

Your laptop is a complex machine with intricate parts and components. If it is generating excess heat, there is a possibility that some parts or components might be damaged due to wear and tear. Check if any such damage has occurred to the charging cable, the charging adapter, or the ports of your laptop. If such an instance has occurred, you might need to get a replacement for the damaged part.

3. Are You Using The Original/Certified Charger?

Kindly make sure that you are using the original charger that came bundled with the laptop. There might be an abundance of third-party compatible chargers in the market, which will likely be way more affordable compared to the original charger. But it is always better to use a genuine or certified laptop charger.

4. Prevent Unnecessary Apps And Processes From Automatically Starting

If there are a lot of applications running in the background when the laptop starts. Sometimes, a lot of useless apps and services can start during the login process, putting a lot of processing load on the laptop’s processor and reducing its performance. Things become worse if you have also simultaneously plugged your laptop into a power source. To avoid such a situation, you can stop all the apps that you deem unnecessary during the startup.

To stop these apps, you can either use the Windows Task Manager or you can hit the settings menu and disable the unnecessary apps from there. Furthermore, there are several startup processes that you can disable. That being said, kindly make sure that you don’t disable any apps or processes which are crucial for a successful Windows boot.

5. Use A Laptop Cooling Pad

Even if your laptop has an internal CPU cooling fan, buying an external cooling pad for your laptop might help remove excess heat while charging and performing heavy tasks. A laptop cooling pad provides additional cooling support to help the laptop run as intended. That said, you should keep in mind that the native cooling mechanism varies per device, so you will need to make sure that the cooling pad that you invest in supports your laptop.

6. Keep The Room Cool

Sometimes, the laptop is not at all at fault and is just overheating because there’s a higher ambient temperature, especially during summers. In some cases, you can tweak things around in your room and use an AC, cooler, or fan to bring down the ambient temperature and prevent the laptop from overheating.

7. Update BIOS Settings

One of the key functions of your laptop’s BIOS is to monitor its temperature and tweak the operating conditions accordingly. To make sure that your laptop is not overheating, try to update your laptop’s BIOS. An updated BIOS can help manage the fan better, reduce CPU power loads, and eliminate other processes that might adversely affect the laptop’s performance and temperature.

8. Run The Power Troubleshooter Menu

If laptop overheating is being caused by faulty software, the root cause is on the software level. In such cases, running the power troubleshooter can help sometimes to fix the issue. To perform the power troubleshooting, you need to go through the following steps:

1. Press Windows + I keys on your laptop’s keyboard.
2. Select Update and Security.
3. Click on the Troubleshoot option.
4. Click on the Power option.
5. Select the Run the Troubleshooter option.

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In all likelihood, a software-related error causing the overheating issue will be fixed by performing a power troubleshoot.

9. Change The Laptop’s Power Plan

Sometimes, changing the power plan of your laptop can help fix the overheating problem. Due to high power consumption, a laptop can get exceedingly hot while charging, so tweaking the power plan could come in handy.

In the power plan settings, you can set the level of performance needed and you can even tweak the tone of your laptop’s power-saving features. To create a custom power plan, you have to go through the following steps:

1. Click on the Start icon and type Control Panel in the search box.
2. Select the Control Panel option.
3. Click on Hardware and Sound.
4. Select Power Options.
5. Select Create a power plan.

This way, you can create your own power settings. While this is not the most powerful and the most viable solution for your laptop overheating problem, this will still help you conserve energy and extend your laptop battery life.

10. Replace CPU Thermal Paste

Every laptop has a CPU and it uses a thermal paste to pass on the heat generated by the CPU to the cooling solution (heat sink and cooling fans). Sometimes, if the laptop manufacturer uses low-quality thermal paste, it can wear off within a couple of years. It could wear off even faster if you use the laptop in hot and humid conditions.

In such a case, you might need to get a professional to help you open the laptop and replace the thermal paste with a higher quality one. You can find good thermal paste from brands like Arctic, Cooler Master, Noctua, and Thermal Grizzly. Read the reviews before buying a thermal paste and go with the one that has received good ratings. Then, take help from a certified laptop service engineer to replace the existing thermal paste with a newer, higher-quality one. This should fix a lot of overheating issues in your laptop.

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Hopefully, the solutions listed here might have helped you in identifying the issues that are causing your laptop to overheat. Once you understand the issue, it is easier to stop the laptop from overheating and causing any damage to the hardware. Once the issue is fixed, your laptop shouldn’t overheat and stop you from facing any issues with the performance.

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