Is your laptop producing excessive heat even when performing normal tasks? This isn’t one of those issues you can ignore, as overheating can cause serious problems to your laptop in the long run, such as thermal throttling. But why exactly does your laptop overheat, and what can you do to prevent it?
These 5 Factors Are Causing Your Laptop to Overheat
An overheating laptop can cause any number of problems. It can increase your laptop’s boot time, significantly affect your laptop’s speed, and evencause the operating system to crashsporadically. It can also make thebuilt-in fans of your laptop produce more noise, and reduce their lifespan. While there could be several reasons why your laptop overheats, the following ones are often the main culprits.
Poor Ventilation and Airflow
Most of your laptop’s components, such as the processor, produce heat when they function. To manage the heat generated by these components, manufacturers install a fan in your laptop. This fan helps heat escape through the air vents, which are mainly located beneath your laptop’s keyboard.
Since most of us have the habit of using our laptops on our laps, we often end up blocking the air vents accidentally. I’m writing this guide with my laptop placed on my lap, and yes, it is also getting warm. I can feel it on my thighs.
When the air vents are blocked, the fans are unable to displace the warm air; as a result, your laptop overheats. When this happens, the fan will start rotating at a higher speed and produce more noise. The solution, in this case, is to ensure that you place and use the laptop in an upright position, and ensure that the vents (which are often on the sides or back) are clear.
The warm air might also fail to exit the laptop due to the accumulation of dirt and debris on the air vents. In this case, you’ll have to manually clean the vents. To do this, shut down your laptop and disconnect it from the charger. Then, use a can of compressed air to get rid of all the dirt and debris from the vents.
If you notice that the laptop fan is still making noise even after you have cleared the air vents, it indicates that dirt and dust have accumulated on the fan itself, causing it to work harder to dissipate the heat generated by your laptop. In this case, you need to open the back of your laptop and clean the fan. you may use a compressed air can or a toothbrush to remove the dirt and debris. I would advise cleaning the vents and fan every 3 to 4 months.
Don’t let the can of compressed air freely spin the fan. It could (theoretically) damage it, and there is no sense in taking the unnecessary risk.
CPU and GPU Overload
Your GPU and CPU produce heat when they function. The amount of heat produced by both these components is directly proportional to the amount of work they are doing. For instance, if you are performing a basic task like browsing the internet or using lightweight applications like Microsoft Paint, then it’s not going to put much stress on your laptop’s GPU or CPU.
However, if you perform resource-demanding tasks on your laptop, like playing graphics-intensive games such as Cyberpunk or using CPU-hogging applications like Photoshop, then your laptop’s GPU and CPU will have to do a lot of work; as a result, they will produce a lot of heat.
You cantake a look at your CPU and GPU temperaturesusing applications likeHWMonitor. Under your CPU name section, you will find a subsection called Temperatures. Expand the “Cores” option to view the temperature of all your CPU cores. Then, under your GPU name section, you’ll find the temperature of your GPU under the Temperature subsection.
It’s normal for the CPU and GPU temperatures to rise when you perform resource-demanding tasks. However, if you notice the temperature gets very high—like CPU and GPU numbers reaching 80-90° C—then it is something you need to be concerned about.
There could also be a bug with your graphics driver, similar to the one that happened with the NVIDIA driver a few years ago, which causes the driver to stay in its highest performance mode even when users are not performing any graphics-intensive tasks. As a result, the GPU was always in the working state, which ultimately resulted in higher GPU temperatures.
You can usually find discussions in online forms and the official support pages that will confirm if a bug like that exists. If there is a bug causing the issue, an official patch delivered via a driver update will usually sort out the problem.
The thermal paste and pads of your CPU and GPU could also dry out over time, which ultimately results in lower GPU and CPU performance. In this case, unfortunately, you will have to visit a technician to get yourGPU and CPU thermal paste and pads replaced.
Windows Power Settings
On your Windows laptop, you can manually choose between Best Performance, Balanced, and Best Power Efficiency power modes depending on your usage. For instance, if you are about to perform a resource-demanding task on your laptop, I would recommend changing the Power Mode to “Best Performance.” This will ensure that your laptop uses more energy to offer better performance.
While it may be intimidating to keep the Power Mode always configured as Best Performance, the downside of selecting this option is that your laptop will produce more heat in order to offer you good performance. That’s why it’s better to switch back to the Balanced option to get a balanced performance and battery life from your laptop.
CPU Turbo Boost
Disabling CPU Turbo Boost is another quick way to fix your laptop’s overheating issue. To do this, open the Registry Editor and navigate to the following location:
Double-click “Attributes” on the right pane, type0in the Value data field, and click “OK.”
Next,open the Control Panel, and navigate to System and Security > Power Options > Change Plan Settings > Change Advanced Power Settings.
Double-click “Processor Power Management” and then “Processor Performance Boost Mode.” Choose “Disabled” for both On Battery and Plugged In. Finally, click “Apply” and “OK” to save the changes.
Outdated BIOS
Unlike an OS update, I don’t normally recommend updating your computer’s BIOS because it isn’t usually necessary. BIOS updates don’t normally bring any new features to your computer; instead, they introduce support for new CPU models or fix a bugs with any of the installed hardware.
However, if you have tried all the other listed solutions and are still facing the overheating issue on your laptop, then updating the BIOS may do the trick. Unless you have made any changes, the BIOS is configured to control your laptop’s fan speed. So, if you notice that the fan starts to run at full speed due to excessive heat in your laptop, thenupdating the BIOScould solve the problem.
BIOS updates may also affect the behavior of your CPU, which could affect how much heat it outputs.
In addition to updating BIOS, you should also make sure that you are using the latest Windows update. To check for any available updates for your laptop, open the Settings app, choose “Windows Update,” and click the “Check for Updates” button.
Other Reasons That Can Make Your Laptop Overheat
I talked about all the basic reasons that can contribute to an overheating laptop—all reasons that can be addressed without needing to buy anything. However, if you continue to face the overheating issue on your laptop despite following all the solutions mentioned above, it’s an indication that there’s a serious issue with your laptop’s hardware.
I recommend opening the Task Manager whenever your laptop overheats and checking the Memory and CPU tabs. If you see that your laptop is consuming 80-100 percent of the available memory and CPU, it confirms that the overheating issue is caused by insufficient RAM. As it turns out, when your laptop doesn’t have enough RAM, it relies on the installed storage drive for virtual memory. This, in turn, increases the load on your CPU and the drive itself, causing them to heat up.Upgrading your RAMis the best solution in this situation.
In addition to having less RAM, the overheating issue can also stem from an old or failing laptop battery. To confirm this, you shouldgenerate a battery health reporton your laptop and check for any red flags in it. If there are any, I highly recommend replacing your laptop battery.
It’s completely normal for an old laptop to produce more heat compared to a new one due to the aging of its components. However, if it’s producing more heat than expected, or if you are facing overheating issues on a new laptop, then you now know what’s causing the problem and how to fix it.
