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History has shown that there is always a drawback with any new invention. With new strides in making the laptop more portable and affordable, comes the problem of excessive heat. And for fans of online gaming, this has become a serious issue.
To date, there has not been a perfect solution to this issue, and this heat issue does not only shut down your laptop, but it can also cause the laptop to stop working entirely if you do not pay close attention to it.
The purpose of this article is to talk about the effective ways of managing this issue, but I go into that, let’s first talk about the reasons for the excessive heat issue.
The first thing you should know is, what do we call overheating of a laptop? The answer is simple: if you discover that your laptop is getting hot and the cooling fans are emitting heat, it means your laptop is overheating.
It’s natural for a working machine to generate heat, and that’s why your laptop is equipped with a fan to blow the heat away so that the components do not burn away. If you notice that your computer is experiencing any of the signs listed below, it means your laptop is overheating:
- If the fan of the laptop is running fast and the laptop is not working fast
- If your laptop suddenly shuts down while using it
- If you realize that the laptop is too hot to touch or too hot to put on your lap.
If you realize that your laptop is experiencing any of the three signs mentioned above, you should consider visiting a certified technician to help you fix the issue. Otherwise, the laptop may stop working permanently, and you will have to buy a new one.
Why Is It That Desktop Computer does not overheat as much as Laptops?
The first thing you need to know is that both desktop and laptop computers experience heat issues. Although the desktop heat issue is quite negligible, but if you play games on a desktop computer for long hours, you can get in trouble.
However, desktop computer heating issues can be easily solved; there are simple ways to use it to cool it down. But when a laptop overheats for an extended period, then that is a serious issue.
For a laptop, it is quite difficult to provide natural airflow that will reach the essential components, which can easily be done to a desktop computer. Your laptop will need a cool airflow to cool down, but the components are tightly packed, making it more difficult.
But you do not need to worry because there are simple ways that you can use to stop your laptop from overheating. You only need to take care and protect your laptop before real trouble begins.
If you realize that your laptop is overheating, follow the methods below to make it cool down.
10 Simple Ways to Keep Laptops Cool
1. Look for a flat surface
The place where we put our laptop when we want to use it has been proven to be one of the biggest threats to its lifespan. Most people are fond of using their laptops on their bed, which is one of the biggest causes of excessive heat.
If you are a fan of watching your favorite TV series on your bed, you might want to reconsider if you want your laptop to serve you for years.
Your laptop is designed with tiny vents made to emit the natural heat that the machine generates. Putting your laptop on a surface that obstructs these vents from emitting the heat will definitely make the laptop overheat.
Placing your laptop on a flat surface, like on a table, will increase the airflow, and the natural airflow will be able to move without being blocked. Placing the laptop on a smoother surface like a bed blocks the natural airflow and sends the heat back to the silicon chips.
The most financially reasonable thing to do is to invest in a laptop board or laptop tray. This will even allow you to enjoy your Netflix movies, all you need to do is put the laptop on the tray. This will allow the machine to get natural airflow.
At first, you might not notice any heat coming out of the laptop while using it on the bed without a tray, but you will see the results in a few months. The fans will stop blowing, and natural heat will not be emitting, and that will be the end of your laptop.
2. Cleaning Out the Dust
Dust blocks the natural airflow and causes excessive heat. And if you have been using your laptop for some years, dust may have accumulated in the system. It’s quite difficult to clean out dust from a laptop, but definitely worth it.
Cans of compressed air have been proven to be effective in fixing this issue. And to make it better, you will not need to open up your laptop. Cans would do the job for you from outside efficiently, and the dust will vanish.
I should point out that it is vital to switch off the laptop, unplug the power cable, and use a moderate shot of compressed air. To make it better, you can unscrew the panel to check the bottom dust. However, if your laptop manufacturers have a strict policy against it, then there is no need. Opening up the bottom panel will make you see if the fan is as clean as possible.
3. Invest in Cooling Pads to Prevent Overheating
The above two methods that I’ve explained could greatly help in reducing the heat issue that you are experiencing. But if you just bought a new laptop and realize that the machine heats up quickly, you will need to buy a cooling pad.
The cooling pad’s main job is to cool the laptop down, and it does it by blowing air to that laptop to reduce the external temperature. I once bought a cooling pad, and I was amazed at the results.
You need to be careful before you pay for a cooling pad – there are cooling pads that come with a fan and a stand that are not effective. Make sure that you do thorough research, and you can also read customer reviews before buying a new cooling pad.
4. Power Management Settings
This is another significant factor; make sure that you are using the proper power management settings. And if you are not using it right, you can follow the instructions below:
- Locate the ‘Power’ option on your laptop
- Click on the change plan setting
- And click on the advanced power settings.
Make sure that your laptop is using the highest level of cooling. This setting differs from the laptop model to another; all you need to do is locate the active cooling option and activate it.
In addition, if your laptop is working perfectly, there is no need to update the installed apps. This can make the app to consume more power and can result in excessive heat. Basically, if you can reduce the total load on your CPU and GPU, the heat generation will reduce.
5. Standing Fan
A standing fan can also be a decent temporary solution to the overheating issue that your laptop is experiencing. You can just place a standing fan near your laptop, which can aid the flow of natural air.
However, as I mentioned before, this is not a permanent solution because you can’t be carrying a fan with you everywhere. You will still need to invest in a cooling pad.
6. Shut down the laptop
I know it sounds unbelievable, but sometimes all you need to do is to shut down your laptop. One of the biggest causes of laptops overheating is because a lot of programs are running at the same time.
Your laptop can overheat if you are a fan of the high-end video games, or you like watching movies with 4K resolution, or you love multitasking. So when you realize that your laptop has raised the temperature to a level that is too high, the safest thing is to shut down.
All you need to do is save all the changes, close all the programs, and let the laptop rest for a while. Leave it for some minutes to cool down so that the temperature can reduce; otherwise, it will damage your laptop’s important components.
7. Adding More RAM
This is another decent way of ensuring that your laptop does not overheat. Using average RAM can cause excessive heat generation. As soon as your laptop reaches its memory peak, it will start to generate a lot of heat. You can easily fix this by upgrading the RAM, which will drastically reduce the heat and enhance the laptop’s performance.
8. Reduce the Load
Another effective method of preventing overheating is by reducing the load on the processor. All you need to do is to switch off unused apps that are running in the background.
You can easily do this by locating the task manager and identify the tasks that are consuming the laptop’s resources and end them to reduce the workload on your laptop.
There are fantastic apps that you can use to get the job done easily. Apps such as Speccy will always monitor your CPU, GPU, and overall load or heat generation.
9. Check Your Laptop Fans
If your laptop’s cooling fans are working perfectly, you will hardly have any temperature issue. Your laptop comes with fans that are fitted with vents to release hot hair out of the machine.
If you are using an old laptop and the fans are not working, you will need to take your laptop to a technician to replace it for you.
You can easily know if the fan is perfect by placing your hand along with the vents. If it’s working, you will see the hot air coming out, if you can’t see it, then you will probably need to replace the fan.
10. Reduce the CPU Clock Speed for Better Performance
If you are an advanced laptop user, you might have modified the clock speed of the processor of your laptop to optimize its performance. Overclocking the CPU of your laptop might be the reason why your laptop is getting hot quickly.
Although, overclocking the CPU of your laptop will give you better performance, but at the other end, the laptop will be generating a lot of heat that will eventually damage the laptop. It will be reasonable to switch it back to default settings to fix the overheating issue.
