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ComputerWays to Fix an Overheating Laptop

Some Ways to Fix an Overheating Laptop

By Sophia | Last Updated

As a portable PC, laptops are very popular among young men which have impelled it to develop very fast in the past couple of years. A laptop can offer better performance facilitated by chips that are more densely packed with transistors. And all this come at a cost: overheating.

You may have experienced that your laptop became very hot when you ran some apps in parallel. As a survey shows, the overheating is the second threat for a laptop just behind the coffee mug, which can cause hardware failure and permanent damage to your system. To solve the problem, we will introduce some ways by which you can fix an overheating laptop and thus improve the performance and largely expand the lifespan of your laptop.

fix an overheating laptop

Get the whole understanding of overheating

How can we know the laptop is overheating? If the laptop gets too hot, can we say that it is overheating? The answer is no. In fact, when your laptop is overheating, the black screen will appear repeatedly or the laptop will automatically restart. All these signs will lead to the overheating result.

When you use the laptop, its fans run at maximum speed. But the laptop does not have enough power to cool itself down as it has the less efficient cooling system. Thus, the laptop is easier to stop working due to overheating. For your high end performances, you should take the cooling systems into consideration when choosing the laptop.

Way 1: Fix the internal cooling fan.

As we mention before, the fans play an essential role in cooling the laptop. So, when your laptop is overheating, the first thing you should do is clean the fan that provides cooling to CPU and graphic card. There may be a layer of dust on the fans which make it work slower with less airflow. To clean the fan, you need to disassemble the laptop carefully. If you are unfamiliar with the operations, you can consult the technician or search online for the specific guides.

Attention: before you clean the fans, some tips should be followed:

  • shut down the computer
  • power off the computer
  • remove the battery
  • ground yourself

clean cooling fan

Steps to clean the fan:

  • Clean the fans carefully. It is better to clean it with a cotton swab dipped in a drop of alcohol.
  • Clean the exhaust port: use a vacuum cleaner to suck out air.
  • Clear the intake grills: use canned air to spray them.
  • Add fresh thermal grease to the interface between the CPU and its heat sink.

If you are not sure that you can handle these operations well, you can ask for the technician for help. Otherwise, you will do damage to the laptop by mistake.

Way 2: Keep the laptop on a hard and flat surface.

put laptop on flat

Most laptops suck in cooling air through their bottoms. If the laptop sits on an uneven surface like a blanket, pillow, or your lap, it is difficult for the laptop to accept normal airflow. As a result, the cooling is not optimal so that heat increases and the surface become hot. As the temperature of cooling air rises, the laptop eventually becomes overheating. Therefore, it is necessary to place the laptop on a hard & flat surface.

Way 3: Add a laptop cooler for your laptop.

additional cooler

If you think the internal cooling fans are not enough for the laptop performance, you can add an additional laptop cooler. As we figured out before, most laptops suck in air for cooling from the bottom. It is reasonable because warm air rises upwards. For you to choose the laptop cooler, you should buy a cooler that blows cool air upwards into the laptop so that it can accelerate the cooling process.

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