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Laptop overheating


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So my laptop keeps on overheating when I am watching DVDs and playing games. It never used to. As you can maybe tell I know sweet FA about computers. How can I check to see what is causing the problem? The laptop is barely a year old.

 

It might have collected a bunch of dust which would make the laptop overheat a lot quicker when the cpu is used a lot (eg. playing dvd's, playing games & converting movies/clips).

 

The best thing to do is open up the laptop and clean out the dust clog in your laptop fan.

 

Hope this helps :)

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Do not open up your laptop if you don not no what you are doing!

When on the laptop do not cover the fan that is underneath th laptop that is stopping the hot air made by the electricity to the CPU dissapear. Download a program CPUID Hw Monitor http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

Then go down to CPU temps and tell me how much Degress Celecius is is.

Edited by WogMatt26
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I had a similar problem with my laptop (which is 3-4 years old at this point). This issue cannot be permanently fixed as it will happen over time no matter what. The number one way to prevent this problem is to always make sure that your laptop has "breathing room" - what I mean is don't leave it on a carpet or bedsheets or any non-flat surface that has the potential to cover the ventilation to the laptop.

 

The fix: Ok, I was weary about doing this too but given the age of the laptop and my previous experience with fixing the Red Ring of Death issue with Xbox 360s I decided to let my friend show me how it's done. I looked over his shoulder as he fixed this issue for me in a matter of 5 minutes.

 

You will need Artic Silver or a similar thermal paste. It cost me $10 but you can probably borrow it from a friend.

 

Look for the screws underneath your laptop below the area where the main fan is. This is likely where the heatsink is. The heatsink is a peice of metal that absorbs the heat that your CPU is generating. The heatsink is SUPPOSED to get hot - that is it's sole purpose. The purpose of the fan is to blow the heat in an effort to move as much of the heat away from your CPU chip as possible. The problem is that over time the substance (thermal paste) that passes the heat from the CPU to the heatsink will dissapear!

 

All you need to do is unscrew the heatsink (mine was bolted down to the motherboard with 2 simple screws) and remove it. Flip it over and you will see the remains of what used to be thermal paste.

 

Remove the remaining, old, likely crusted/hardened thermal paste using alcohol. Dipping a Q-tip in alcohol worked perfectly every time I've done this. Yes, you can clean the CPU chip itself with a q-tip but you do not want to apply too much pressure to the chip as it could damage it.

 

If it looks clean enough, skip the CPU chip and only worry about cleaning the heatsink. The heatsink is just a peice of metal and is impossible to damage so you can go ahead and use plenty of elbow grease to clean it using the Qtip dipped in alcohol.

 

Now simply squeeze a tiny amount of the arctic silver / thermal paste onto the CPU - you can use an expired/unused credit card to carefully smooth the thermal paste so it looks like a nice flat coating.

 

Carefully line up the heatsink in the exact same position it was before and screw it back down.

 

When we booted my laptop back up, not only did it no longer blow hot air but it began to blow COOL air!

 

You might just want to look this up on youtube because it's much easier to understand when you see the steps performed rather than taking a stab in the dark based on what I just explained.

 

All i'm saying is don't pay $100 to have this fixed if your laptop only cost $600 and you might have to bring it back next year.

 

Good luck!

Edited by K4157H3W153
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Which is a good idea, but too technical and won't fix the issue if the fan is dead. Is there any air moving when the laptop is powered? Odds are the thermal grease is working fine, there is no airflow on the system due to either obstructed exit vents or a dead fan. Check to see if the fan is running and air is moving.

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I had a similar problem with my new laptop during the summber cuz my apartment gets really hot so i bought a cooler for it to help keep the air flow going and keep a larger gap between my desk and the laptop

 

Also learned to not leave it on all the time especially during the summer

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Holy crap that's hot. Most computer should be running at around 50-60C. I would take htat computer to a professional and

let them clean it out.

 

Cool, I'll take it down to my local then. Thanks...

 

What you can fix in a matter of 15-20mn will cost you about $100+ at a pro.

 

I've done it before on my laptop and its nothing special - simply remove screws on the bottom of laptop take the whole bottom cover off, once off locate the fan and remove any clogged dust in or around it. Put cover back on, put the screws back on and voila your laptop is back to good temps.

 

But hey if that sounds to hard for you then you might as well give your hard earned money to a pro :).

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A cooling pad might alleviate some of the heat as well. They're relatively inexpensive ranging and can be found in most electronic stores.

 

If there is a bunch of dust clogs in and around the fan even the best cooling pad will not help it, I know as I have tried with leaving the laptop next to an AC with it on full blast.

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Sounds like a lot of dust build up more than likely. As dust clogs up your fan and vents, restricted airflow forces the fan to work increasingly harder. Eventually for protecting your hardware it shuts itself off if it gets too hot. 70-80 is very toasty but not dangerous. You can buy a can of compressed air and give it a very good spraying (careful not to use the can upside down) which should help considerably.

 

Those cool pads can help, but it is really only helping the symptom, not the cause. In fact, the USB powered ones, being powered by the laptop make the psu work harder, thus generating more heat (remember the stories of the original 360 models with the RROD?).

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As I stated before, it sounds like your fan is dead. Are you getting any airflow out of the system? I have a similar issue with a laptop that's shutting off in a quick amount of time. The fan is dead on that system as well. A $10 replacement and I'm back in business. Look into it. You could even find walkthroughs on how to open up the case, get the parts out and rebuild online.

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