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How to Diagnose and Fix an Overheating Laptop

One of the most common issues with aging laptops is overheating, something many

people aren’t sure how to fix. We’ll help you figure out what’s causing the heat and how

to keep your notebook functioning at a lower temperature.

Overheating computers can cause a lot of problems, from seemingly random blue

screens to data loss. You might not even know that it’s the root of your issues, and

before you know it you have a burnt-out motherboard on your hands. Let’s go step by

and step and see how to deal with overheating computers. We’ll be dealing primarily

with laptops, but most of the same principles apply to desktops as well.

Find the Heat Source:

Air Flow and Heat Transfer

The first thing you need to do is figure out where the heat is coming from. No air flow

means no heat transfer, so figure out where the air vents are. Are they blowing hot air,

or is there barely a breeze, even when the fan is overtaxed?

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Most commonly, an accumulation of dust in the vents and fans through the cooling

channels will be culprit in restricting air flow. Cleaning it out will work best. Turn you

laptop upside-down and look at what you’ve got.

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Unscrew the fan doors and you should be able to lift out the fan and clean everything

with a can of compressed air.

If you find that a fan is spinning erratically, you may want to try lifting the sticker off of

the axle and putting a drop of mineral oil to keep it going.

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You can also try to look up the part number from your laptop’s user manual or by

searching your laptop model number online. Once you have that, you can find

replacements pretty easily on eBay and the like.

Dying Batteries: There are plenty of different types of batteries, and many different schools of thought

on battery maintenance and life span, but one thing that seems pretty unanimous is

that batteries aren’t meant to be stored at 100% or 0% capacity. I know plenty of

people who buy laptops and always keep the charger in, never actually using the

battery. You can definitely expect to kill your battery’s health this way, since you’re

essentially storing the battery when it’s full. Bad batteries don’t just give out really

quickly, they can generate heat.

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(Image credit: Bryan Gosline)

You can buy replacement batteries pretty easily online, even for laptops that are four

years old. You just need to know what model your computer/battery is. If you can’t find

one, you may consider using your laptop as a desktop and remove the overheating

battery completely from the equation.

Persistent Overheating:

If you’ve taken the air vents and battery out of the picture and you’re still having

problems, then you might have a more persistent heat issue. Sometimes a dusty hard

drive can cause heat problems and data loss. Some laptops just “run hot,” even without

a major load on the CPU. Try cleaning out these areas as best you can before you move

on to another solution.

Dust under the processor and RAM doors to get rid of any dust and debris. If you’ve got

a netbook or a laptop without compartments underneath, things might be more

difficult. You should be able to find instructions for getting the back off so you can clean

things properly.

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Behavior Changes:

Laptop owners have a lot of luxury by not being tethered to a chair and desk. We

develop a lot of habits, like browsing in bed that can actually work against computers’

normal performance. A lot of laptops are designed with their air vents on the bottom for

some ridiculous reason, so setting it down on soft bedding or carpet for prolonged use

is a bad idea. You’d be surprised at how quickly the heat can build up. If you have this

is a habit, you might consider investing in a laptop-stand to keep the air flow

unobstructed.