5 Ways to Reduce Laptop Overheating While Gaming or Working
In recent times, gaming laptops have overtaken desktop computers in popularity in the market, especially among college students, young people, and professionals who need a device that can multitask with leading technical specifications and easy portability.
Sure, the price points are vastly different, but otherwise you’ll be able to run the latest games with pretty good performance and high frame rates, and generally have no issues running them. However, anyone who’s spent a few hours gaming on a laptop will know that the biggest problem with these machines is that they get really hot.
It’s a frustrating problem, and it can negatively affect your gaming experience as well as the hardware components inside – one of which might even burn out if it gets too hot. While cooling a laptop isn’t as easy as cooling a desktop computer, there are some useful solutions and tricks you can use to keep your laptop cool while gaming or working on heavy programs. In this article, we’ll go over five of these effective solutions, so let’s get started.
Method 1: Buy a Laptop Cooler
Because of the compact design of laptops, it is not surprising that they can get so hot. The compact design of the internal components limits the amount of cooling that can be obtained. Therefore, if you can add more fans to cool the laptop , it will greatly help it to run at higher performance and lower temperatures.
Fortunately, there are plenty of laptop coolers on the market that do just that. They’re basically a large fan or several fans built into a small laptop stand. All you have to do is place the stand on any table or desk, place your laptop on top, and turn it on. The fan will start directing air to the underside of your laptop, effectively cooling it down. Keep in mind that laptop coolers are inexpensive—and they usually do a solid job of keeping your laptop cool during hours-long gaming sessions.
This isn’t surprising, as you’re adding an extra fan to your laptop to boost airflow. But if you don’t have the money for a laptop cooler, you can always invest in a regular panel, which is a very small block that sits underneath your laptop, creating space to allow air to flow more freely. Many panels are made from materials that act as a heat sink , such as aluminum.
Although a less common solution, you can also invest in an external graphics card (eGPU). These devices cost a bit more than you might want to spend, but if you have the money to get them, they will save your laptop more power than an integrated graphics card on the motherboard, as these devices generate their heat away from the rest of the laptop's components.
Read also: The difference between the integrated and discrete graphics card in the laptop, and which is better to use?
Method 2: Use the laptop on a table or desk whenever possible.
Where you place your laptop is really important and should be taken care of. Not only does it allow you to use it while sitting on your bed; it’s probably a great way to relax, yes! But placing it on top of the covers or between your legs on your mattress is hardly a good idea. When it comes to “where,” your best bet is to place your laptop on a hard, flat surface rather than a soft or fluffy one. This ensures that airflow can better circulate underneath the device instead of heat getting “trapped” between components and overheating.
Floors, even hardwood floors, aren’t ideal places to put a laptop, mostly because of the excess dust particles floating around. Using your laptop on a desk or table is ideal, especially if it’s in a nice, cool room. Sure, using your laptop anywhere you want is one of the biggest perks of owning one, but if you’re gaming or doing some other resource- intensive task , you’ll need all the help you can get to provide proper ventilation.
Method 3: Keep your laptop components clean
It’s a known fact, but if your laptop is clogged with dust and dirt, the air exhaust fans won’t be able to do their job as well as they should. Even if you don’t live in a dusty place, every square inch of floor is covered in some sort of dust – that’s a fact – so if you don’t clean your house properly, especially if you have pets, your entire house is covered in dust. This dust makes its way into your laptop through the vents at the bottom, and over time it can clog those vents completely.
The easiest way to get the job done is to buy a blower, turn off the laptop, take it outside, and then start the blower and aim it at the vents to blow out the accumulated dust and dirt. You can also disassemble the underside of the device to get better access to the internal components and dusty areas that can’t be reached through the vents, but be aware that doing so may void your warranty, and if you run the blower on a high airflow setting, you may damage the sensitive hardware components inside.
Also check out: How to Identify the Root Cause of Processor Overheating Problem
Once you've cleaned as much dust as possible from your laptop, you can always finish off the cleaning job by using dry cotton swabs to get rid of the dust that's accumulated in those small, hard-to-reach areas.
Method 4: Change some settings on the laptop
Believe it or not, there are settings on your laptop that you can adjust to ensure it runs at the ideal temperature. Aside from buying a laptop with the technical specifications that can meet the demands of the games you play, you’ll be smarter if you check for and install available driver and operating system updates on a regular basis.
Options include lowering the screen brightness slightly so that it is below 100% and still being able to see clearly. Also, make sure to close unnecessary programs that are using intensive resources. You can launch the Task Manager tool and check which programs are exploiting the capabilities of the processor, RAM, and hard drive and temporarily close them until you are done playing. Also, check the power settings of the laptop, where you will find a variety of options and pre-set configurations that will increase the power saved.
If you want to be sure that the changes you’ve made are actually having an effect in reducing the temperature, you can always download free monitoring software like SpeedFan to effectively monitor your computer’s temperature. Not every fan or piece of hardware has a specific maximum temperature gauge, but you should be able to tell how well your machine is putting out heat. Also, although it’s a less common issue, you may want to see if your BIOS needs to be updated since it’s a factor in temperature.
Method 5: Perform routine maintenance
Like any other electronic device, laptops aren’t designed to last the way other products might, and as such, everything inside a laptop has a limited lifespan. So, routine maintenance on your laptop is a must. While cleaning it regularly is part of good device maintenance, there are other things you may want to check every so often to help keep your laptop running as cool as possible.
If your laptop has suddenly started overheating recently, you may need to replace the cooling fan as it is likely to be the cause of the problem. You can usually tell if a fan is faulty by the noise it makes. You will also want to make sure that you haven’t misused your laptop’s charger and battery recently. One of the easiest ways to shorten the life of your laptop is to overcharge its battery.
In most laptops, the charging port is soldered to the motherboard, and if it breaks or gets damaged, it will be more expensive to repair than buying a whole new laptop . So, you shouldn’t keep the charger plugged in all the time because this is also an easy way to damage the charging port quickly.
Also, your laptop battery will get hotter when it's being charged than when it's not charging. So, charging your device at night after you're done using it and then only charging it while you're using it when you absolutely need it is one way to ensure your laptop continues to run cooler.
Finally, if your laptop is overheating and you’re looking for ways to help it run cooler, the five methods above should help. If you have an older laptop, it might be time to upgrade.