In order for you to enjoy your favorite games without worry, I’ve compiled the finest advice and techniques that you may apply if your gaming laptop overheats.
Both at the hardware and software levels, there are a variety of approaches to combat overheating.
Some are fairly straightforward, but others call for a little more technical know-how.
At the end of the day, everyone ought to be able to successfully lower the temperature of their gaming equipment.
Consider Trying These Tips to Keep Your Gaming Laptop Cool
1.) Select a Gaming Surface That Is Right for You
If possible, avoid using your laptop on unreliable surfaces like beds. As an alternative, always choose a sturdy surface for your computer, especially if you use high-performance software.
Your legs, blankets, pillows, and other soft objects might obstruct ventilation, which dramatically reduces cooling.
The rubber feet raise the laptop high enough when placed on a hard surface like a table top for the ventilation openings in the floor to still be able to take in enough air.
Run the temperature testing on a suitable surface, then worry less.
2.) Usea Cooling Pad
Cooling pads are a practical and affordable solution to keep your laptop cool.
Due to the rigorous operation of gaming laptops, these pads provide external fans to keep your laptop cool.
Typically, you set your laptop on the pad and use a USB cable to connect it to your device.
There are some laptops that blast warm air from the bottom, however the majority of computers draw in cold air from underneath and expel warm air from the sides.
If the blower on your gaming device is at the bottom, heat will build up and both devices will interfere with each other.
Check the ventilation issues your laptop has first.
3.) Look Into Laptop Fans
If you are experiencing overheating, you should always check the fans first.
Multiple installed fans in contemporary gaming systems work together to circulate air and effectively cool it.
The system’s ability to cool itself may deteriorate if one of these fans malfunctions.
The tools listed above can also be used to verify if your fans are still functioning. These additionally display the current fan speeds (RPM).
Two other signs that your fans are not operating properly under load are. Pay close attention to the following:
- Before a fan entirely fails, it creates a variety of rattling or grinding noises. Your fans may not be operating properly if they are generating this noise.
- A laptop has no fan running while it is overheated or under load. If you notice that a fan is silent when your laptop is operating hard, it is likely faulty and has to be replaced.
5.) Clean the Laptop Fan and Case
If every fan is functioning normally, it’s time to clean! Older laptops can develop a thick layer of dust over time, which reduces cooling efficiency.
When ventilation grilles or cooling fins are covered, the temperature drops significantly.
For the ventilation slots, some laptops incorporate pull-out dust filters that are simple and convenient to clean.
Sadly, this doesn’t happen very often. Typically, there is no way to avoid removing the laptop’s screws.
If you are unsure of how to proceed, investigate your laptop explicitly. This can operate differently depending on the gadget.
If you manage to accumulate a layer of dust within the laptop, carefully remove it using cotton swabs, a thin attachment vacuum, or—this is best—a little pressurized air.
More information on removing dust from your laptop may be found here.
The accumulation of dust on your gaming laptop cannot be avoided. The laptop must therefore be regularly cleaned, ideally every three to six months.
6.) Renew Thermal Paste
You might want to consider replacing your laptop’s thermal grease if it appears to be worn out. Only if you have no trouble getting to the CPU is this step suggested.
The thermal paste may eventually dry out and become ineffective in older systems.
You can replace the paste or just replace it with a better one by unscrewing the CPU cooler if your CPU is easily accessible.
The temperature will slightly decrease as a result, although it does require a little more technical know-how.
Naturally, the GPU qualifies as well because the thermal grease may be changed there, albeit it is typically a more difficult task.
7.) Upgrade Hardware
The temperature of your laptop might be reduced by installing an SSD. Your laptop will heat up more as it becomes busier.
Your gaming laptop’s temperature can be significantly reduced by using newer hardware that is more capable.
Even while changing the hardware on laptops is frequently only possible to a limited extent, there is usually at least some room for improvement in the RAM and hard drive departments.
Less frequent file transfers between RAM and the hard drive result in a lower CPU and hard drive load.
Even installing an SSD in place of a mechanical HDD will typically keep it cooler and improve system performance.
8.) Stop Running Too Many Programs
It is suggested to end frequently running programs rather than merely leaving them in the background because the temperature of the hardware is directly related to its load.
You should close any unused apps, especially before starting high-performance applications like games.
The traditional browsers “Google Chrome” and “Mozilla Firefox” have a high resource requirement.
To find out which applications are having the biggest influence on your computer, use the Windows task manager.
Additionally, since software like Bitcoin miners can consume a lot of resources on your machine, you should constantly scan it for malware.
9.) Reduce Graphics Settings in Games
Sometimes, less is better. To make your system work more efficiently while you game, you can reduce the strain that games place on it.
This can be done by reducing the quality of high-performance features like anti-aliasing and shadow processing.
Setting a frame limit makes sense, especially for older games where your hardware exceeds the needed 60 FPS.
Since the frame rate is constrained to the frame rate of your screen, you can also use V-Sync if the game does not have a direct function for this.
By doing so, you can significantly lower temperatures while reducing power use.
If you frequently experience frame drops as a result of downclocking caused by temperature, this option might provide you a stable and fluid feeling through continuous frame rates.
An alternative would be to purchase an external graphics card.
This is a terrific way to have graphics power comparable to desktop models while also significantly reducing internal heat production.
10.) Undervolting
Only use your processor voltage if you are confident in your abilities! Depending on the type of laptop you have, you might be able to “undervolt.” The phrase refers to the processor’s voltage being lowered.
The heat it produces while under load decreases with decreasing voltage. To avoid doing more harm than good, only choose this option if all other options have failed and you are certain of your actions.
The system stability will suffer if the voltage is decreased too much, and the laptop may frequently freeze and crash. You must access the BIOS of your laptop if you still want to test it.
You should look for a record with the title “CPU Core Voltage” or a sentence to that effect if free voltage regulation is a possibility. Set the offset value to -0.01V and switch the mode to “Offset” if “Auto” is chosen.
You can verify that everything is still working properly by launching your system and running a stress test with Cinebench, for example.
Prime95 should not be run on a gaming laptop due to the inability of the cooling system to handle the synthetic load.
Return to your BIOS and lower the setting by about 0.02V if your computer lasts through two or three Cinebench runs without crashing. You should keep doing this until your system becomes unstable.
When you reach this stage, adjust the voltage gently while increasing the smallest increments until the laptop is steady once more.
You can locate your sweet spot with this and gain a few more degrees under load.
Other settings can be significantly impacted and perhaps permanently damaged if they are changed or set wrongly without your knowledge.
As a result, you should only consider this choice if you are an expert in it and only as a last resort.
Final Words
A laptop requires more work to repair than a desktop computer. In many instances, it is better to hire a professional than to attempt to fix your expensive gaming laptop yourself.
If your laptop becomes too warm, some of our suggestions can help you get started. Asking a friend or an authority for help is preferable if you are not a technical person.
If your laptop is still under warranty, never remove the screws because doing so will void it!
If all of these suggestions work, there might be a difficult-to-fix flaw in one of your hardware components.
It won’t harm to get in touch with the manufacturer if your laptop is more recent and still under warranty.
Tell the makers about the issue you’re encountering because they could already be aware of it and may be able to provide you with additional guidance suited to your specific device.
You can look through laptop-specific forums and gain insightful information.
It’s also possible that an older laptop’s hardware simply isn’t designed to handle the system load of today’s software and games.
Only a fresh purchase will help in this situation if you don’t want to give up the newest video game releases.