10 reasons why your Gaming laptop is hot
That is very normal for gaming laptops that they get hot, especially when a user is gaming or doing any other hardware-intensive things for example editing a video.
How to prevent your Gaming laptop form overheating?
Gaming laptops are ideal for gamers and users with a high usage, because they are very flexible, they offer portability. If you ask a gamer what is a common problem while playing, most likely they mention that sometimes gaming laptops get so hot and this make them concern about the laptop.
Gaming laptops become very hot because they have high-performance processors and dedicated graphics cards. These features create a lot of heat under usage. We must add that these components are placed in a very small chassis, where no airflow is possible. And it is common sense if something is in a small place plus there is no air there, it builds up heat.
That is very normal for gaming laptops that they get hot, especially when a user is gaming or doing any other hardware-intensive things for example editing a video. These devices created for this, so the user is not making any mistake, if he using his machine for gaming or video editing.
From what temperature we can speak about overheating?
The normal temperatures of the laptops should be between 30°C and 40°C. Under load the CPU and GPU normally go up between 70 and 80°C. Basically anything below 80°C is safe temperature. Beyond 80°C, most gaming laptops will start to cause problems, some of them only from 90°C. Depend of the design, at around 99°C the laptop should automatically shut down to prevent permanent damage to the CPU and GPU and other components.
There available free softwares, like MSI Afterburner, Core Temp, and HW Monitor, to monitor your laptop’s CPU and GPU temperatures.
How do you know if your gaming laptop is overheating?
If this is the case you can experience all sort of problems, but the most commons are:
- Gaming laptop suddenly shuts down (this is normal working order to prevent permanent demage to hardware by overheating)
- Fans become loud and spinning fast. This symptom means that your fans are working very hard to cool down the laptop.
- Laptop doesn’t even perform for simple tasks
- You can feel your device become hot where you keep your wrist, and for example in the keyboards.
- You only experience overheating during the usage of certain games
- You receive error-messages about CPU and fan failure
Let us tell you 10 reasons why your Gaming laptop become too hot!
Below we have summarized the 10 most common causes of overheating.
- Probably you have programs in the background what are running without you realize. These can put a lot of unnecessary stess on the CPU.
- You have to check your fans. A faulty fan can cause problems, but easy to change them.
- Your place’s temperature is not ideal for using a gaming laptop.
- Using a gaming laptop on a soft surface for example a duvet on your bed.
- Dusty air intake vents – if your air intake vents are clogged it can cause problem.
- The speed of your fans spin maybe are too limited. If your software configurations are not right, it can be a problem.
- Your computer’s thermal pasta lost its effectivity.
- The gaming laptop’s cooling system is inproperly designed
- The gaming laptop’s hardware doesn’t meet the requirements of the game or the certain software what you run.
- Overlocked computer’s CPU or GPU.
Of course, we don’t only collect the reasons, but we also want to give you advice on how you can prevent overheating.
Let’s start with the most basic tricks. There are some basic maintenances, what you should do for your Gaming laptops good.
- Use your gaming laptop on a hard, flat, proper surface while gaming. Most of the gaming laptops are created with an air intake vent at the bottom of the machine, so if you block that part with soft surface, don’t surprise if your laptop is overheating. A hard, flat surface allows the gaming laptop to draw in air more freely, and it can cool the internal components properly. Also, you can use a laptop cooling pad, what improves air circulation, no matter where you use your device.
- Control your room temperatures. If your room is too hot it can increase your laptop overheating. The ideal temperature is between 20-35 °C for gaming. Set up your AC thermostat and it will help your laptop to be able to run in an ideal, cool air.
- Cleaning your gaming laptop in every 6 months is not a big deal, but we recommend it at least once a year to get rid of dust and other particles what was collected by the fans and clogged the air intake vents. This obviously it will improve airflow and prevents overheating.
- To replacing faulty fans is part of an ordinary maintenance. After a few years of usage, you should replace the fans, otherwise they become less effective and unable to draw in air. No surprise that poor air circulation can cause overheating
- We recommend to you to close all unnecessary programs for the Windows Task Manager. Some programs in the background can cause stress on your laptop’s CPU, thus resulting overheating. This is very simple: Just open Windows Task Manager, view the running programs, and close the unnecessary ones. To open Task Manager, press “Ctrl + Shift + Esc” keyboard shortcut. Then scroll through the list of programs, and close those what you don’t need, select ‘End Task’. Also, important to stop certain programs from running on start-up, for that press ‘Startup’ tab at the top, and click on the program, and select ‘Disable’.
- If you notice overheating problems soon after purchasing your gaming laptop, better return it to the shop. Most probably they can fix it to you under your warranty. If the certain design is not properly for gaming, you can still get a better-designed laptop. Very important to check reviews online before your purchase a new device.
More useful advices:
- Lower your graphics settings
To lessen the load on the GPU you must lower your graphics settings. Games at their highest settings cause overheating, because they are a lot more processing and rendering has to be done to get detailed images. With making the correct setting you can less heat generation.
- Check Fan Speed setting in Bios
As a basic working order fans should increase speed as CPU or GPU temperatures rise. If it not happens your laptop become very hot. This is why you have to check your Bios settings.
To enter Bios settings, press BIOS key during start-up. It could be F10, F2, F12, F1, or DEL keys, depending on your device designer. After go to advanced settings, then hardware monitor, where you can find the fan configuration settings.
If it is not possible to adjust fan speed from your BIOS, try to use SpeedFan software.
- Reapply Your CPU And GPU Thermal Paste
Thermal paste, or thermal compound or (also known as) thermal grease, is applied between the heat spreader and the processor and graphics card cooler to enhance heat dissipation.
After a certain time it can lose its effectiveness and needs to be replaced.
Sometimes it probably poorly applied in the factory, what is also not good for your device.
With even better results liquid metal can also be used in place of thermal paste.
Warning: Before you ask to replace thermal paste, always read your laptop’s manual to be sure you don’t lose your warranty.
- Make back the original settings for CPU and GPU if you previously overclocked them
If you previously overlocked your CPU or GPU, underclock them
As Overclocking makes your CPU and GPU running in much higher speeds, it cannot have a proper cooling mechanism. To fix this problem, just simply set it back to the original settings. Of course, you should backup all your data in an external storage, not to lose any important files during the process.
Solving each of the above issues should get your laptop running cooler so that you can get back to enjoying games. If you are stuck solving the problem, we’re here to help.