Tips to prevent your laptop from overheating

My laptop is so hot you could fry an egg on it. Sadly, that’s not a clever euphemism for “wow, my laptop is on fire because I’m churning out so much work.”

My laptop really is like Mount Vesuvius, waiting to erupt at any moment!

For the last month or so, every time I put my laptop on my lap, I end up with burnt thighs, which I can assure you, is not a pretty sight! I know Rod Stewart weighed in on the virtues of Hot Legs, but this is ridiculous!

I’ve never really been a ‘portable’ person until August of last year, when just before I went on vacation, my PC decided to have a hairy seizure and started throwing me blue screens of death and all sorts of other unspeakable techies -arrghh!

So I took the bull by the horns, headed to the nearest store, and grabbed a laptop that I thought was pretty cool. I know, attractiveness is not a good criteria for choosing a laptop, but I was pretty desperate and it was as good as Eeny Meeny Miny Mo!

Now, until a couple of weeks ago, everything was going well with Lysander, the laptop, he was a pretty lively guy and I got pretty addicted to him. In fact, he encouraged me to become terribly lazy. Who could be bothered to turn on the old PC and sit there as winter approached, enduring frostbitten fingers and toes, as Lysander beckoned me enticingly? By positively enticing me to jump on the couch, cover my feet with a quilt, and lift the hugely attractive lid off of him?

But suddenly, inexplicably, I thought, the laptop started shutting down. Black screen…nothing! Weird. I couldn’t get it to start up again, it just wouldn’t turn off.

At first I thought I had one of those deadly viruses – I blamed Thing 1 and Thing 2 for downloading dubious games and infecting me.

Every day, this would happen more and more. Depending on what she was doing on the computer, she would simply shut down without warning. If he was watching a video, he could hear the fan chugging and running like a Trojan. If she was running a few shows at once, wow, the fan was working overtime and that thing was heating up like a pubescent kid in a Miss World beauty pageant.

The mouse pad was turning into a ceramic hob and the bottom of the laptop was getting more pyroclastic by the minute giving me more than a sharp scratch in my pants!

Time to go to Google, type in my model name and number, and see what happens.

Phew. What comfortable. there were tons of people who were experiencing the same problem as me. It’s strange, isn’t it, how you always feel better when you find other people who have the same problems as you. You just don’t feel so alone, somehow!

What causes a laptop to overheat? stop-laptop-overheating

• Heavy use of your machine causes the hard drive, central processing unit (CPU), and video systems to operate at high capacity. If you play a lot on your laptop or run many programs at the same time, such as Photoshop or Dreamweaver, this will cause the CPU to work overtime. In particular, I notice that my lappy gets hot when running a virus scan. So the more your laptop works, the more its processor will get hot.

• Keeping your laptop in a hot environment, a very hot room, near a radiator/heater, etc. contributes to overheating

• The make and model of your laptop determines whether it may be prone to overheating, that is, if your model’s design does not allow for adequate ventilation.

• If it obstructs the existing vent in any way, for example, use it on a bed, blanket, comforter, etc.

• Allow fibers and dust to enter the ventilation area.

• Connecting USB devices such as dongles and external hard drives places a load on the processor

How do I know if I have an overheating problem?

It is important to remember that there is a difference between your laptop getting hot and overheating. If you’re not sure if your laptop is really overheating, look for the following

• If your laptop suddenly shuts down for no reason, this often means that the computer’s failsafe has kicked in when it reaches a certain temperature

• Blue screen of death often means you have CPU overheating issue

• You may notice that the fan is running more frequently and sounds louder and/or more vigorous than normal while trying to cool down the computer.

• Memory operation errors

• Your laptop is very hot to the touch in certain areas

• Your laptop is running slower than normal

What damage can overheating cause?

• Your laptop can be damaged quite extensively and require you to replace major components, which could be costly.

• In fact, you can cause harm to yourself. My report of charred thighs was a bit of an exaggeration but, believe it or not, cases of charred genitalia and legs are common. Some medical reports also attribute fertility problems to excessive heat from a laptop.

What do I do if my laptop overheats?

• Try to keep your laptop on a cool, hard surface. Most models have their vent underneath, so if you were dumb enough to think that because it’s called a laptop, it’s okay to have it on your lap (doh), think again. You may be in danger of obstructing the vent. Make sure air can circulate around the laptop, especially underneath.

• Keep all vents free of dirt, lint, dust, and fibers.

• Only connect USB devices when you need to use them.

• Use your laptop’s power saving features, it helps prevent overheating and also extends battery life

• Use a laptop cooling stand, gel cooling pad, or 3-fan cooling pad

I hope this helps any of you who are experiencing similar issues. I’m pleased to say that Lysander is behaving perfectly once again after I ordered a nifty new laptop cooler from him and my legs are now recovering from that motley corned beef look :0