Laptop overheating

The fan is roaring at the smallest thing, the underside is too hot to have on your lap, and maybe it has started cutting out when you work it hard. Overheating feels alarming, but it is one of the most fixable faults a laptop can have. In most machines the cause is ordinary: years of dust packed into the cooling, and thermal paste that dried out long ago. Both are put right with a proper clean, not new parts. There are five checks further down this page you can do yourself, free, which will usually narrow it down before anyone visits. Tell us what it is doing and we will find the real cause, say plainly whether anything more is wrong, and give you one fixed quote before any work. If we cannot fix it, you pay nothing for the repair.

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The short version

Usually dust and dried thermal paste, not a dying machine.
A sofa, a bed or a lap seals the intakes underneath.
A hot laptop slows itself down on purpose to survive.
A bulging case or a burning smell means stop using it.

Try this first

Five checks you can do before anyone visits

None of these need tools and none of them cost anything. Between them they will usually tell you which of the common causes you are dealing with, and the last one tells you whether to stop using the machine altogether. Worth ten minutes before you spend a thing.

Shine a torch into the side and rear vents and look at the fins behind them. A grey mat of dust across the fins means the cooling is choked, which is the commonest cause of all. That is a clean rather than a new part.
Use it on a hard flat table for a day instead of a bed, a sofa or your lap. Most laptops take their air in through the underside. If it runs cooler and quieter on a table, the intakes were being sealed, and that fix costs nothing at all.
Start it in a quiet room and listen to the fan as the machine warms up. A steady rush of air is a fan doing its job. Grinding, rattling or clicking is a worn bearing, and silence while the machine is plainly hot is a fan that has stopped. Either way it is one inexpensive part.
Hold the back of your hand near the exhaust vent while it is working hard. A strong flow of warm air means the fan is genuinely moving heat out. Barely any air, on a case that is hot to touch, points at a blocked airway or a fan that is not really turning.
Close the lid, set the laptop on a flat table and look along it from the side. If it rocks, the lid no longer sits flush, or the trackpad has stiffened or lifted, that is a swollen battery rather than a heat problem. Stop using it, stop charging it, and say so when you get in touch.

What it usually means

Why a laptop runs hot and the fan roars

Dust packed into the fan and the cooling fins, which is the commonest cause by far and the one a proper clean deals with
Thermal paste that has dried out, so heat no longer travels properly from the processor into the cooler that should carry it away
Blocked vents from where the laptop is used, since a duvet, a sofa or a lap seals the intakes underneath
A fan that is failing, grinding, rattling or no longer spinning at all, which is a single inexpensive part
Software working the machine hard in the background, so the heat is a symptom of load rather than of the cooling
A swollen battery pressing on the case from inside, which is the one finding that means stop using it now

Not sure which is yours? Describe it in a message and we will tell you, free. Tell us what it is doing and we will work it out.

At a glance

What the machine does, and what the heat usually means

Overheating is several different problems wearing one symptom, and the fix for one does nothing for another. Find the row that matches what yours actually does.

What the machine does	What it usually is	What actually deals with it
Fan roars at everything, underside hot all over	Cooling choked with dust, paste dried out	An internal clean and fresh thermal paste. No new parts
Hot and loud on a bed or a sofa, fine on a table	The intakes underneath are being sealed	Using it on a hard surface. This one costs nothing
Fan grinds, rattles or clicks	A worn fan bearing	A replacement fan, which is a single inexpensive part
No fan noise at all while it is plainly hot	A fan that has stopped turning	Stop working it hard, and get it looked at sooner rather than later
Hot and busy when you have nothing open	Something working the machine in the background	A clean-up rather than parts. See the running slow page
It shuts itself down when you work it hard	The machine protecting itself from heat	Usually the clean, but worth dealing with rather than living with
It crashes to a blue screen once it is hot	Heat, or a fault the heat is bringing out	See the blue screen page, the crash itself is the better clue
The case bulges, or the trackpad stiffens and lifts	A swollen battery, not a cooling problem	The battery replaced. Stop using it in the meantime

The last row changes the order of things, and so does any burning smell: stop using the machine, unplug it, and tell us that when you get in touch. Everything above it is ordinary maintenance rather than a machine on its way out.

What we do

How we find what is actually trapping the heat

You tell us in your message when it gets hot, what the fan sounds like, and whether it shuts itself down
We come to you across Leeds, at home or at work, or we can collect the laptop and bring it back if that is easier
We measure the real temperatures, whether the machine is throttling itself to stay safe, and what is running in the background
We open it up and clean the cooling properly: the fan, the fins and the airways, which is where years of dust actually sit
We renew the thermal paste between the processor and its cooler, so heat leaves the way it did when the machine was new
We check the fan itself and the battery for swelling, and tell you plainly if either needs replacing
You get a fixed quote before any work begins, and if it is not worth it, we say so and you pay nothing beyond any call-out you agreed

Is it worth fixing?

Is an overheating laptop worth repairing?

Almost always, and overheating is one of the best-value repairs there is, because the usual fix is a thorough clean and fresh thermal paste rather than new parts, and the difference afterwards is immediate: quieter, cooler, and often faster too, since a hot machine deliberately slows itself down to survive. Even a failed fan is a modest part. Where the heat turns out to be load rather than blocked cooling, something working the machine hard in the background, we will say so, because that is a clean-up rather than parts and cleaning the fan would not have changed it. The honest caution is a machine that is overheating because the battery has swollen, which needs the battery replaced and the laptop checked rather than just cleaned, and we will tell you plainly if that is what we find. Left alone, heat shortens the life of everything inside, so this is a fault worth dealing with rather than living with.

This is a laptop repair job. Advice by message is free, then you get one fixed quote before any work starts. If we cannot fix it, there is nothing to pay for the repair.

Send an enquiry and describe the fault

Where we work

We come to you across Leeds, West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire

Home or work, day or night, Sunday to Friday. There is no walk-in shop, so we come to the machine, or collect it and bring it back. Start at computer repair in Leeds, or pick your area.

Questions

Overheating and noisy fan questions we get asked

Why is my laptop so hot and the fan so loud?

Usually because the cooling is choked. Laptops pull air through themselves constantly, and over a few years the fan and the cooling fins pack up with dust until the heat has nowhere to go. The fan then runs flat out trying to compensate, which is the roar you can hear. Dried thermal paste makes it worse, because the heat cannot even reach the cooler efficiently. A proper internal clean and fresh paste deals with both, and the machine you get back is quieter and cooler than you will remember it being.

Is it dangerous to keep using an overheating laptop?

Mostly the machine protects itself: modern laptops slow themselves down when they get too hot, and cut out entirely rather than cook, which is why yours may be shutting down under load. That said, running hot every day shortens the life of the parts inside, so it is not something to live with. And there are two signs to take seriously: a case that is bulging, flexing or lifting at the trackpad, which points at a swollen battery, and any burning smell. With either of those, stop using it, unplug it, and get it looked at.

It shuts down when it gets hot and will not start again straight away. Why?

That is the machine protecting itself rather than a separate fault. Once the processor passes a safe temperature the laptop cuts the power instead of cooking, and it will often refuse to start again until it has cooled, which can take several minutes with the lid open. It is the clearest sign that the cooling is not keeping up, and it usually stops once the machine has been cleaned and re-pasted. If it stays dead even when it is stone cold, that is a different fault and the laptop will not turn on page is the better place to start.

When is overheating actually the battery?

When the battery has swollen. An ageing battery can puff up inside the case, and people often notice the symptoms before the cause: the case no longer sits flat, the trackpad stiffens or lifts, a gap opens at a seam, and the machine runs warm. A swollen battery is not a clean-the-fan job, it needs replacing, and the laptop should not be used or charged in the meantime. If it has also stopped charging properly, the laptop will not charge page covers that side of it. If any of that description sounds like yours, say so when you get in touch and we will treat it accordingly.

Can I just clean it myself with a can of compressed air?

A short blast through the vents can dislodge loose dust and is unlikely to do harm, so it is a fair first try. Honestly, though, most of the blockage sits inside, matted onto the fan blades and packed against the cooling fins, where air from outside cannot shift it, and the dried thermal paste that often comes with it cannot be fixed from outside at all. If the machine is still hot and loud after a blast through the vents, the cooling needs opening up and doing properly.

Would a cooling pad, or raising it off the desk, help?

A little, and only for one of the causes. Most laptops draw their air in through the underside, so anything that keeps that gap clear, a stand, a hard table, even a couple of books, genuinely helps a machine that is being smothered by a duvet or a sofa. What none of it can do is clear dust out of the fins or renew paste that has dried. So if yours is hot and loud on a bare desk too, a pad is treating the symptom rather than the cause. The hard-table check above is the quickest way to tell which of the two you have.

Does overheating mean the laptop is wearing out?

Usually not. Heat is mostly a maintenance problem, not a verdict: the cooling has clogged and the paste has aged, both of which are put right in one visit, and plenty of machines run for years afterwards. The fairer way round is that unattended heat causes wear, because everything inside ages faster when it runs hot. So an overheating laptop is not usually dying, but it is worth sorting before the heat itself does the damage people were afraid of.

Can you fix it today?

Often, and we will be straight with you rather than promise a slot we cannot keep. A clean and fresh thermal paste needs no parts ordering, so it can usually be done as soon as we have the machine. A replacement fan or battery for your exact model is a specific part, and how soon it reaches us can take a few days. Tell us what it is doing when you get in touch and we will give you a realistic answer, not an optimistic one.

Sound more like one of these?

Tell us what is wrong.

Send an enquiry and describe the fault. We will find the fault properly, give you a fixed quote before any work, and if we cannot fix it there is nothing to pay for the repair. A real person who does the work, not a call centre.