Gaming laptops are very powerful and ideal for users who want to be able to play anywhere, but one of the disadvantages they have is that they are more likely to heat up, and can even cause problems due to high temperatures. If your laptop gets too hot – be it gaming or not – in this article we are going to teach you what you can do to fix it, including how to change its thermal paste .
A laptop that gets too hot generates several problems: the fans run very fast and make a lot of noise, it can be uncomfortable to put your wrists on it to play or write, and it can even turn off due to the temperature. Below we will see what you can do to solve these annoying temperature problems.
Clean the exterior dirt from the laptop
The first thing you should do is a superficial cleaning of the laptop in order to eliminate possible plugs in its ventilation areas . For this, the ideal is to use a compressed air spray, fixing where the air inlets are and applying it there and not on the outlets (dirt will come out through the outlets).
When doing this, keep in mind that if you do it right, a lot of dirt will come out of the laptop’s outlet grills, so put a rag (close, not stuck) or something else to prevent everything from getting lost from dirt. You can also apply compressed air to the outlet grilles afterward, but then back to the inlet grilles to try to prevent dirt from getting inside. Take advantage of and clean the entire exterior with a microfiber cloth.
Use a cooling base
Laptops often have small rubber “legs” that, in addition to preventing the laptop from moving around a lot, raise it a few millimeters to allow some air flow in its lower grilles. However, this space is usually quite limited, so adding a cooling base usually helps a lot to improve the temperature.
It may seem silly, but the use of a refrigerator base can improve the operating temperature of a laptop by up to 10ºC at best.
Change the thermal paste and clean the laptop inside
Now comes the tricky part, and keep in mind that in most cases doing this voids the manufacturer’s warranty , so we recommend that you do not do this if you are inexperienced or if your laptop is still under warranty. In any case, do it at your own risk .
Necessary materials
- Screwdrivers (usually Philips and some Torx notebooks).
- Thermal paste.
- Microfiber cloth.
- Compressed air spray.
You will obviously need screwdrivers both to remove the bottom cover of the laptop and to remove its heatsink. The type will depend on your laptop and the type of screws you use, so it never hurts to get a screwdriver set that includes all types and sizes .
If you intend to change the thermal paste obviously you will also have to buy this component. It is not expensive and you have dozens of makes and models available, but we recommend that you do not skimp and buy a quality one, since one does not do this process very frequently (at most a couple of times in the life of the laptop).
Finally, you’ll also need a cleaning cloth and compressed air, as the laptop if it gets too hot, the aluminum fins on the heatsinks or the fans themselves are likely to be clogged.
Disassemble the laptop and clean it inside
Removing the bottom cover of the laptop is usually very easy. Flip it over to access the bottom, remove all the screws you see and apply a little pressure to the cover to remove it. In some notebooks it costs a little and you will have to help yourself with a flat screwdriver or, for example, with a card size card or similar.
Once the lower cover is removed, you will have access to the fan or fans (which are almost always blower-type like the ones you see in the image above), and if you don’t want to change the thermal paste, just by removing the cover, you can clean them with air tablet and cloth , as this can also help you improve the temperature.
In fact, even if you are going to change the thermal paste it is something you should do, in order to work with the already clean components. If your laptop gets too hot, it probably has a lot of dirt on the inside.
Change thermal paste
The first thing to do is remove the entire cooling system from the laptop, and the first step is to turn off the fans. In all cases, each fan will have a cable that is connected to the motherboard, so you should look at where it is and disconnect it. Remember well where it was going and in what way, and for this if you want you can take a photo, so you will know how it was connected.
There are laptops in which the fans are attached to the cooling system, but usually it is not. You will have to remove between one and three screws and you can remove it (giving you access to clean it perfectly at that time). When you remove the fans, make sure to also clean underneath well as dirt often collects there.
Once this is done, it is time to remove the heatsink. Normally you will have a series of screws that depend on the laptop, but that can go from only 4 (in the socket of the processor) to a multitude of them, depending on whether the laptop has dedicated graphics and the size of the heatsink in question. Just take a good look, take photos if necessary and remove the necessary screws. In the example in the image below, there are 8 screws to remove, 4 in the CPU area and 4 more in the GPU area.
Keep in mind that it will take you a while to remove the heatsink because it will be “stuck” by the thermal paste and the possible thermal pads even after removing all the screws. Don’t worry, pull it up firmly but gently and it will come off. After this, you can proceed to completely clean the heatsink, the fans and the area where they were installed.
Now you must clean the remains of thermal paste both on the CPU and GPU and on the heatsink itself. There are specific liquids for this, but if you do not have it, you can use isopropyl alcohol and some toilet paper. They should be clean and shiny.
Once this is done, it is time to apply the thermal paste. Apply both a GPU and a CPU grain of thermal paste to the center of the die, and leave it at that. When you reinstall the heatsink, that grain of rice will spread across the entire surface. In the case of laptops, since there is no IHS, nothing happens if you put too much thermal paste, but be careful not to overdo it.
This done, now you must reassemble everything. Carefully position the heatsink by matching all the holes and screw it back on. Reinstall the fan or fans that we previously removed and remember to reconnect them. With everything already connected and screwed in, put the bottom cover back on and screw it on as well.
With this we are done. If your laptop gets too hot, changing the thermal paste and cleaning it well inside and out is one of the best things you can do to improve its temperature.
