One of the most common problems customers call us about is their laptop has started or started running much hotter over time.
It’s easy to think because it is running hotter than it use to, something has gone wrong like, a problem with the cooling, a fan has stopped spinning, or something could be blocked.
But the truth is, and it can sometimes be some of these things, but most of the time it is actually something else.
Most of it has to do with the hard drive, whether it be software, operating system, virus or configuration.
This post will consider the main reasons laptops run hotter – specially over time.
Your Hard Drive is Working Too Hard
Hard drives produce a lot of heat – even when not over worked.
Your hard drive is the brain of your computer, it stores all the programs, operating system, files and operating for your computer.
When you first get your computer the hard drive doesn’t need to do a lot of work, basically only boot up.
Over time you add more programs, files and make more requests from the hard drive.
Traditionally hard drives which most people still have work like a record player, with an arm and spinning disk.
The arm access the information on the disk and the more times you make a read or write to the hard drive, the harder it has to work and the more heat it will produce, making your laptop very very hot!
Your Antivirius Program
Antivirus programs save people from virus and rogue software every minute of every day, they are invaluable.
However, a lot of antivirus programs work very hard on your computer to do many things simultaneously. This puts a lot of pressure on your system and makes it running very hot.
Each anti virus program is different, some have a small footprint and others very large.
If you are investigation to see if it is your antivirus software making your system run hot by disabling it, be very careful.
If there is something on your system not detected yet you run the possibility of infecting yourself and antivirus programs can be ineffective when you turn it back on once the system is already compromised.
Computer Virus
Computer viruses can do all sorts of things. The majority we see are able to steal your information, spy on you and generally disrupt.
There are viruses out there which can turn off hardware components and actually disable fans.
But for the most part, viruses put a huge demand on the system and its ability to keep itself cool.
This demand results in very slow computers, including slow to boot up and slow to to access information, Even moving your mouse can be frustrating.
If your system is running slow and very hot, you can have a computer virus.
Computers Configuration
Your computers configuration can make your laptop run hot and your fans stop spinning.
When your computer starts up, it has an order in which it starts. Fist the motherboard will initialise and pass the next instruction on, usually tell the hard drive to boot up.
In these motherboard settings are physical instructions which tell your computer what to do, including over clocking your CPU (making it run faster) and perform other hardware changes.
If your BIOS (Basic Input Output Settings) are configured wrong it can make a whole lot of other things work incorrectly resulting in your computer running very hot and also maybe your fans not working at all.
Ventilation
Laptops are very small and compact. There isn’t a lot of room in there to begin with, so airflow is very important.
It doesn’t take much for some of the air vents to get clogged up with dirt and this can result in your computer running very hot.
When your CPU and other hardware components get too hot, they run the risk of breaking. Some computer hardware parts aren’t cheap to repair, others like motherboard and CPU are the heart of your computer and cost a lot more.
The inside of a laptop looks like a very intricate maze and it is designed to be able to keep your notebook as cool as possible with very little room.
