By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - PC - Help! Laptop overheating while playing games!

Cleary397 on 26 June 2014

Use compressed air to clear all the dust that gets caught in the fans, and make sure the laptop air intake vents are always clear - some stupidly designed laptops have the main air intake on the bottom so using them on a desk or something really restricts the air flow.



Current Game Machines: 3DS, Wii U, PC.

Currently Playing: X-Com(PC), Smash Bros(WiiU), Banner Saga(PC), Guild Wars 2(PC), Project X Zone(3DS), Luigis Mansion 2(3DS), DayZ(PC)

Around the Network
Jizz_Beard_thePirate on 26 June 2014
Mr_No said:
kljesta64 said:

best solution ever

Not the wrong idea, but think bigger.

Your almost there but I think we need one more step up



                  

PC Specs: CPU: 7800X3D || GPU: Strix 4090 || RAM: 32GB DDR5 6000 || Main SSD: WD 2TB SN850

misterchoc90 on 26 June 2014
Arkaign said:
A ton of problems like this happen for two reasons, one of which we can help quite a bit.

The surface of the CPU/iGPU die(s), depending on configuration, are relatively small in surface area. In order for heat to efficiently dissipate from the processors into the heatsink and be exhausted from the enclosure, you need a good thermal conductive material to conduct that heat.

With mass-produced PCs/Laptops, it's impossible/impractical for them to do a very good job implementing this material choice. Often it's just a thin pad, or worse, it's just a squirt of some pathetic paste that is nearly an insulator (I've even seen GLUE used in Dells and Macbooks!).

So, if the unit is out of warranty, and you have patience and some technical confidence, do this :

(1)- Find a Youtube video on the disassembly/reassembly of your unit. 95% of the time laptops have the processors facing downwards, so it will require basically a full strip-down to get to where you need to be.

(2)- Have a REALLY good thermal material ready. Liquid metal is one of the best, but you can also use the latest arctic products for decent improvements over OEM as well.

(3)- Be sure to know how to apply the material. It does NOT take very much at all. You also want to make sure the heatsink and processor surface areas are utterly cleaned of all remnants of the OEM materials. I've seen guides on reapplying paste on console processors that are horribly, horribly incorrect. You do not have to lather the entire thing with a thick layer, that does more harm than good. Rule of thumb usually is about the size of a grain of sushi rice right in the center of most processors (like the ones you're dealing with) will compress outwards and cover the area perfectly. The die surface area is in actuality quite small unless you're dealing with very large GPUs. (note : this is specifically for traditional materials like Arctic Silver/Alumina, if you use Liquid Metal examine the guides carefully!)

Reassemble, and your temps will drop substantially. I fix dozens of units up every year in this way. I take HP i7 / Radeon laptops from sounding like leaf blowers into smooth running near-silent beasts.

If you want to get really into it, you can look at ways to slightly undervolt using various tools, then using furmark/etc to test stability/temps. Furmark is a good quick test to see how your work went. Test it before you do the thermal compound changeover, and test again afterwards.

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/10740/thr-77/Coollaboratory_Liquid_Ultra_100_Metal_Thermal_Interface_Material.html

This. I had someone do this to my laptop. On idle it reached 80 C. And now it sits at 50 C. Doesn't go higher than 80 C when playing.

When it wasn't fixed it reached really high temperatures. But instead of shutting down, it cut it's performance considerably. When playing, for example NFSU2, I could only play about 10 minutes until the fps dropped to about 20.

EDIT: From my experience, a fan is not enough :(



kljesta64 on 26 June 2014
Jizz_Beard_thePirate said:
Mr_No said:
kljesta64 said:

best solution ever

Not the wrong idea, but think bigger.

Your almost there but I think we need one more step up

I feel so small right now..



Tsubasa Ozora

Keiner kann ihn bremsen, keiner macht ihm was vor. Immer der richtige Schuss, immer zur richtigen Zeit. Superfussball, Fairer Fussball. Er ist unser Torschützenkönig und Held.

JazzB1987 on 26 June 2014
Jizz_Beard_thePirate said:

Get compressed air and blow the dust out of the air intake! If you don't have any warranty on it, take apart your laptop and then clean it like that cause then its easier and better to clean

Also download speedfan and see what your temperature is... Computers do intend to get hotter during the summer T_T

http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php


When doing this be sure to prevent the fan from rotating with a toothpick or whatever. its not healthy for a fan to spin with like 50000rpm  :)


Also if you open your notebook be sure to reapply thermal paste  depending on the age of your notebook  the thermal paste might be rubber already :)



Around the Network
super_etecoon on 26 June 2014

Get a console...

I'm sorry, but I've had nothing but bad luck gaming on a laptop, including the fact that my resolution gets messed up when I switch between the desktop and the game. I've also had a terrible time getting certain games to load on my PC. Seriously, all you hard core PC fans out there who think the PC replaces consoles are overestimating the patience of the average consumer. I've got some tech savvy know-how, but I definitely don't have nerd cred. It's somewhat necessary to live a PC gamers lifestyle. More power to you, but I just don't have the patience to go down that rabbit hole.



Skidonti on 26 June 2014
Jizz_Beard_thePirate said:
Mr_No said:
kljesta64 said:

best solution ever

Not the wrong idea, but think bigger.

Your almost there but I think we need one more step up

That didn't work for mine, but last week I found a solution.

Stand in indicated position. Apply hurricane winds liberally to laptop vents.



Xen on 26 June 2014
super_etecoon said:
Get a console...

I'm sorry, but I've had nothing but bad luck gaming on a laptop, including the fact that my resolution gets messed up when I switch between the desktop and the game. I've also had a terrible time getting certain games to load on my PC. Seriously, all you hard core PC fans out there who think the PC replaces consoles are overestimating the patience of the average consumer. I've got some tech savvy know-how, but I definitely don't have nerd cred. It's somewhat necessary to live a PC gamers lifestyle. More power to you, but I just don't have the patience to go down that rabbit hole.

That's not true - consider countries that are majorly PC gamer nations like Russia (+Belarus and Ukraine) and China. The consumers over there are also quite average... but still, PC gaming rules the roost.

As for the thread topic... open it up, or have someone open it up for you, and clean the fan (and if you can, replace the thermal grease on your CPU and GPU). My laptop also loves overheating if I don't do that every year or a year and a half...



WolfpackN64 on 26 June 2014
S.T.A.G.E. said:

Question. I have an integrated graphics card in my laptop. It can handle the high level graphics but I always put it down to medium so it doesnt overheat. I used a fan yesterday and it still overheated. Any tips?


There are mats with integrated fans that cool the underside of your laptop, play in a fresh room and use a small desk fan. If it still overheats, you might want to turn the graphics further down.



Xen on 26 June 2014
WolfpackN64 said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:

Question. I have an integrated graphics card in my laptop. It can handle the high level graphics but I always put it down to medium so it doesnt overheat. I used a fan yesterday and it still overheated. Any tips?


There are mats with integrated fans that cool the underside of your laptop, play in a fresh room and use a small desk fan. If it still overheats, you might want to turn the graphics further down.

The mats are a placebo.. almost. They end up blowing more dust in the insides of the lappy, therefore, not all that useful. It really is best to open up and clean it.