When you buy a desktop or notebook PC, you would like it to run smoothly and offer hassle free performance. However, that is easier to think than achieve for a section of users! Over extended usage, your laptop or desktop’s performance can be affected by a few bottlenecks and one of them is heat. Computers are built with some type of heat dissipation method embedded. While all desktops and laptops will generate some amount of heat, overheating takes place sometimes and that can be pretty inconvenient. A PC that is getting excessively hot can affect your usage experience and its lifespan can be affected adversely.
PC Overheating Symptoms And Its Repercussions
When your desktop or laptop is getting overheated, you are likely to see some signs. These are:
- The Computer is getting hung or restarting too often
- You encounter the infamous BSOD in the PC
- The bottom part of laptop is getting extremely hot
- The fans in the PC are making excessive noise
The repercussions of an overheated computer can be quite serious. If you keep ignoring the signs, the internal components can get damaged. The hard disk, CPU or GPU can get damaged beyond repair at times. It will affect productivity and result in extra expenditure. You will have to put up with slower performance as well.
Ways To Deal With A PC That Is Getting Overheated
There are a number of methods using which you can resolve the problem of PC overheating.
1. Temperature Monitoring
The first step in coping with an overheating PC is keeping a tab on its temperature at various levels. There are some ways to monitor the internal temperature of a laptop or desktop PC. You can use the BIOS settings of your PC. Using BIOs, you can obtain fan RPM and CPU temperature easily. However, in some systems, BIOS settings may not reveal internal system temperature details. You can use third party tools that can fetch your system temperature information. Besides, such tools can alert you when internal temperature reaches unsafe levels.
2. Making The PC Dust Free
Over extended usage, the cooling vents of laptop and desktop cabinet fans may get covered by dust. Some users remain totally oblivious to this. When this happens, the heat generated by the CPU and GPU cannot get out easily- leading to an overheated system. So, you need to ensure the PC vents, ports and fans remain free of dust at all times. Use a mini vacuum cleaner with suction nozzles to keep the PC dirt and dust free. To be on the safe side, use the vacuum cleaner at low speed settings.
3. Ensuring Proper Ventilation
The PC should get enough ventilation or else it will get overheated. If the heat vents and fans get blocked by surfaces like floor, wall or any other object that can generate more heat than usual. Keep the desktop cabinet a little away from walls and evade placing the laptop on mats or table that block heat vents completely.
4. Using Specialized Cooling Mechanism
At times, you may find the existing cooling mechanism of the PC fails to keep the system temperature within safe limits. This is the time when you should opt for additional and special cooling mechanisms.
Desktops that have separate GPUs may get hotter than usual. Apart from GPU fans, you may use liquid based cooling setup to keep the temperature in check. Installing a few additional fans in your desktop cabinet may also enhance heat dissipation in some cases. You will find plenty of useful resources on the web on these.
Laptops that do not remain cool under regular cooling also need the deployment of additional cooling mechanism. To keep such a laptop cool you may use suitable laptop cooling pads. Such pads let the air vents perform optimally. They usually draw power from the laptop’s USB port. You may find some models that also double up as reclining stand for the laptop.