Signs of overheating

  • Hot air or no air from vents
  • Fan running at maximum constantly
  • Performance suddenly drops during tasks (throttling)
  • Unexpected shutdowns

Clean the vents

Use compressed air to blow through the exhaust vents (typically on the side or rear). Do this in short bursts from multiple angles. A blocked heatsink fin is the most common cause of laptop overheating.

Repaste (for persistent issues)

Laptops 3+ years old often have dried thermal paste. Disassembly varies by model — use the iFixit guide for your specific model. Use a thin, even layer of Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut or similar.

Fan curve control

Tools like ThrottleStop (Intel) or Ryzen Controller (AMD) allow manual fan curve adjustment and power limit reduction to trade a small performance loss for much lower temps.