Laptop Overheating While Playing Games [SOLVED]

Your laptop is overheating while you’re playing games? This is a very common issue — a lot of laptop users are experiencing it. But don’t worry! This issue is fixable. The following are a few fixes you can try.

Try these fixes

You may not have to try them all; just work your way down the list until you find the one that works for you.

1. End the tasks with high resource usage
2. Restart your laptop
3. Updating your device drivers
4. Check your laptop and environment
5. Turn off overclocking
6. Use an external laptop cooler

Fix 1: End the tasks with high resource usage

This is the first thing you should do when your laptop is overheating. There may be some other programs that are hogging your computer resources while you’re playing your game. And they can be the cause of your overheating issue.

To check and end these programs:

1. On your keyboard, press the Ctrl, Shift and Esc keys at the same time to invoke Task Manager.
2. Click the Processes tab of Task Manager.
   
3. Check the resource (CPU, Memory, …) usage of the apps and processes and identify the processes with high resource usage. (If you don’t know what a specific process is, you should do some research on the Internet about it.)
   
4. If you’ve found any process that is using a large amount of resource and you’re sure you can end it, right click that process and select End task (or End process if you’re on Windows 7)
   

Now check to see if this “cools down” your laptop. If it does, great! But if not, don’t worry. There are still other fixes for you to try.

Fix 2: Restart your laptop

Perhaps your laptop have some temporary conflicts that cause your overheating issue. And usually restarting your laptop is an effective method to resolve this. So here is what you need to do:

1. Turn off your laptop, then unplug the power cable from your laptop. (If your laptop has a removable battery, remove the battery.)
2. Press and hold the power button on your laptop for 15 to 20 seconds.
3. Connect the power cable (and the battery) to your laptop. Then turn it on.

Now launch your game and see if this has resolved your overheating problem. Hopefully it has. But if not, there are still three fixes you can try…

Fix 3: Updating your device drivers

Driver issues are sometimes the cause of overheating. So to fix this issue, you should try updating your device drivers.

There are two ways you can update your drivers:

Option 1 – Manually – You’ll need some computer skills and patience to update your drivers this way, because you need to find exactly the right driver online, download it and install it step by step.

OR

Option 2 – Automatically (Recommended) – This is the quickest and easiest option. It’s all done with just a couple of mouse clicks – easy even if you’re a computer newbie.

Option 1 – Download and install the driver manually

Your device manufacturers keep updating drivers. To get them, you need to go to their website, find the drivers corresponding with your specific flavor of Windows version (for example, Windows 64 bit) and download the driver manually.

Once you’ve downloaded the correct drivers for your system, double-click on the downloaded file and follow the on-screen instructions to install the driver.

Option 2 – Automatically update your drivers

If you don’t have the time, patience or computer skills to download your device drivers manually, you can do it automatically with Driver Easy.

Driver Easy will automatically recognize your system and find the correct drivers for it. You don’t need to know exactly what system your computer is running, you don’t need to risk downloading and installing the wrong driver, and you don’t need to worry about making a mistake when installing.

You can update your drivers automatically with either the FREE or the Pro version of Driver Easy. But with the Pro version it takes just 2 clicks:

1) Download and install Driver Easy.

2) Run Driver Easy and click the Scan Now button. Driver Easy will then scan your computer and detect any problem drivers.

3) Click Update All to automatically download and install the correct version of all the drivers that are missing or out of date on your system (this requires the Pro version – you’ll be prompted to upgrade when you click Update All).

Fix 4: Check your laptop and environment

Insufficient cooling is, in many cases, what causes laptops to overheat, especially under gaming condition. So here are a few things you need to check:

• Make sure your laptop is in a cool environment. Try gaming with your laptop in an air-conditioned room to see if the overheating issue still occurs.
• Clean and clear the vents on your laptop. This is to make sure there is no dirt or debris that blocks air from flowing in or out.
• Make sure your laptop is on a hard and flat surface. Soft surfaces, like pillow or sofa, will affect the airflow and increase the temperature inside your laptop.

If this eases your overheating issue, great! But if not, there are two more fixes to try…

Fix 5: Turn off overclocking

Have you overclocked your CPU or GPU? If so, then it’s likely the reason why your laptop is overheating while gaming. You should try resetting the clock settings of your CPU/GPU back to normal.

If your laptop is still overheating even its clock settings are the default ones, then you may need to…

Fix 6: Use a external laptop cooler

If none of the fixes above worked for you, then you should definitely try using an external cooler. It’s really helpful in many overheating cases.

Here is a laptop cooling pad you can use. It’s slim and portable and you can use it wherever you go. And it has three quiet fans which create a noise-free cooling environment.

Hopefully one of the fixes above has helped you fix your laptop overheating issue. If you have any questions or suggestions, you’re more than welcome to leave us a comment below.

• laptop
• Windows
• Windows 10