There's nothing worse than a laptop that overheats.I've been there; the last two decades are lined with less-than-stellar laptops for me, actually.One was so bad that it'd turn off within 45 seconds if it didn't have a hair dryer on the cold setting constantly blowing into its vents.
Yes, I've tried to fix it.But when you're a broke college student, you make do with what you have.Whether your laptop is as extreme as mine was or just slightly warm, overheating is wearing down its internals as we speak.
The Windows Power mode setting could be the culprit.Plugging in your laptop can change more than its battery percentage AC power lets your hardware stretch its legs Close The Power mode setting comes in right when you plug in your laptop.It doesn't just start charging the battery; it also affects your laptop's performance, or rather, what Windows allows it to do.
When running on battery, your laptop has one priority: staying functional until the next time you plug it in.This means keeping its power consumption in check, because every extra watt eats into your remaining runtime.Once you've connected it to AC power, that concern largely disappears, and your laptop should be able to truly stretch its legs and show you what it's capable of.
This means that the CPU and the GPU can be allowed to boost harder and stay at higher performance levels longer, because the laptop doesn't need to worry about its remaining juice—at least for the time being.Unsurprisingly, more power usually means more heat.That's why a laptop can seem perfectly happy while you're browsing or working on battery, but when the fans ramp up, the chassis doesn't get colder.
It only gets warmer, in fact, when you plug it in.Part of that heat is from the charging itself (in a similar way to your phone heating up when it's plugged in).Part is just the laptop being able to perform at its best.
Related These cheap mini PCs have built-in backup batteries (also, they're not mini PCs) And they could be way better than mini PCs for your homelab.Posts 1 By Monica J.White Check your plugged-in Power mode before touching anything else Best performance isn't free performance Before you start worrying that your laptop's cooling system is no good, let's check the settings and make sure it's all fine.
The Power mode setting can be helpful, but it can also wreak all kinds of havoc when misconfigured, such as by slowing down your entire PC.So, your first step should be to go into Windows and check what it wants your laptop to do.Head to Settings > System > Power & battery > Power mode, and pay attention to the setting for plugged-in use.
Best performance does what it says on the label.It means Windows is putting performance over efficiency, which makes sense when it's connected via AC, but it can generate more heat, too.If you're not a gamer or a power user, you can try to switch that setting to Balanced and see what changes.
If your performance drops below what you'd consider reasonable, you can always go back.Odds are that it'll be fine, though, as you're not kneecapping the laptop or forcing the CPU to underperform in a major way.You're just giving Windows a break and telling the OS that it's alright not to chase the absolute best-case scenario in the way of performance.
I'd say that the Balanced setting is more than fine for browsing or regular office work, and even some light gaming.But if you need the system to do its best, you can switch back to Best performance.Your laptop manufacturer may have another performance switch OEM software can change the CPU's power limits, too Windows is one thing, but your laptop probably has some built-in utility tool, too.
Those come from the laptop's manufacturer, and that software may have additional thermal or performance modes which can also contribute to this overheating problem.That's because the software will often mess with things like CPU/GPU performance, how aggressively the fans spin, and how hot the system is willing to run before thermal throttling.Depending on your laptop, you might see things like Performance, Turbo, Balanced, Quiet, etc.
in that utility.I'm not going to give you exact paths and settings to take here, as every manufacturer will have its own rules, much like they do with motherboards.However, if your laptop is still overheating, this is the next place I'd check before calling it a day.
Asus has MyAsus and Armoury Crate, Lenovo has Vantage, and Dell has MyDell and Dell Optimizer.Other manufacturers have their own equivalents.If that software is still set to aggressive, no amount of tweaking Windows profiles might help; you'll likely have to adjust both.
Charging still creates heat, so don't expect miracles You're just reducing one source of heat Adjusting this setting can help reduce the heat your laptop needs to deal with.It's useful, especially if you don't even need all that extra performance—many users don't.But let's not fool ourselves and expect miracles.
No matter the setting, plugging your laptop in is going to cause some degree of heat.Even on low performance settings, you can't expect it to be ice cold, especially if you tend to keep it in your lap.That's the equivalent of keeping a desktop PC on carpet.
The battery itself warms up as it charges, plain and simple.The power circuitry inside the laptop is also doing work to convert and distribute that incoming power across your components.So, our goal is never to eliminate heat completely, but to stop creating more of it than necessary.
If your laptop is still getting unusually hot for no reason, look into things like blocked vents, dust buildup, dried-out thermal paste, or an actual hardware problem.Plugged in doesn't have to mean full throttle Just because you're using a charger doesn't mean you need to force your laptop to do the very best it can.For a lot of the stuff we do every day, that's simply not needed (unless your laptop is a decade old and struggling).
Balanced performance in Windows can be plenty good enough for most people, so check it out before digging deeper.Related I didn’t expect Dell’s entry-level XPS 13 to feel this premium Everyday use is where this compact laptop shines.Posts By Patrick Campanale
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