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Fix

Laptop is hot and the fan is loud

Step 1 of 3

Put it on a hard, flat surface

Not on a bed, a pillow or your lap. The air holes underneath must stay open.

The simulation shows Windows in English, like most laptops.

  1. Put it on a hard, flat surface

    Not on a bed, a pillow or your lap. The air holes underneath must stay open.

  2. Close heavy programs

    Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc, then end programs you recognize that have the highest CPU number.

    CtrlShiftEsc

  3. Use Balanced power mode

    Open this menu and set Power mode to Balanced.

    SettingsSystemPower & batteryPower mode
  4. Burning smell, or too hot to touch? Turn it off and take it to a repair shop.
Technician fixes (advanced)

The simple steps didn’t help? A technician would try these next, in this order. Stop as soon as the problem is fixed. Commands marked “as administrator”: right-click Start › Terminal (Admin).

  1. Find the process heating the CPU

    Task Manager › Processes › sort by CPU. A program using 30–100% while you do nothing (a stuck browser tab, an updater, a miner) makes the fan roar. End it, then find out why it runs.

  2. Read the temperature sensor (as administrator)

    Not every laptop exposes this sensor. Around 40–60 °C at rest is normal; above 85 °C during light use means a cooling problem.

    Get-CimInstance -Namespace root/wmi -ClassName MSAcpi_ThermalZoneTemperature | ForEach-Object { "{0:N0} °C" -f (($_.CurrentTemperature / 10) - 273.15) }

  3. Set the power mode for cooler running

    Settings › System › Power & battery › Power mode › Balanced or Best power efficiency. “Best performance” runs the CPU hotter all the time.

  4. Cleaning and thermal paste (repair shop)

    Dust in the heatsink and dried thermal paste are the most common causes on laptops older than 2–3 years. A shop opens the laptop, cleans the fan and replaces the paste; temperatures often drop by 10–20 °C.

    Don’t blow compressed air into a running fan or open the laptop yourself if you aren’t sure.
Coming soon

Still not fixed?

In the next update you can tell us what happened, and our AI helper will suggest another way. Until then, restart the device and go through the steps once more.