What To Do If Your Computer Is Over Heating

When your computer over heats it's dangerous because it can burn out and you'd have to purchase a new one which aren't always cheap. There are a few ways to make sure this doesn't happen and prolong the life of your CPU (Central Processing Unit) and any other internal devices in your computer.

One of the main reasons computers over heat is the lack of air flow, if you're using a laptop and have it on your legs or on arm of the sofa, there is a high chance that the fans of the laptop are on the bottom and aren't getting any fresh air into the laptop because you're covering the vents up. To insure this doesn't happen, place the laptop on to a flat surface or onto a laptop base that has a grill like surface that allows air into the fan to cool the laptop down.

If you have a computer and you notice the temperature of the CPU or motherboard increasing, this maybe because the room it's in is getting warmer and warm air getting sucked in by the fan and not being able to cool down the components efficiently. Adding more fans would increase the air flow moving more hot air out then is coming into the computer there for reducing the temperature.

When checking the temperatures if you notice that the CPU is a lot higher than 40°c-60°c there maybe an issue with the heat sink, this could be incorrect placement of the heat sink or over time the heat sink could have become loose and lose contact with the CPU. In these cases the best solution is to remove the heat sink and clean the CPU and place some new thermal compound on top of the CPU and turn the heat sink around 180 degrees and place back on top of the CPU making sure the thermal compound is spread evenly over the top of the CPU.

Once the heat sink is back in place and securely attached turn on the computer and check the temperature of the CPU to ensure the issue has been fix, if it's not then check to see if the fan on top of the heat sink is correctly working and spinning at the right speed. A new heat sink should only need to be purchased if there is any damage to original, these can be fitted the same way as before.

If the issue still persist then check to see if the temperature gauge is faulty, but in most cases it won't be, check to see if there are any cables you've not noticed that could be blocking the air flow to the heat sink and fan or obstructing the fan and stopping it from spinning.

To help the temperature of a computer you should make sure when fitting internal components that you take into account fair flow, so when fitting hard drives, DVD drives make sure that there are spaces between each one if possible, to make sure that air can flow between them and stop them from over heading. If your drives are getting hot they will increase the ambient air temperature and make it harder to cool down the computer.

Looking at the air flow of a computer is almost as important as building the computer if you don't allow for easy air flow inside the computer the likelihood of it over heating and crashing out is high. You may need to install extra fans to make sure enough cool air is getting into the computer, but also not forgetting to install some extraction fans to that will suck out any hot air from the case.

Normally with most cases there will be a space in the computer case for a fan to be placed on the back which is normally the best place to install an extraction fan and then installing an induction fan to the front of the computer case to blow cool air in, this will force cool air into the bottom of the case then force the hot air out the back of the case in a continual cycle which keeps the computer running at the ideal temperature.