I Think My Computer Is Overheating! What Do I Do?

Overheating can be a real problem to your personal computer. Laptops are overheated more often because they have rechargeable batteries that can get real hot after some time. You should just unplug your laptop when not using it to avoid overheating. There are some programs that alert you when the system temperature is too high.

Overheating is a constant problem with computers. There are a lot of people that think that their system is down because of some computer virus or some dangerous software but it is overheating that is usually the problem. The symptoms of overheating can be shutting down of the computer, computer restarting on its own, etc.

There are a few problems that can cause overheating. One of the coolers may not work and it causes the temperature to go high.

The computer can have up to three coolers, the power supply cooler, graphic card cooler and central processing unit or CPU.  You can easily check if the power supply cooler is working, just look in the upper computer tower part located at the back of the tower and see if the fans are spinning. Other two coolers are located in the computer tower itself and you can check if those are spinning. If one of those is not spinning you might need to replace that part of the computer or repair it.

Dust can be a problem too. It is gathered on coolers and it may slow them down so they can’t cool the system enough to work properly. You can clean your coolers from time to time to prevent this from happening.

One other problem is smoke. If a computer is exposed to cigarette smoke, overheating can be a problem again. It’s because cigarette smoke has tar in it, and tar gathers around coolers making them work slower so they again can’t cool the system enough. When the temperature inside the computer rises above a normal and safe temperature, the computer will shut down as a precaution. In your BIOS you can choose at what temperature your system will shut down and you can choose to activate a temperature warning sound too.

A computer can have cd burner fans, PCI slot fans and hard disk fans too. These are just a bonus and these kinds of hardware have them implemented sometimes.

When one of your fans is not working properly, your computer tower may be a bit noisy. That’s because dust or tar gathered on some of the coolers and it’s making them noisier. You should clean it on time because that cooler may get even more dust or tar on it, and it can stop working.

There are many types of coolers and their strength varies. If your personal computer has some strong components like for example a great graphic card, it can easily overheat, so you need a good cooling system. One other thing to watch for is the power supply. When you have good and strong coolers, you must have a high voltage power supply to support these coolers and the other components.