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How to Fix a Acer Laptop that’s Overheating (STEPS)


 

Acer laptop is overheating

Why is my Acer laptop getting too hot?

An Acer latop can become very hot if the fans are full of dust and dirt; which prevents air circulating and cooling down the laptop. Using  compressed air to clean the fans and prevent the laptop from overheating.

  • Placing the laptop on a soft surface –I used to work keeping the laptop on my bed. It jammed the airways beneath the laptop, and the heat couldn’t radiate out. That caused the laptop to overheat. The problem got solved as I used a hard surface to keep the laptop.
  • The fan is dirty –The fan in my laptop was moving slowly. My laptop is quite old, and was never serviced.  I decided to service it. The back cover of Acer laptop was opened to look at the fan.The blades were full of dust, making the fan run slow. I cleaned the fan, and the vents with a soft brush fixed the back cover. The sound of the running fan was heard with more speed. My laptop stopped overheating.
  • The fan is faulty–Opening the laptop’s back and turning it on, carefully avoiding getting shocks, I found my fan is not working. A new fan was fitted and the problem got solved.
  • Laptop is experiencing Malware attacks –Many malware and adware causes the hardware to work improperly. My Acer laptop was attacked by malware and viruses that were causing the hardware to malfunction. I installed a good antivirus, cleared the viruses, and the overheating stopped.

 

What are the symptoms of Acer laptop overheating?

The main symptoms of a Acer laptop overhearing include a slow laptop, noisy CPU fans, and the system shutting down unexpectedly. 

  1. Keeping the laptop on a soft surface – When I kept my laptop on my bed and worked, it got overheated as the exhaust vents got blocked. The heat couldn’t radiate out, and you can feel the heat physically.
  2. The computer is becoming slow – Simple functions like opening a word page or a new browser taking too much time.
  3. The distortion in display – Lines start to show up on the laptop screen is one of the symptoms of Acer laptop overheating.
  4. Popping up of error messages – Unexpected error messages used to pop up on my screen. Later I found it was due to overheating that the software was malfunctioning.
  5. Abruptly shutting down- My laptop suddenly shut down at times without any reason. It was diagnosed as a malfunction of the hardware due to overheating.
  6. The fan stops working – My Acer laptop became hot at times as the fan stopped working, making the battery and the internal component too hot to handle. It used to create a loud noise and ran nonstop before becoming dead.

 

How to Stop a Acer Laptop Overheating

While facing the overheating problem of my Acer laptop, I tried some of the following methods, and it worked for me.

  1. Position the laptop on a flat & hard surface – While I kept my laptop on my bed and worked, it heated up as the air vents were blocked. I used flat hardboard and kept my Acer on it, and the air started to flow through the vents and kept the machine cool.
  2. Use a cooling pad – Sometimes using a cooling pad also helps. I use it at times. It is nothing but a meshed-pad with a fan inside. It works on connecting to the USB port of the laptop. It indeed cooled down my computer to a much extent.
  3. Keep the fan and the vents clean – Cleaning the fan with and the vents with a vacuum cleaner helps to have good airflow. I cleaned them controlling the suction power of the cleaner to the lowest else it might cause other damages. I opened the back once or twice to clean the fan with a brush.
  4. Keep the antivirus updated – Viruses and malware heat the Acer laptop. It happened once for me. A good antivirus should be loaded and updated regularly to stay away from virus attacks and keep the machine cool.

 

Acer laptop overheated and won’t turn on

As the Acer laptop overheats for a long time, it malfunctions and shuts down and after that doesn’t turn on. It happened twice for me. Once I was lucky, and the second time I had to rush to the service centre.

  • Cooling down the laptop – After it shut down due to overheating, I allowed my machine to cool down for hours. Then I plugged on the device to the ac adapter and pressed the “on” key, and the laptop started to work.
  • Changing the GPU – Another time, the cooling method did not work. I had to take my Acer to the service centre, and they told me the GPU or the Graphics Processor Unit got burnt due to overheating, and I got it replaced to give life to my laptop.

 

Acer laptop overheating and shutting down

This is how I fixed my Acer laptop that was overheating before shutting down.

  1. I went to the service center. I was told that the laptop shutdowns automatically to prevent itself from significant damages. It is programmed that way.
  2. I check the CPU & the Processor temperature at times using some of the best available software. If the temperature is above 80 degrees centigrade, then either the computer shuts down automatically, or I shut it down.
  3. However, dirt and dust gathered on the fan, and the vents block the radiation of the heat. Cleaning the vents and the fan and using a cooling pad solved my problem.

 

Acer laptop gets hot when charging

The Acer laptop can get hot when charging if the CPU has constant load at that time. The fan continuously runs for cooling the laptop and sometimes fails. The software that is corrupt can also overheat the computer.

  1. Taking help of the Task Manager – I saved all my work and closed all program. Then I pressed Alt + Ctrl + Del and opened the Task Manager. I selected the Processes Tab on the pop-up window. Then I clicked the CPU tab to check the load and do the needful to reduce it. It worked for me much time.
  2. Fixing the software – Once, I fixed my software problems by reinstalling my operating system and other software and the heating while charging got solved.

A small amount of heat is normal when charging an Acer laptop like all electronic devices running on the rechargeable battery. 

 

How to Fix Acer Aspire 5 overheating

Overheating of Acer Aspire 5 usually happens if the fan or the heat sink is blocked with dirt and dust. It is best to vacuum the laptop through the vents so that the dirt and dust are sucked out. If overheating persist, it’s best to open the back cover and clean them.

  1. After opening the screws at the back of Aspire 5, I carefully removed the back cover. The battery was disconnected to avoid shocks.
  2. Now it is time to clean the fan and the heat sink with a soft brush.
  3. Many times the CPU thermal paste that holds the arm of the heat sink dries and becomes brittle.
  4. It should be carefully cleaned using a soft cloth and 70% Isopropyl alcohol. A new coat of paste needs to be applied on the CPU, and the arm is again fixed.
  5. Reconnecting the battery and screwing the back cover I turned my laptop on. The heating problem got solved.

 

Acer Nitro 5 overheating

As a casual gamer and a graphics designer I used the Acer Nitro 5. But after playing for few hours the laptop started to overheat. I stopped all my activities and did the needful.

  1. I checked and found that the CPU can withstand up to 95 degrees centigrade and thereafter it protects itself by shutting down automatically.
  2. Opening the Nvidia Control Center, I selected Manage 3d Settings and then selected the Preferred Graphics Processor icon.
  3. Then I clicked Auto elect Nvidia GPU under Program Settings icon.
  4. I went to PhysX Configuration and selected Nvidia GPU at the settings.
  5. It worked and the laptop stopped overheating. Earlier I was using the dedicated GPU instead of the Nvidia GPU so it was overheating.

 

Acer Swift 3 overheating

  1. My Acer Swift 3 was overheating. I checked the vents and the fan, and they looked fine.
  2. I also opened the back and saw the heat sink in without any dirt.
  3. Then I decided to opt for low power mode. It optimized the battery level and the laptop somewhat cooled, but it was still overheating.
  4. Checking the BIOS I saw it had obsolete. Acer issues update the BIOS at regular intervals, but I forgot to update.
  5. Updating the Bios solved the Acer Swift 3 overheating problem.

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