Anything Under the Sun

Introduction

Computer overheating is mainly due to three causes. The airflow inside the case may be insufficient and cause heat to build locally. Certain components may overwork and generate more heat than usual. A high room temperature will create overheating. Errors caused by heat show as blue screens, system freezes, random shut downs or untraceable errors regardless of the application running. If component rearrangement doesn't do the trick, products that do PC cooling can help.


Things You'll Need

* Cooling fan
* Liquid cooled computer case


Steps

Step One - Ensure that the errors are caused by overheating. Move your computer to the coolest place of your house. You may choose to lower the temperature of the room instead by cranking up the air conditioning. Operate the computer and see if the same problems appear. If they don't that is a fair indication that overheating occurs.

Step Two - Proceed to the following steps if you believe overheating occurs based on what you found in Step 1. Otherwise, if you can't fix the problem using system tools and anti-virus software, take your PC to the manufacturer or to a technician.

Step Three - Check for dust. Remove the computer's outer cover and see if dust has built up. Dust can reduce the airflow, it can slow down the fans or other mechanical components it gets into, or it can act as an insulator causing heat to increase. Use air pressure to remove the dust.

Step Four - Determine if you have components that are set to overwork. If you assembled the computer yourself, you may have adjusted certain components to higher settings for boosting their performance. If you have a device working at a higher voltage or higher clock cycles, lower down its setting or remove it altogether, if possible.


Step Five - Inspect the temperature around the components that use the most power. These are, the CPU, the graphics processor, the power supply and the hard drives. Use your hand to assess the ambient temperature. It shouldn't be more than 2 degrees Celsius warmer than the room's temperature, while the computer is running. You can tape temperature sensors bought from a computer store, if unsure. Change the placement of the components or the fans to improve the airflow, if you found components blocking the air intake.

Step Six - Buy and install a cooling fan. Choose a fan that can lower temperature of your motherboard by as much as 5 degrees Celsius.

Step Seven - Use liquid cooling as an alternative to a cooling fan.


Tips & Warnings

- Do not make changes in your computer if you have no previous experience with opening computers. Take it to its manufacturer or to a carefully selected technician.