Blog · August 31, 2026

Laptop overheating — when it’s dust, and when it’s software

Laptop overheating — when it’s dust, and when it’s software

“It’s as hot as a stove, the fan is screaming, it shuts itself down.” Mostly from June to September. Three causes — and it matters that you work out which one is yours before you spend money on something that won’t help.

Cause 1: Dust (70% of cases)

A laptop pulls air in through the slots underneath and blows it back out across the heatsink. Over the years that airflow collects dust, hair and pet fur — and the heatsink ends up clogged like a filter.

How to tell if it’s dust:

  • Yours is 2+ years old (under a year it’s usually not dust)
  • Run a finger over the vents and you feel warm air — but no STRONG stream (it barely blows out)
  • The fan sounds uneven, as if it’s choking
  • HWMonitor shows the CPU at 90°C+ even when you’re not doing anything demanding

On your own: You can use a compressor (NOT a vacuum cleaner — too little pressure), from the side, in short bursts. But careful — if you’ve never done it, don’t open the laptop yourself, the plastic clips snap easily.

With us: we strip it down completely, take the heatsink out, clean it with brushes and with the compressor, and replace the thermal paste. Price: 3,500 RSD. Takes 2-4 hours.

Cause 2: Dried-out thermal paste (20%)

Between the processor and the heatsink there’s a layer of thermal paste — basically a putty that carries the heat across. After 2–3 years that putty dries out and the heat stops moving.

Signs:

  • The laptop is 3+ years old
  • The heatsink looks clean (so it isn’t dust)
  • The CPU overheats the moment you put a load on it
  • A year or two ago it was fine under the same conditions

Replacing the thermal paste = the same job as above, 3,500 RSD. It’s usually done together with the cleaning.

Cause 3: Software — a process eating the CPU (10%)

Before you buy a cooler or bring it in, open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) → Processes → the CPU column. If you see something sitting at 60%+ while you’re doing nothing — that’s what’s overheating it, not the heatsink.

The usual culprits:

  • Antivirus running a scan — let it finish (1-2h)
  • Windows Update — same thing, wait it out
  • A browser with 50 tabs + YouTube in the background
  • Cryptominer malware — see the virus removal guide
  • OneDrive/Dropbox syncing a big file — wait it out

Hardware that actually helps

There’s a cheap fix and a pricier one:

  • Cooling pad (a base with a fan in it) — 2,500-5,000 RSD in a shop. Buys you about 5-10°C. Worth it if you game on the laptop a lot.
  • A stand that keeps air under the machine (like a trivet) — free to improvise, literally anything that lifts the laptop 2-3 cm.
  • A separate cooler for the graphics — for laptops this mostly doesn’t exist, because the CPU and GPU usually share one heatsink.

When it’s not something you can sort out yourself

  • MacBook — don’t open it yourself, take it to an Apple service centre (or an authorised repairer)
  • Gaming laptop with two fans (Asus ROG, Lenovo Legion) — more involved
  • The laptop won’t start at all because of the overheating — it’s on the edge of failing, bring it in straight away

We send a courier, and the diagnosis is free. Most of the time we have it back to you the same day.

Computer broken?

Get in touch — diagnostics are free and a courier picks the device up at your address the same day.

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