What’s the best way to keep my laptop cool?
Keeping your laptop cool is a mix of good habits and the right accessories. A cooling pad is a simple add-on that can help, but overall setup matters too.
- Use a cooling pad: A mesh surface and fans can improve airflow.
- Elevate the rear: A slight tilt helps heat escape.
- Keep vents clear: Avoid soft surfaces; wipe dust from vents regularly.
- Tweak settings: Balanced power modes and lower graphics settings produce less heat.
- Improve room airflow: A fan or cooler room can make a difference.
These steps can help reduce heat, but results vary with your laptop’s design and workload.
How can I cool my laptop quickly right now?
For fast relief, improve airflow and reduce heat output wherever you are.
- Move to a hard surface: Avoid beds or couches that block vents.
- Use a cooling pad: Set the fan speed higher for a quick boost.
- Angle the laptop: Slightly tilt the rear to help exhaust warm air.
- Close heavy apps: Exit games, browsers with many tabs, or background tasks.
- Switch to a cooler power mode: Balanced or battery-saver can reduce heat.
- Clear vents: Gently wipe dust from intake/exhaust areas.
Avoid risky shortcuts like ice packs or placing the laptop near liquids. If temperatures remain high, let the device rest and consider professional cleaning.
How well do laptop cooling pads reduce heat?
Laptop cooling pads can improve airflow to the bottom of your laptop, which may help lower surface temperatures and reduce throttling during demanding tasks. The impact varies by laptop design, workload, and room temperature.
- Best use cases: Gaming, video editing, or long sessions where the laptop’s internal fans run hard.
- How they help: Elevation plus fans move warm air away from bottom vents, supporting the laptop’s own cooling system.
- What they won’t fix: Blocked vents, heavy dust buildup inside, or failing internal fans.
For persistent overheating, consider cleaning external vents and consulting your device maker or a technician for internal maintenance.
I'm looking to get a small laptop cooling pad for my 2014 Razer Blade 14". It seems most cooling pads are made for up to 17" laptops to cover all models, but I'm looking for something that takes up less space. Anyone have any suggestions for small laptop cooling pads?
Thanks!
No.
Fans don't dissipate air, they move air around in the hope of dissipating heat from nearby hot objects using convection (or, in the case of hot sweaty humans, by also increasing evaporative cooling).
What is important is the temperature of the air relative to the temperature of the hot object, the exposed surface area of the hot object and the rate of flow of air across that surface. None of these can be determined by counting fans or by simply considering their location - since nearby surfaces and ducting affect where the air flows to.
Well, they certainly do work, at least on my old Hp pavilion, which I bought used with a slightly messed up cooling pad. It's rather noisy and if I tried to use the laptop without it, it would eventually overheat. It barely moves any air anymore, and the laptop will overheat, unless I use a plain old house fan on it. I plan on buying a new cooling pad to replace the crappy one. Yeah the house fan and/or cooling pad are probably just cooling the external case of the laptop, but it keeps it from crashing. I have a temp monitor and it's definitely cooling the innards as a result, though. I find that pointing my house fan at the monitor greatly cools the cpu, I notice the monitor creates a hell of a lot of heat, even though it is not in direct contact with the rest of the unit.