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It’s hot and electronics get hotter. How can you keep them cool—or, at least, not so hot?
Airflow Is Your Friend
Many printers, computers, gaming consoles, routers, and other electronics have vents on the backs or sides that allow for airflow. These vents need to be free of any blockages. For example, avoid putting your gaming console inside a closed entertainment centre or your router inside a cabinet.
Avoid Direct Sunlight
If you have a gaming console that’s sitting in direct sunlight, it will heat up faster than it would otherwise. This is true of basically all electronics. The guiltiest culprit? Kids leaving tablets and phones in hot cars.
Don’t Stack Electronics
If you have a router stacked on top of your CPU tower, they’ll heat each other up. Always keep electronics separate when possible.
Clean Out the Interiors
Dust (and other detritus, such as hair, dirt, lint, etc.) is the enemy of anything electronic. It’ll get sucked into the vents, coat the interiors, and start raising temperatures. You can solve this problem with a can of compressed air, which you can blow through the vents to clean them out.
If you’re handy, you can try a deep-clean by removing the device’s case and cleaning away all the dust with compressed air and maybe some Q-tips. But let’s put a few big caveats here. First, only do this if you’ve previously opened up your device and are confident in how it works. Second, be sure to power down before doing anything. Third, be sure you are grounded—static electricity can easily turn a thousand-dollar device into an expensive brick. If all this sounds scary to you, remember, you can find a computer repair service in your area to clean out your computer or game console for a reasonable price.
Keep ’Em High
Remember that thing about dust being the enemy? Well, the floor is where you’ll find the most dust. If you have a computer or console, it’ll suck in less dust if you keep it elevated. The same goes for other electronics too, so maybe don’t put your router on the floor.
Get a Cooling Pad, Laptop Stand, or Laptop Board
You can keep your laptop cool by buying a cooling pad, which is a ventilated device that runs between $20 and $200 (depending on how beefy you want it) and cools down your laptop as you use it. For better airflow, you could just get a laptop stand. If you put your laptop on your actual lap and don’t want a hot lap, you can get a laptop board. By separating your laptop from your lap, you’ll keep both cool.
Low-Power Mode
More power, more heat. Less power, less heat. If your devices have energy-saving features, enable them.
Turn Off Features You Aren’t Using
In general, the more things your CPU is doing, the hotter your computer (or phone or other device) will run, so it helps to turn off things you don’t use. Don’t ever use Bluetooth? Turn it off. Checking for updates? Schedule that to happen once a day. As a bonus, doing this stuff will save you some battery life too.
Air Conditioning Is Your Friend
If you’re really desperate, stick your overheating CPU (or whichever device is misbehaving) right in the path of your AC. It’ll noticeably help.
Replace Your Thermal Paste
Thermal paste binds your CPU fan to your CPU. Devices such as computers or gaming consoles have these. After a few years, the paste can become dried out and cracked, causing overheating. Many computer repair shops will replace your thermal paste, sometimes as a bonus to cleaning your device.
Emergency Shut-Down
Most devices will shut down automatically if they’re getting too hot. If this happens, they may safe-boot or boot directly to your BIOS to show you the internal temperature and prompt you to solve the problem. If your device shuts down due to heat, the problem is pretty serious. If it’s happening a lot, then you need to take one or more of the above steps.
