(* the article will be updated).

Briefly. Gaming Laptop Cooling Issues — What You Must Know.

Why is your gaming laptop overheating, FPS dropping, and fans going crazy?

If you’re reading this article, chances are your laptop started showing one or more of the following signs:

☝	🔥 Signs your laptop needs a preventive cleaning:

❌ The case is so hot you can’t touch it in some places.
❌ FPS drops after 10 minutes of gaming or stays low with freezes, stuttering, crashes, or even BSODs.
❌ The laptop is noisy and hot, and fans run at full speed even when idle.
❌ Games stutter, the laptop may randomly shut down or completely freeze.

Sounds familiar?

In 9 out of 10 cases, it’s not a virus, slow Windows, or “too many programs installed.”
It’s overheating — caused by the cooling system no longer doing its job properly.

The thing is, a gaming laptop — despite its compact size — is practically a full desktop PC packed into a tight chassis.
Inside you’ll find:

– a powerful CPU,
– a powerful GPU,
– and in the remaining space — a thin cooling system that must effectively pull heat from both chips and push it out.

It’s like a full tower PC with 3 fans — but in a 3–5 cm thick body.

If the design is solid, it copes well — but only as long as:
– fans,
– heatsinks,
– thermal pads and paste
…are clean and in good condition.

👇	What happens after 8–12 months of active use?:

1. Thermal paste (especially low-quality) dries out and stops transferring heat effectively from the CPU or GPU die to the heatsink.
2. Thermal pads dry, crack, and stop pulling heat from VRMs and video memory.
3. Dust clogs the heatsink tightly — hot air can’t escape.
4. In worst cases — dust buildup can even stop the fan.
5. Also, after OS updates, incorrect firmware may be installed, which limits fan speeds or doesn’t ramp them up properly.
6. Rarely — the heat pipes or vapor chamber may lose pressure, making heat transfer nearly impossible.

❗	In any of these cases, even the best cooling system can no longer do its job.

🧨 What happens during long-term overheating?

If the GPU overheats, it first glitches (crashes from games), then disappears from the system or gives “Code 43 – cannot start device.”

Power MOSFETs and inductors also overheat — due to lower resistance and higher load.

This may lead to short circuits, failure of the GPU, VRAM, or even burning holes in the motherboard.

High temperatures can also damage solder joints, discolor PCB areas, dry out hinge plastic, and reduce SSD/VRAM lifespan.

Fans wear out, batteries lose capacity faster.
And worst of all — all this could have been avoided with a simple cleaning that takes just a few hours and costs many times less than repair.

✅	CONCLUSION: Regular professional dust cleaning and thermal paste replacement are not a luxury — they are essential to extend the life of your laptop. Especially gaming ones.

Don’t wait until it’s too late. Maintenance should be done before the symptoms appear!

Why Cleaning a Gaming Laptop Is Different from Regular Ones

back to top

Powerful GPUs and CPUs generate a lot of heat

Gaming laptops are equipped with high-performance components.
The CPU and GPU are not “power-saving solutions”, but real performance monsters that generate enormous heat under full load.

(photo or thermal camera video)

☝	This heat (think of how hot a 100W lightbulb gets) is released in a very short time from a tiny CPU or GPU die.

Obviously, to prevent the chip from burning out — the heat must immediately transfer into the heatsink.
This requires:

1. maximum contact of the heatsink not only with the CPU/GPU die but with ALL powerful power delivery components,
2. maximum speed of heat transfer,
3. use of high-quality thermal materials, depending on what components need cooling.

Thermal Paste in Gaming Laptops — What Makes It Special

💧 Regular laptops — regular thermal paste.
Most office and consumer models use soft thermal paste — similar in consistency to an ointment.
Its purpose is simply to fill microscopic gaps between the metal heatsink and the chip.

For such laptops, that’s more than enough because they:

1. generate little heat,
2. reduce clock speeds under load,
3. are built with energy efficiency in mind.

🎮 Gaming laptops — the opposite.

Processors and GPUs operate at full capacity.
There is some power-saving — but limited (40–60% at best).
Even then, the laptop still overheats.

So the requirements for thermal materials here are totally different:

1. significantly higher thermal conductivity,
2. stability under high temperatures,
3. long-term retention of properties,
4. perfect thermal contact over the entire surface area.

💠 How does thermal paste work in gaming laptops?

❗	Standard paste either dries out quickly or fails to handle the thermal load — leading to overheating.

That’s why in gaming laptops, factory thermal paste is often not cream-like but more like dense putty. It:

1. dries out more slowly,
2. doesn’t get pushed out under pressure or heat,
3. retains its thermal properties longer.

But even this paste isn’t eternal.

Over time, any thermal paste:

1. loses its liquid phase,
2. evaporates or squeezes out around the edges,
3. leaves behind air pockets,
4. causes partial or complete overheating.

🤔 Can this be avoided?
Yes. There are alternative materials.

🔄 Evolution of Thermal Interfaces: Phase Change Materials

Engineers went further and developed phase-change thermal compounds.

🧪 How does it work?

In cold state — solid.
Under heat — it melts and becomes viscous or nearly liquid.
It tightly fills all micro gaps between the die and the heatsink.
After cooling — it solidifies again without drying out, leaking, or degrading.

✅	CONCLUSION: Phase change materials are less prone to aging, as they contain less liquid phase. They remain stable under repeated heating and cooling cycles.

🚀 Where should it be used?

1. in powerful laptops with Ryzen 6th gen or newer CPUs,
2. with RTX 30/40 series GPUs,
3. in top-tier models from ASUS, Lenovo, Alienware, HP Omen, etc.

❗	For some models, this is the only effective option — regular paste simply won’t survive even 6 months of intense use.

Over time, we will add a detailed breakdown of these materials to the website.

💧 Alternative Option — Liquid Metal

The highest thermal transfer efficiency is achieved with metal.
To make it flowable, a gallium-indium alloy with additives was developed.

📊 Its thermal conductivity is several times higher than that of thermal paste or phase-change materials.

☝	This is the ultimate thermal solution.

⚠ But there are risks:

1. extremely fluid,
2. penetrates aluminum and copper, causing corrosion — so it must be approved by the manufacturer,
3. completely electrically conductive.

❗	Even a drop on chips or capacitors can destroy the motherboard. If it gets under the BGA — desoldering of the CPU or GPU is required. Worst case — complete burn-through and no chance of repair. Using the wrong type of heatsink can ruin the heatsink or the chip itself.

🔐 That’s why all laptops with liquid metal have a sealed zone.
It’s created using:

1. foam barriers (to prevent spreading),
2. or sealant chambers around the chip.

☝	This zone must keep liquid metal strictly on the chip. Otherwise — disaster.

More About These and Other Thermal Materials

— coming soon to our website.
back to top
In this section we will explain:

1. which thermal materials are used in gaming laptops,
2. how liquid metal, phase-change materials, and thermal pads differ,
3. in which cases each option is best,
4. what mistakes are most common during replacement.

📌 A full article is in progress
and will be online soon.

What To Do? Choose Professional Service at A-GAME Laptops (iBrave Lisboa – Lisbon, Cascais)

back to top

☝	You already know: laptop overheating is not a matter of “if” — but “when”.

When it happens, surface-level cleaning is not enough — you need a precise, professional approach.

🎮 A gaming laptop is not a cheap office machine you can just replace.
Inside is a complex system with high-temp components that are sensitive to thermal faults.

✅ Proper maintenance isn’t just “replace paste and blow fans”.
It’s a complete, multi-step process where each detail matters.

❗	There’s no room for error or experimentation.

1. ❌ Wrong thermal pad = part of the chip stays uncooled.
2. ❌ Misaligned heatsink = crack or chip fracture.
3. ❌ Mishandling liquid metal = leak, short-circuit, and expensive rework.

☝	That’s why this work must be entrusted only to experts who know all the nuances.

💻 Experience, Understanding, Materials

We’ve worked with gaming laptops for many years.
We know the specifics of:

Razer, Alienware, ASUS ROG / TUF, HP Omen
Lenovo Legion, Acer Predator / Nitro / Triton
MSI Apache / Stealth / Vector, Clevo, Maingear and others.

☝	We: understand the safe temperature ranges for every component, know how to diagnose and resolve any overheating issue.

(video)

🔧 Using High-Quality Materials

❌ No cheap, unbranded thermal paste that dries up or leaks in 2 months.

✅ Only trusted brands: Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut / Conductonaut, Honeywell, Denka, K5-PRO.

❌ No “rubber pads” cut from mouse mats.

✅ Only precise-thickness thermal pads or high-grade liquid pads for perfect contact with each chip.

We always keep a stock of materials, so we work quickly and without compromises.

(video)

📈 Professional Assembly & Verification

After installing new thermal materials, it’s essential to:

1. reassemble the cooling system correctly, avoiding any air gaps,
2. run a stress test to ensure there are no assembly errors.

We perform:

1. ✅ temperature checks on all components,
2. ✅ uniform heat distribution testing,
3. ✅ before-and-after service comparison.

(video)

✅	Only with this approach can you be sure that the cooling system works effectively and the laptop is ready for high loads.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

back to top

We will continue updating this section based on your messages and comments.
If you have a question — message us on WhatsApp or leave a comment under the article or video, and we’ll publish a detailed reply.

🔥 Why is my laptop so loud even when I’m not gaming?

Most likely, the heatsink is clogged with dust, and the thermal paste or pads have lost conductivity.
As a result, the laptop detects high temperatures and runs the fans at maximum speed.

✔ Check this:
– Is hot air coming from the vents? How strong is the airflow?
– If airflow is weak — the heatsink is clogged.
– If airflow is strong but air is cold — there may be no thermal contact between the chip and the heatsink, or the heat pipe is broken.
– Also check CPU load — sometimes Windows installs updates in the background, causing 40–60% usage even when idle.

❗ If you can’t solve the issue yourself — contact us. We’ll help!

🎮 Why does FPS suddenly drop after 10–15 minutes of gaming?

If you haven’t recently updated your GPU drivers, this is a classic symptom of overheating and thermal throttling.
When the CPU or GPU hits critical temperatures, the system reduces clock speeds to prevent damage.

You need diagnostics and preventive service:
– dust cleaning,
– thermal material replacement.

🌡 What’s considered a normal temperature for a gaming laptop?

During gaming:
– CPU: up to 85–90 °C (short spikes to 92–95 °C are possible)
– GPU: up to 83–85 °C — this is already the “red zone”

Most GPUs begin throttling at 87 °C.
Our experience shows the optimal GPU temp is 75–82 °C.
Running above 90 °C consistently significantly shortens the laptop’s lifespan.

💧 Is liquid metal safe?

Yes — but only in the hands of an experienced technician.
It transfers heat incredibly well, but it also conducts electricity and can destroy the motherboard.

It should only be used in laptops that are designed for it at the factory.
❗ It’s critically important to maintain a sealed zone around the chip.

We have extensive experience working with liquid metal and strongly recommend trusting only professionals.
There are even subtle application details that can affect final temperatures by tens of degrees.

🧴 What is a phase-change thermal interface?

It’s a material that turns from solid to semi-liquid when heated. It:
– fills microscopic gaps between the chip and the heatsink,
– doesn’t leak,
– doesn’t dry out even after a year or more.

It’s used in powerful gaming laptops with high heat output.
We also use it — but only where it’s truly needed (usually modern or high-end models).

💧 What is Element 31, and where is it used?

It’s an engineering solution from Dell — a hybrid of thermal paste and liquid metal.
Its usage is still limited, but we know it must be kept in a sealed chamber — and even then, it can sometimes leak onto the board.

It’s a very specific emulsion with unpredictable behavior.
In our view, it’s difficult to work with due to inconsistent consistency.
Usually, liquid metal can be used instead — but only if you’re 100% sure it will stay inside a sealed chamber.

A safer alternative is a phase-change compound — but it’s less effective at heat transfer than true LM.

Once we gain more experience — we’ll publish our full recommendations.