In this post we talk about Why alienware laptops overheat or shuts down looking at possibly snagging an Alienware notebook, as I’ve always sort of liked the aesthetic and overall theme of the machines, and due to changes in my career I’ll be needing a high performance notebook for a while instead of a stand-alone desktop PC.
What you need to know about overheating
System can become warm to the touch during usage when
- Using for longer than 10-15 minutes
- Watching a DVD/Blu-ray
- Streaming online video
- Using Flash Content
- Playing video games
- Using near a heat source or in a hot environment
Symptoms experienced if the system is overheating:
- Random shutdowns or reboots
- Computer locks up or freezes
- Fans constantly run at high speed
- Slow performance
- The computer is too hot to touch
Troubleshooting overheating
You can try these easy troubleshooting steps to reduce the overheating on your system:
- Make sure the system is in a well ventilated area
- Use laptops on flat surfaces to improve airflow. Hard table tops are recommended and avoid using any type of cloth or any other soft material under the laptop
- For desktop systems make sure there is enough clearance around the system to allow the air to flow. If the system is in an enclosure try to move it to a more ventilated area for testing
- Check that the air vents are clean and that there is nothing obstructing them. See General Maintenance For Maintaining Your Dell Computer for instructions on how to clean your system
- Update your system BIOS to the latest available in Dell Support Site
- To learn more about updating the BIOS on a Dell computer, see the Dell knowledgebase article Dell BIOS Updates
- You can reset your BIOS settings to undo any changes that could be causing the system to overheat.
Getting damaged” means you can fry your CPU and/or GPU completely. This genuinely happens. So, when you are buying a gaming laptop, make sure it has a good cooling system, and if it hasn’t, make sure you can buy supplies to help keep it cool.
Laptops, even those not meant for gaming, always come with a cooling fan built-in next to the processor. This way, your fan keeps your CPU from overheating.
If your laptop also has a dedicated GPU, then the fan will work to keep your GPU cool as well.
However, not all laptops have strong enough cooling systems to deal with certain situations. Even if your laptop has the best GPU, RAM, CPU, and SSD to play heavy games, sometimes the cooling fan can’t keep up with the heavy work.
One of its functions is Thermal Controls, which “give you access to your Alienware’s management thermal system controls so you can monitor thermal status, adjust thermal control of system fans, and change the status of active venting.”
Fix my Alienware Command Center
In this case, using the Windows built-in functionality to repair the Alienware Command Center’s installation may solve the problem.
- Right-click on the Windows button, and in the displayed menu, click on Settings.
- Then, select Apps and expand Alienware Command Center.
