Is Antivirus Overheating Your Laptop? 5 Reasons Why Your Laptop Overheat
Have you ever imagined why your laptop can’t stay for few minutes without getting overheated? There are many factors responsible for overheating laptops, and one of them is antivirus programs.
In this article, we will discuss how antivirus can lead to overheating laptops, how to know if an antivirus program is responsible for the problem,
and how to prevent your laptop from getting overheated always. But before that let’s briefly discuss overheating and its effects on your laptop
Table of Contents
What Is Computer Overheating?
Overheating is a scenario that occurs when your laptop, desktop, or any other electronic device produces heat that it can’t handle.
It simply means your device generates heat that is way too much to control or regulate.
The effects of overheating involves reduction in your laptop’s overall performance. It can also lead to damage to sensitive parts of your PC.
How To Check If Overheating Is Caused By Antivirus Programs
One of the reasons why your laptop gets overheated is that its CPU power is consumed by some running programs.
There are high tendencies that your laptop is not affected by installed antivirus software. Other files or programs could be responsible.
Instead of unproven assumptions, we advise you run a quick scan to confirm the source of the overheating problem so you would know how to nip it at the bud.
Here is a step-by-step guide on how to check what’s responsible for your system’s overheating problems.
- Open your laptop’s Applications
- Utilities
- Click on the “Activity Monitor”
- Endeavor to sort the list by “% CPU”
At this point, you would see the list of programs consuming your laptop’s CPU power, leading to overheating programs.
You are advised to close every program consuming the CPU capacity to be on the safe side.
Meanwhile, you shouldn’t panic if the problem persists after closing the shortlisted programs. There are other options available discussed later.
How to Stop Antivirus Programs from Causing Overheating
1. Don’t Run An Antivirus Scan While Operating Your System
Take, for instance, you are washing your clothes and at the same time cooking your breakfast.
Though you can carry out both activities simultaneously, you will get exhausted too quickly. The same thing happens to your laptop whenever you undertake too many CPU-draining tasks at a time.
You shouldn’t run an antivirus scan while using the laptop for something else. It might lead to overheating because the CPU power is being overstretched.
If your system is programmed to begin an automatic scan, you are advised to stop all you are doing until the scanning is done.
Alternatively, you can prevent the antivirus from scanning automatically. All you need is to follow the guidelines below:
How to stop Windows Defender from Automatic Scan
- Go to the Task Scheduler
- Search for “Windows Defender”
- Disable automatic scan by right-clicking the task.
The steps above are also applicable to every quality antivirus program.
2. Check If Your Computer Is Infected, Then Provide Solution
Don’t be surprised to hear that your PC could be infected with malware and a bot even when antivirus software is installed on it.
If your computer chokes while running an antivirus scan, then it is affected by an undetected virus.
In such a case, you should run a complete system scan using your antivirus program. Ensure all detected corrupt files are wiped out completely.
However, if the current antivirus software didn’t locate any unwanted or unhealthy files, you should try another antivirus program.
Download and install new antivirus software. Explore its 30-day trial version and run a full scan to check whether it will detect the reason behind the overheating issue.
It is possible the scanning doesn’t yield an impressive result. Hence, you should wait for a while and check if your laptop still gets overheated.
You should seek an engineer’s attention if there are no positive changes. He or she would know what’s wrong with your laptop and how to put it back to normal.
3. Ensure Sufficient Ventilation
If the antivirus program doesn’t cause the overheating issue, it could be caused by a broken fan or insufficient ventilation.
Always check your laptop fan regularly to be sure it is in a good condition. Clean the fan if dirty. Make sure it is free from lint and dust, that way you can be sure nothing is stopping it from doing the cooling job.
In the same vein, you must ensure that nothing blocks the vent so sufficient air will flow into the computer system.
Hairs, dust, and other stuff can prevent the fan from functioning effectively. You might deploy a vacuumer to get rid of them if you are a careful person.
Locate the heatsink — that metal that resembles a massive metal piece that’s connected to the fan— and clean it until it’s free from any kind of dust and dirt.
You must be extremely careful while using the vacuumer because it’s easy to blow dirt into sensitive parts of the laptop.
If that happens, we pray it doesn’t anyways, it might lead to static electricity which will destroy the motherboard in the long run.
In case your fan is broken, you might need to visit a qualified engineer whom you trust enough to help you fix it. Don’t try to fix your laptop’s broken fan unless you are technically sound and experienced.
Having done with the cleaning or repair process; turn on your laptop, run the antivirus scanning exercise and check if the problem persists.
4. Close Every Program Running In The Background
Another reason why your laptop gets overheated unnecessarily when running antivirus software is as a result of too many programs running in the background.
If you have insufficient space and CPU power on your device, the PC is liable to get hot as soon as you launch the antivirus program.
To avoid overheating, you should check every program and ensure none is running in the background.
Close all programs in the background so there will be enough CPU power for the antivirus to scan your system without any problems.
It is advisable you uninstall and completely delete programs and files that are irrelevant. This will free up more space.
An app like outdated Skype often runs in the background without the user’s consent. Hence, you shouldn’t forget to check your apps’ status to know which one is running without your permission.
5. Contact Software Developers Via Their Support Platform
Hopefully, you don’t have to get to this stage because we believe the issue should be resolved before this stage.
However, if you find yourself at this junction, then we advised you to seek help through the software’s support platform.
Narrate your plight, they will provide a solution. If their solution still doesn’t work — which rarely happens, uninstall the antivirus completely.
Meanwhile, your last option involved contacting your system makers for help. You can equally demand a change of device if the warranty is still active.
Five Reasons Why Your Computer Will Overheat
Just as mentioned earlier, there are chances that the overheating problem isn’t caused by any antivirus program. There are many reasons why your laptop gets overheated, they include:
1. Broken fan or dirt on the vents: we’ve discussed this already
2. Too Many programs running in the background: we’ve also discussed this factor extensively above.
3. Your Laptop Is locked For a very long time: If your laptop is locked for a very long period, it could lead to overheating because the CPU becomes extremely maxed up once you launch any program.
In this case, you shouldn’t operate your laptop immediately you unlock it after it has been locked for long. Exercise patience while the device cools before doing anything on the computer system.
4. Dying Battery: A dying battery could lead to overheating. Old batteries don’t have the required capacity to power the program running on your laptop; therefore, its temperature increases exponentially once you turn the system.
Overheating is one of the signs shown by an old battery due for replacement.
When You Should Change Your Laptop Battery
This part of the article are for people who have been asking “When should I change my laptop battery?”
Most laptop batteries are designed to function effectively within two years irrespective of how much you care for them. Meanwhile, the following signs show that your battery is due for replacement:
• Overheating
• Your laptop keeps warning you to charge your battery.
• The battery doesn’t charge anymore
5. Faulty or Irregular Power Supply: This can equally lead to overheating. 6. Dirt and Dust: This is discussed already.
Conclusion
Here is another long read, but we are certain it will help you solve everything related to laptop overheating.
In summary, Overheating isn’t a good feature that must be retained by your laptop. It affects its performance and could damage your system in the long run if nothing is done to fix it.
Overheating isn’t caused by antivirus programs alone, there are other undermining factors to consider.
We would love to help you solve your computer problems; so, don’t hesitate to reach us via the comments section.
References
https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/o/overheat.htm
https://www.crtucson.com/is-my-battery-on-its-last-leg-the-top-signs-you-need-a-new-laptop-battery/