Laptop generating more heat with Windows 7?

29 Responses

1. JeremyNZ

   July 10th, 2009 at 7:45 am

   1

   I decided to put my Acer Aspire 4315 onto Windows 7 (build 7057) just for a laugh, I was amazed how well it installed and ran, and I wasn’t expecting Aero to run, but it does and not too shabby from a little laptop 1.86GHz celeron with 512MB ram. But yes the fan is always on high and a lot more noticable heat over when I previously had ubuntu on it, and battery life is not as good, turning off Aero helps. But overall I was impressed I only had to download one driver from the Acer site for the laptops quick launch buttons (drivers weren’t for windows7 but still worked). I’ve also noticed the heat problem when installing it on desktop PC’s, the cool & quiet models are no longer so quiet (or cool)

2. Chris

   July 12th, 2009 at 9:41 am

   2

   Yeah, in fact. I have a Toshiba Satellite, and the same thing happens. Even under reported ~5% load and ~20% mem. usage (seems to be the default on my system), when I was running W7RC (which I have since stopped bothering with, because this issue is so loud and annoying) the fan would run almost constantly, vs. under Vista it only runs when I’m doing video encoding or something similarly demanding on the processor. While I was running W7RC I posted several issues and bug reports to the MS W7 forums. While generally useful and responsive, nobody had anything to say about this issue.

   There’s the funny thing though – My computer gets hot even when it’s *not doing anything*. How do you suppose W7RC manages that?

3. Hemal

   July 12th, 2009 at 2:28 pm

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   I’m debating just going back to Vista…but I’m waiting till the final version of Windows 7 is released so I can see if the problem has been managed or not…a laptop should be able to stay and not heat up when you come back to it and its annoying me where its getting to be a problem. I’m about to sacrifice my performance just to get the problem resolved!

4. bodydetox

   July 30th, 2009 at 7:19 am

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   the interface of Windows 7 is great but in my opinion Windows XP is still a very solid and stable operating system. Right now, I would never give up XP for Windows 7.

5. Theano

   August 9th, 2009 at 11:56 am

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   I had three laptops on Win 7 RC (all Dell Inspiron – one 1.06ghz mini 9 with 2gb RAM/16 gb SSD; one 2.0 ghz 13″ with 4gb RAM/250 gb HDD; one 1.6 ghz 15″ with 1gb RAM and 40 gb HDD). No problems – everything great. All three have wireless and the mini has mobile broadband. All three running Aero. Yesterday I upgraded the mini and the 15″ to RTM – clean install, and a reformat for the mini. And they are running hot. A little scared to do the 13″ until I get this figured out, as it is my main computer… any ideas?

6. Philip Senechal

   October 1st, 2009 at 1:51 pm

   6

   Try installing the video card driver from the GPU manufacturer. I was running the generic VGA driver that comes with Windows 7 and my fan was on constantly and the heat was incredible. I loaded the latest Nvidia driver and the heat seems to be better and the fans aren’t blowing full force all the time.

7. corey

   October 13th, 2009 at 8:55 pm

   7

   i had a similar problem and assumed my fans were malfunctioning at the same time i installed windows 7 so i took apart my dell inspiron e1705 laptop and cleaned the fans. there was a lot of dust, and on the gpu fan it had become stuck.

   after cleaning it out, the problem was improved, but it still gets hot, so i downloaded an application called i8kfangui and i basically let my fans run 24.7 at 3500 rpm. the system waits too long to turn the fans on and by the time it does the heat is too much for little fans to cool down.

   clearly fans running full blast is not good for battery life, but i don’t even have a battery in mine anymore since it had some errors.

8. sathyan.ram

   October 23rd, 2009 at 10:27 pm

   8

   I had the same problems too, and I finally managed to resolve the heat issue. I can’t guarantee this would work for all of you, but it’s worth a try :

   1. My Computer > Manage > Services & Applications > Services
   2. Right click > Properties on “Desktop Window Manager Session Manager”
   3. Set the Startup type to Manual, and Stop this process

   Additionally, you may consider going through this guide to tweak Win7 :
   1. http://www.computingunleashed.com/2009/06/speed-up-windows-7-ultimate-guide-to.html

   2. http://www.computingunleashed.com/2009/02/list-of-services-in-windows-7-that-can.html

9. rafi

   October 27th, 2009 at 10:33 pm

   9

   what does that last comment suggestion do to the computer?

10. isaac

    October 30th, 2009 at 11:59 am

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    Hi JeremyNZ, i hace the same model acer aspire 5315 and the heating problems, where do you find the driver, i don’t find it anywhere. Please can you post alink to the download page? thanks.

11. Patrick

    November 3rd, 2009 at 7:00 pm

    11

    Hi @ all,

    I have the same heating Problems on my Toshiba Satellite A300 (2,4GHz 4GB-Ram, Ati HD3650, 2x160HDD). The first time I installed Win7 was when the Win7 Beta Build was released. I also noticed, that my system runs more and faster hot than with win Vista (which is the OS saled with my toshiba). I thought, that the heating problems are caused in not supported hardware because of not installed driver.

    Now Win7 is final and saled and I got one from my MSDNAA Account. Toshiba delivered the drivers for my model some days ago, so I installed them, but I have the same heating Problems…

    As said above in another post the temp rised even if my laptop is doing nothing…

    I have installed CPU-Z and found out that my CPU is not at the lowest frequency which is allowed from EIST. Seems that Win7 does not reduce my CPU freq to the lowest level.

    It is not possible for me to play a game like Counterstrike Source with Win7 because my notebook is automatically shut down because of reaching critical high temp.

    If anybody has a solution, an idea or the same problem…please post it…

12. soloo

    November 4th, 2009 at 11:13 am

    12

    I’m using Windows 7 on my laptop acer 5720zg, and since installation i have serious problems with overheating. In my opinion the fan does not change its speed correctly when the processor starts to work. I was doing tests with OCCT, and in one minut the temp of processor went from 55C to 100C!!! I can’t even watch movies on my laptop now… Anyone has ANY idea what to do? I have heard it has something to do with ACPI settings, but i have no idea how to change them. I’ve tried to update BIOS and install different graphic drivers, but nothing changed. Please – HELP!!!

13. streetfighterthebest

    November 7th, 2009 at 10:51 pm

    13

    Hi everyone
    I had the same problem. i recovered the the entire vista back after installing the upgrade (win7 home premium). then i thought for a moment and decided to update the entire vista and just install the essential (mostly used softwares). Then after a day of updating and cleaning up, my vista was so up to date .each and every software, the health check for softwares and also cleaning the unwanted files was all complete. Then today i upgraded to win 7 and the only thing i did after installing is just bloww some air ito the vents in laptop for proper ventilation (i didnot have much dust – just did it for the sake of erasing the option that it caused the problem). Now it does not get hot much.
    all major softwares are now updated by the software companies to be compactible with win 7 and also vista, so u wont have any difficulty installing any softwares in vista which is required in win7

    So these are the step to take
    1.recover or install back the previous OS.
    2. install all the softwares (mostly used and also all the updates u can ever find). Try to find the update for ur graphics card software-imp
    3. after installing allllllllllllllllllllllllll the updates of each and every program clean all the unwanted temporary files (u can use CCleaner, and disk cleanup)
    4. then after everything is complete shutdown the computer, remove the ac connnetion (and battery if any), clean the vents.
    5. then reinstall the entire win7
    6. run the disk cleanup (to clenup the files upgrade copied and also some log files) then the ccleaner.

14. RandomUser

    November 12th, 2009 at 12:53 am

    14

    I happen to have a very similar problem. I run a Toshiba Satellite L300D-038 and I was not enjoying the pre-installed Vista operating system. However, I still wanted the original OS with my laptop, so I dual-booted Vista with XP. Because of the fact that I rarely used Vista, I then replaced Vista with Windows 7, keeping XP still as a dual-boot. I have noticed that when the laptop is running Windows 7, my fan will be slow, it will run, but very slow and silent for the first 5 minutes. After 5 minutes it continues to run at the same speed, but I notice that the heat that it is blowing out is extremely hot. After another 5 minutes my fan starts blowing at a speed it has never gone at before, neither in Vista or XP. The air it blows out at that point is so hot that it’s almost painful to hold my hand near it, and it will never slow down after it kicks in this fast. After about 5 minutes the air it blows out is beginning to cool, but still hot, and after 10 minutes, the air is room temperature, maybe even colder, but the fan continues to blow at a very high speed, and never slows down. If I put the laptop to sleep and wake it up, the fan is slow again, same if I reboot, but it will always blow at high speed after 10 minutes. If I am patient enough to wait for aprox. an hour, sometimes more/less, the laptop will immediately shutdown, no warning at all. If I boot into XP, the laptop controls the speed of the fan correctly, only blowing at speeds necessary. I also have the problem of the ocasional crash during booting in Windows 7. It happens not everytime, but ocasionally. I have no idea what is causing Windows 7 to do this, but it frightens me that it doesn’t control my fan accordingly. I fear that it will burn out my laptop components. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
    SPECS:
    3 GB DDR2 RAM Samsung
    320 GB SATA HDD
    Atheros AR9281 Wireless Network
    Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller
    AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Core QL-62 64
    ATI Radeon 3100 Graphics
    Realtek High Definition Audio ALC268
    Motherboard:
    Chipset – AMD 780G
    Southbridge – ATI SB700

15. chee

    December 4th, 2009 at 9:53 am

    15

    I had the same problem with lenovo t400 in the last two months (after warranty expiration). I am running vista x64 with this version, overheating and automatic shut-down happened.
    With vista 32bit, everything went fine for a year.
    Last night I closed the switchable graphic and used only integrated graphic, everything went fine with vista x64.
    I will try to close switchable graphics and use only discrete graphic tonight and report my results.
    Generally, I would not suppose this to be a hardware problem as long as everything went fine with less heat-generating devices in function.
    Maybe there is a problem with the 64bit driver.
    Not sure yet.
    I called Lenovo yesterday and was told probably something is wrong with the mainboard and a repair would cost $575 dollars. In this case ,i would rather buy a new one

16. matt

    December 4th, 2009 at 12:55 pm

    16

    Since upgrading to W764 Ultimate from Vista I have seen a significant reduction in heat on my Dell Studio laptop xps1340. Running Vista the unit experienced freq shutdowns/freezing. I did a clean install and updated all drivers.

17. Jen

    December 9th, 2009 at 12:31 pm

    17

    Same issue here.

    I just replaced Windows Vista with Windows 7 and I’m finding that my Acer Aspire 3050 is running ridiculously hot. The fan often runs so loud that I can’t make out sounds on my laptop speakers. More so, I worry for the health of my laptop, as I know how damaging heat is to it’s components.

    I DO use a cooling pad with fans and it is STILL unhealthily hot. When using the cooling pad with Vista my laptop fans never needed to go on and it was always cold.

    I am not impressed with this. I like Windows 7 but my laptop’s health is more important.

    I might try cleaning the hardware out and using a cooling gel, but the fact of the matter is that this was not a problem with Vista.

    Fail.

18. Mark

    January 2nd, 2010 at 6:13 pm

    18

    Same think here on a Amilo Xi2428 T9300. The fan doesn’t stop for a single second on Windows 7!?! Under Vista I almoast never heard it… CRAPY windows 7 that is what it is! Bill Gates and their programers probably runs some supercomputers without cooling fans at all…I’m going back to Vista since my NTB fan has allready begone to make quite wierd noises…

19. Oli

    January 4th, 2010 at 1:16 am

    19

    Same issue here,

    I’ve been runing XP/OS X dual boot for a while on Inspiron 1520 without particular heat issue. The computer does get hot while playing game but never experienced shutdown. I’ve upgraded the xp to vista without much issue. I decided to test win 7. I’ve installed a triple boot with w764/w786/os x snow leopard (x64). Guess what both win 7 get’s too hot and reboot under stress. In the meantime before figuring that out, I had upgraded my GF almost identical inspiron 1520 (different HD 5200rpm vs 7200rpm, less ram, 8400 instead of 8600 graphic card, but better cpu). I’ve already noticed that my inspiron got hotter when I replaced the HD about a year ago for a bigger and faster one. Anyways, my gf start complaining about shutdown so I made sure bios and drivers where all up to date. Shutdown where still happening, when I started to game on mine, boom same thing. I’m now in the process of re-installing vista (XP is crap and won’t install back because of my setting with OS X) and compare the temp while idle, and under stress.

20. HowzeR

    February 20th, 2010 at 12:53 pm

    20

    My little story happened after Win 7 was installed on my Toshiba M305D-S4831. The cpu fan works fine in bios, however sometimes when windows boots the fan will stop. The cpu fan will not turn on after a resume or hibernate, and once it stopped while in Windows 7 for no good reason. Of course I only learned about the fan issues after my cpu melted. Yes Windows 7 fried my cpu. I had to purchase & install another cpu. Windows 7 does have it’s benefits, but can’t they get these fan issues under control? Going back to a dual booting XP & Vista. :o( Keep it up Microsoft and I’ll be getting a Linux for dummies book.

    FIX IT!!!

21. Edmo53

    February 25th, 2010 at 11:00 am

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    I have a Dell XPS M1330. After installing W7 pro I coud made freid eggs on it. I resoved the problem installing bios revision a14, then the driver from Nvidia for grafic card. Now it’s ok.

22. lappy users

    March 6th, 2010 at 5:42 pm

    22

    Same crappy fans on Asus F5SL on W7, I guess this is microsofts way of getting rid of 32 bit systems.

23. ryrzu

    March 12th, 2010 at 9:42 am

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    SOLUTION FOR TOSHIBA

    download Chip Set Utility from toshiba site 🙂 that’s all 🙂

24. MikeG in SD

    March 21st, 2010 at 2:32 pm

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    This is completely surprising me to find these posts. Myself, two co-workers and my father all have commented on how much less heat is being generated from our laptops since we clean installed 7 (none of simply upgraded). I have 32bit.

    I actually just for grins did a search to see if others were claiming that their laptops were running cooler so to find all of these posts to the contrary is perplexing.

25. CoolHabesha

    March 31st, 2010 at 2:52 pm

    25

    Well, I have had the quite the same problem for like 15 days… after I changed my windows from Vista to Windows 7 Ultimate 64 -bit. I don’t know if you guys didn’t figure it out…but the only problem was the the “The Display Adapter driver” shipped with win 7 can’t just handle the “Fan system” properly. So, once the fan speed is blown to high speed it won’t minimize for atleast 15 minutes … whether you’re doing something on the computer or not… and so, the laptop will be extreamly hot and noisy.
    What solved my problem was, I just installed a graphics controller from intel …as my display adapter was… Mobile Intel (R) Serious Express Chipset Family…. and so here is what I did…

    1. I fist had to update the INF for I have installed a new operating system and the INF should be updated before the next step. So download and run tht INF updater from here….

    http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18494&lang=eng

    2. Download the … Intel? Graphics Media Accelerator Driver for Windows 7* 64 and Windows Vista* 64 (exe) from here and install it ….

    http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18804&lang=eng

    3. Restart your computer and enjoy your reasonably quite and cool Latop…
    I hope this helps you guys…. Good Luck!!!!.

26. george

    April 12th, 2010 at 2:39 pm

    26

    I have the same problem…
    I installed Win7 Ultimate on my LG laptop, instead of Vista home, as a clean install.
    I haven’t seen any fan change, to be honest.
    But i believe that the problem should be on a driver, basically because I remember my computer getting really hot on Vista (while playing games), but it never shut down or hibernated.
    On Win7, when the temp of the cpu reaches about 85oC, it goes off.
    On Vista it should have got to more (sometimes it was too hot to touch the edge of the laptop), but without shutting. Now I can easily touch it, but it still goes off.
    I’ve searched around, but with no luck. I tried to run the original vista drivers for the chipset and the video card, both installed without problem, but it keeps going off at 85oC.

    My idea after all this search (and since my cpu max temp is 100oC) is that there is a misunderstanding in W7 of what the ‘dangerous’ cpu temperature is. Nevertheless, i can’t really find where i can specify at what temp the computer should shut down…

27. Santa

    May 19th, 2010 at 2:13 am

    27

    Yeah, it happened with me tooo. I installed windows 7 ultimate build 7000 and after a while my laptop just shutdown…

    !!!!SOLUTION!!!!!

    Install latest version of windows 7 ultimate… I installed windows 7 ultimate build 7600 and figured out that there was no problem like that again….

28. Riaad

    June 11th, 2010 at 3:07 pm

    28

    Off course i had the same problem as u guyz, i own an Asus X56VR-AP072C and it is almost 1 year old, hated Vista so tried Windows 7 x64, liked it more but after a while it was almost like i can bake an egg on my laptop and the fan was just making to much noise. I knew it wasn’t an driver issue, i always update to the latest driver there is available using a ‘driver update software’.

    Just to make a long story short, i’ve found the problem what was heating up my laptop. Turned my laptop up side down, removed AC/DC & the battery, unscrewed the panel where u can find the CPU, memory, etc.. and just find a lot of dust covered over the fan and the exit of it!

    I’ve read it before here but didn’t realized this could be a big problem cuz my laptop is like 10 months old!
    Just wanna share my story with u guyz, because i was complaining about windows 7 x64, but i take it all back.. now i can complain about the dust in my house to my wife =P

    o yeah i used a bottle with air in it to remove the dust, i don’t think a vacuum cleaner is enough, if ur searching for it u can buy this bottle in an electronic store.

    Hope this is helpfull for u guyz

29. odettetech

    December 13th, 2010 at 9:51 pm

    29

    I have a compac presario and am having the same problem since I installed W7. not only is it extremely hot and shuts down frequently, but now since an update 2 weeks ago my mouse driver is messed up and my quick start buttons are too and it performs veeeerrrryyy ssslllllooooow 🙁 W7 sux badly