How to Keep a Laptop Motherboard From Burning Out

If you let your laptop overheat, you'll soon have a useless chunk of plastic where your motherboard was.

Keeping your laptop cool is essential to prolonging the life of its most vital component: the motherboard. Keeping your laptop's needs in mind can save you a tremendous amount of hassle and expense down the line.



The laptop needs a steady supply of fresh, cool air in order for its built-in ventilation system to work properly. Luckily, the manufacturers make keeping a laptop cool a snap, if it's handled properly.

Instructions

1. Locate the laptop's ventilation intake grill, usually located on the back or underside of the laptop's casing. Make sure there are no stickers or other decorative blockages keeping air from getting to that grill.

2. Lay the laptop only on flat, even, well-dusted surfaces clear of loose debris.

   The laptop has small rubber feet that lift the ventilation system intake slightly off the surface to ensure it has a supply of fresh air, which works best on flat surfaces.

3. Check the ventilation intake grill regularly for dust or other debris clogging the intake. If it's clogged, it's not taking in a good supply of fresh air and will eventually burn out.

4. Keep the laptop away from sources of high ambient heat like fireplaces, space heaters and intense sunlight. Sources of ambient heat can raise the temperature of the air entering the computer and cause a motherboard burnout as surely as though no air at all were getting in.

References

• Paula-Brett: How to Prevent Your Laptop from Overheating
• Romow: Laptop Maintenance Guide