Why Are Gaming Laptops So Loud? (Reasons and Solutions)

Despite being one of the best portable gaming devices available, gaming laptops can be quite loud due to numerous built-in fans that are overworking themselves to disperse heat from the heavy-duty hardware that is shipped with the gaming laptop.

Gaming laptops are by far one the most versatile machines in terms of both portability and performance because everyone knows you can carry them everywhere without having to be glued to one spot, like desktops.

But there is one small trade-off of being physically compact as compared to a desktop causing the manufacturers to intelligently squeeze the internal vital organs of the laptop and carefully design the airflow mechanism to efficiently disperse any heat.

This is why gaming laptops are so loud like an airplane taking off when it is pushed to its maximum possible limits while gaming or performing any super intensive CPU-dependent tasks like video editing.

But this is normal since gaming laptops are designed to have bigger fans with complex airflow systems and vents, however, after a while of usage, the noise feels very unbearable because of plenty of reasons

Reasons Why Gaming Laptops Are So Loud

Here are some of those topmost culprits and how you can come up with an appropriate fix!

1. Wear and tear 

Moving parts in machinery such as gears and screws often produce plenty of friction no matter how much grease or lubricant you use which in turn causes a wear and tear effect on the ball bearing of the ventilation fans.

Although these fans are highly optimized to perform for a longer duration, they are met with their untimely demise if they are constantly overworked to dissipate heat from different crucial parts of the laptops to keep them chilled at times.

This fiasco causes the ventilation system to produce noises that are beyond acceptable levels

Solution For Wear And Tear

Although there is no possible way to overcome the element of friction, you can perform a routine checkup and maintenance for your laptop by either taking it to a repair shop or doing it all by yourself.

Moreover, you can also use a decent lubricant routinely to minimize the fans from getting wear and tear effects as much as possible.

2. Clean The Internals

When these ventilation ports suck in fresh air through its suction system, more often than not, air laden with dust particles usually gets sucked in through the ventilation shaft and clogs up the pivotal parts such as CPU and graphics card causing it to heat up inevitably.

These dust and debris also obstruct or choke up ventilation fans that produce heat which negatively impacts the performance of your laptop.

Solution For Clean The Internal

For the love of God almighty, don’t let the dust and debris sit inside your laptop for too long because it will drastically depreciate the health of your hardware. 

The solution for this problem is quite simple, all you have to do is use rubbing alcohol (isopropyl) and use cotton swabs or microfiber cloth to clean all sensitive parts of your laptops liberally without applying pressure.

3. Shut Those Unnecessary Programs

Gamers love to keep multiple programs running in the background such as discord, steam, origin, and OBS studio, however, those programs do require computational resources that accumulate energy consumption and cause your hardware to heat up.

This unnecessary heat causes the cooling system to trigger and start its dissipation system and work overtime and produce noises through the ventilation port. 

Solution For This Problem

The solution is simple but tricky because shutting off programs might prevent you from taking advantage of its features and you might be stuck in a dilemma.

However, Gaming laptops from reputable brands such as Alienware, MSI, and HP often tend to have bloatware that is running secretly in the background and doesn’t usually show up in the notification panel. 

All you have to do is head over to the task manager and shut off any pesky programs that are not recognizable by you or isn’t used on an everyday basis

4. Check For Malware

Malware is a nuisance to deal with and they are evolving to be extremely stealthy and covert and it is often hard to distinguish a normal program from the ones that are infected because it has the capability to hide in plain sight.

Since malware, viruses, and crypto miners tend to slow down the hardware by straining the hardware for its nefarious reasons, it often causes heat issues and makes your laptop produce noise and act abnormally.

Solution for Malware removal

The stealth attribute of viruses and malware often makes it hard for consumers who are not tech-savvy enough to catch them and eliminate the issue. 

You can install antivirus software from reputable sites like Eset, BitDefender, and Malwarebytes to overcome these malware, adware, trojans, crypto miners as well as Ransomware in order to remove them without compromising your data.

5. Change the thermal pads and paste

CPU and graphics cards are complex hardware that performs millions of computational instructions in split seconds. 

They are power-hungry and have much higher Thermal design power (TDP) and produce heat as their by-product. This is why insulation pads and thermal paste are necessary as they absorb the by-product and keep the hardware working at optimal temperatures.

With the passage of time, these insulation pastes expire due to breaking of chemical bonding, losing physical integrity as well as efficiency.

Solution For This Issue

Get a decent thermal paste such as Arctic Mx-4 or Grizzly Kryonaut and change the stock thermal paste as often as possible to keep your hardware steady and chilled at all times.

Final Afterthought

I am a hardcore gamer myself and honestly speaking it irks me a lot if there is any sort of imperfection in my gaming equipment that might hinder my gaming experiences.

That being said, all these methods mentioned above are personally tried, tested, and evaluated on the basis of long-term experience. I hope you have found the answer to why gaming laptops are so loud and this article was worth the read.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are gaming laptops quiet without gaming?

Gaming laptops are considerably silent while you aren’t playing games or performing graphics-intensive tasks on them because noise is produced by fans from the ventilation systems and they are tweaked to work only in hardware-intensive tasks where heat generation is at an all-time high.

Is it OK for a gaming laptop to be loud?

Yes, because gaming laptops have more fans than conventional laptops, they are significantly louder while gaming.

Lisa Antonio
Lisa enjoys technology & has built many laptops and enjoys tinkering with technology!