Manufacturers take care in designing their gaming laptops to resist anything from jostling to the occasional spill, but they can’t account for every obscurity or troubleshooting issue. Compared to gaming desktops, laptops quickly show signs of wear and tear. Thankfully, XOTIC PC has experience in troubleshooting and this guide contains a few quick fixes to get your computer back up to speed. Most of your notebook’s ailments can be solved right at home, so you can avoid spending hundreds or thousands on part replacements or upgrades.
Overheating
If your gaming notebook is crashing or freezing, heat is the most probable culprit. Start by cleaning out your laptop’s air vents, updating your BIOS software, or covering the inhalation vents with filtered material. Laptops are at risk of overheating, because of their small size and lack of ventilation. If you leave your gaming laptop at home most days, dust is another determining factor in performance. Dust can clog air vents and deprive your system of cold air. Your central processing unit requires cold air to cool down, so regular cleaning is necessary.
Slow Hard Drive
If you’re experiencing extreme program load times or slow file transfers, disk fragmentation is in order. Disorganized data forces your computer to sift through fragments and bad sectors, sapping performance in the process. You can easily troubleshoot your hard drive by defragging. Most gaming notebooks come with built-in disk defragmentation tools, which you can use to organize the contents on the mass storage device used to store all your files.
If your laptop is making a loud clicking noise whenever it accesses data from the hard drive, you’re in need of a good backup solution. There are plenty of hard drive replacements available but try to back up as much data as possible before making the big switch. You can easily use an online backup site or software solution.
Weak Battery Life
As gaming enthusiasts know all too well, battery life is one of the most important considerations to make when buying or building a gaming notebook. If your laptop runs only for a few minutes at a time when unplugged, it might finally be time for a battery replacement. Most gaming notebooks are equipped with lithium-ion batteries, which lose the ability to hold a charge after several years of use. Batteries can be expensive, but there are retailers that supply batteries at discounted prices with warranties to boot.
Sluggish Memory
If your laptop’s performance is sluggish when running multiple applications or you’re experiencing excessive bootup times, your Random Access Memory (RAM) is in need of attention. Start troubleshooting by conducting an audit of your startup programs. Disable any programs you rarely use and use your startup manager to manage what loads when you boot your computer. You might also need to upgrade your RAM. There are a wide variety of memory chips to choose from, and you can also invest in a ReadyBoost-enabled USB drive to improve program startup times.