Laptop Overheating while Gaming, and I’ve tried Everything!

[bugwhisperer]

HP Laptop 15-bw0xx
Processor: AMD A12-9720P Radeon R7, 12 Compute Cores 4C+8G, 2700 MHz, 4 Cores, 4 Logical Processors
8GB of RAM
About 1 year old

My Windows laptop has perfectly reasonable idle temps, and even cools down really fast when I am done gaming, but while gaming it goes a little too high, going to around 81-82 degrees Celsius after only a few minutes and slowly climbs up to about 88 when I shut it down myself. I play World of Warcraft, which is a very strenuous game that clearly builds up a ton of heat from both the CPU and the GPU, but the laptop never seemed to have a problem with heat until just recently. I have tried every single method I could think of to fix this, and I could really use any other ideas or if anyone else has been through something similar. Here’s what I have tried:
- Opening the laptop and removing all dust from the fan and vents
- Carefully reapplying thermal paste
- Only playing WoW on the minimum graphics settings on all accounts
- Limiting the total CPU output to just 40% of what it could normally put out
- Changing my battery plan to minimize performance and maximize saving battery to reduce heat
- Switching to power-saving mode at all times
- Never playing while charging, with minimum brightness on the screen
- A small, external fan constantly blowing on the laptop (but not blowing into the air vents)
- I bought a cooling pad, a Kootek Cooler pad Chill Mat 5, that elevates and blows air into the underside of the laptop (although the fans feel quite weak)
- Changing the priorities of my CPU to make WoW it’s top priority over all other background programs

This has become my pet project in my free time, but I am out of ideas, and I don’t want to accept that I may need to bring it to someone else to get it looked at, or maybe I will never be able to comfortably play the game again. I’ve noticed that when I’m at 15% battery, even if I’m gaming, the laptop suddenly cools to around 65-70 degrees, so that’s why the power saving option is being used, because I thought that’s what was causing it. I will also say that I feel that the air flow coming from the vent on the side of the laptop feels weak even when the fan is on it’s max setting, so I don’t know if it’s getting blocked somehow. If there are any other ideas or suggestions, or if I’m just being too paranoid and this is supposed to get this hot while playing WoW, or if I should just get another laptop...any suggestions at all are more than welcome. Thank you for your time.

 

[hang-the-9]

Seems like normal temps during gaming. A lot of laptops I test reach near 90C under load. Making sure system is clean and doing new thermal paste is all you can do unless you buy a new heatsink assembly.

 

[bugwhisperer]

Thank you for your answer, hang-the-9. You’re probably right, and I think it will be alright to game on on further review, although I know it will decrease the overall lifespan of the laptop in the long run. A new heatsink assembly, huh...sounds expensive. I’ve learned so much just from going through this process, and now I know to invest a little more into a quality laptop when you know you’re gonna put it under stress rather than go through this headache.