Information to help understand why the laptop fan may be running

If the fan on your Toshiba laptop is running loud or you notice performance issues, this article will walk you through some common causes and how to identify them.

Most causes of the Laptop fan running constantly can be traced down to high CPU utilization caused by Windows updates or other applications. When CPU utilization runs high the CPU gets warm and the fan will run to control the thermal temperature of the CPU. It is normal for the fan to run when the CPU thermal temperature rises and on today's thin and light designs the fan will run more often due to the compact design.

The fan may run constantly when CPU utilization is running high. However, when the application that is causing high CPU utilization is finished (whether it be updating, scanning or simply processing) the CPU utilization and as a result thermal temperature will stabilize back down after time.

It is always a very good practice to keep the ventilation open underneath the laptop by placing the laptop on a hard surface so the air intake vents are clear of obstructions and the output vents on the back or side are also unobstructed

Here is information on how to check the CPU Utilization.

CPU Utilization can be checked by opening task manager by right clicking on the windows task bar and selecting Task Manager.

When task manager opens you may have to select more details to see more detailed information.

Select the Processes tab

Generally the CPU Utilization is 1 to 14%. Anything consistently higher than 10% will cause the fan to run in order to control the thermal temperature of the CPU. When applications open, or are processing information you may see spikes in CPU utilization which is normal. It is also normal during updates and CPU intensive applications to consistently see the CPU run higher than 10% but over time it should stabilize back down when the application processing is complete. You can sort the CPU Utilization processes by selecting the column header. This may give you an indication of what application is causing the high utilization.

Processes that commonly can cause CPU utilization to run high are:

• Updates
• Indexing
• Scanning
• Graphics
• Multiple applications runnign at the same time

If you are experiencing performance issues along with the fan running

Most causes of performance issues can be caused by CPU Utilization and Disk Utilization. Review the CPU utilization checks above. Disk utilization can be caused by intensive indexing by security software, malware software, Windows or Office indexing or other disk intensive applications. You can check to see what is running by selecting the Disk column header and sort by high usage applications

To check to see if Windows is updating. In the windows search box in the lower left corner of the desktop type in UPDATES then select check for updates.

Select Check for Updates

Here is an example of updates being performed. While Windows is updating you can expect CPU utilization to run high.