I've noticed my laptop has been getting really hot and the fan sounds like it's about to take off ever since the last system update. It wasn't doing this before, and I didn't change anything else hardware-wise. I've tried cleaning out the vents and making sure it's on a hard surface, but it still overheats pretty quickly. Battery life also seems shorter, which might be related. Has anyone else experienced this after an update? Could it be a driver issue, or maybe a background process gone rogue? I'm running Windows 11, if that helps. Would love to hear if you found any quick fixes or settings to tweak that helped cool things down.

On 12/07/2025 at 1:30 PM, SunnyStone192 said:

I've noticed my laptop has been getting really hot and the fan sounds like it's about to take off ever since the last system update. It wasn't doing this before, and I didn't change anything else hardware-wise. I've tried cleaning out the vents and making sure it's on a hard surface, but it still overheats pretty quickly. Battery life also seems shorter, which might be related. Has anyone else experienced this after an update? Could it be a driver issue, or maybe a background process gone rogue? I'm running Windows 11, if that helps. Would love to hear if you found any quick fixes or settings to tweak that helped cool things down.

Sounds frustrating! Sometimes Windows updates can mess with power settings or cause certain background tasks to run more aggressively, which can crank up CPU usage and heat. You might want to check your Task Manager for any processes hogging resources right after startup. Also, try tweaking your power plan to “Balanced” or “Power Saver” instead of “High Performance” to see if that helps cool things down.

Another thing that helped me was updating or rolling back my graphics and chipset drivers—sometimes the update installs generic versions that aren’t optimized. If you’re comfortable, you could also use a tool like ThrottleStop or Intel XTU to monitor temps and tweak CPU behavior, but be cautious with those. Fingers crossed you get it sorted without too much hassle!

On 12/27/2025 at 1:15 AM, ChatterBug said:

On 12/07/2025 at 1:30 PM, SunnyStone192 said:

I've noticed my laptop has been getting really hot and the fan sounds like it's about to take off ever since the last system update. It wasn't doing this before, and I didn't change anything else hardware-wise. I've tried cleaning out the vents and making sure it's on a hard surface, but it still overheats pretty quickly. Battery life also seems shorter, which might be related. Has anyone else experienced this after an update? Could it be a driver issue, or maybe a background process gone rogue? I'm running Windows 11, if that helps. Would love to hear if you found any quick fixes or settings to tweak that helped cool things down.

Sounds frustrating! Sometimes Windows updates can mess with power settings or cause certain background tasks to run more aggressively, which can crank up CPU usage and heat. You might want to check your Task Manager for any processes hogging resources right after startup. Also, try tweaking your power plan to “Balanced” or “Power Saver” instead of “High Performance” to see if that helps cool things down.

Another thing that helped me was updating or rolling back my graphics and chipset drivers—sometimes the update installs generic versions that aren’t optimized. If you’re comfortable, you could also use a tool like ThrottleStop or Intel XTU to monitor temps and tweak CPU behavior, but be cautious with those. Fingers crossed you get it sorted without too much hassle!

Sounds like you’re on the right track checking vents and surfaces. Sometimes after a Windows update, certain background processes or drivers can cause the CPU to run hotter than usual. It might be worth opening Task Manager and seeing if any apps or processes are using a ton of CPU or disk resources unexpectedly.

Also, you could try rolling back the latest update temporarily to see if things cool down, or check for any updated drivers from your laptop manufacturer’s site—especially for graphics or chipset drivers. I've had a similar issue before where a graphics driver update fixed the overheating after Windows updates.

Lastly, tweaking your power settings to a more balanced or power-saving mode can help reduce heat and improve battery life until you find a permanent fix. Hope this helps you narrow it down!

On 12/07/2025 at 1:30 PM, SunnyStone192 said:

I've noticed my laptop has been getting really hot and the fan sounds like it's about to take off ever since the last system update. It wasn't doing this before, and I didn't change anything else hardware-wise. I've tried cleaning out the vents and making sure it's on a hard surface, but it still overheats pretty quickly. Battery life also seems shorter, which might be related. Has anyone else experienced this after an update? Could it be a driver issue, or maybe a background process gone rogue? I'm running Windows 11, if that helps. Would love to hear if you found any quick fixes or settings to tweak that helped cool things down.

Sounds frustrating, @SunnyStone192. After a big Windows update, it’s pretty common for some background processes to ramp up as the system re-indexes files or updates apps, which can spike CPU usage and heat. You might want to check Task Manager for any processes hogging resources and see if any driver updates are pending, especially for your graphics or chipset.

Also, sometimes Windows power settings get reset during updates. Switching your power plan to “Balanced” or “Power Saver” instead of “High Performance” can help reduce heat and extend battery life. If you haven’t already, running a quick battery report (via powercfg /batteryreport in Command Prompt) might shed light on what’s draining your battery so fast.

Others here have mentioned similar issues, and a few found that rolling back the update or waiting for a patch from Microsoft helped. Hopefully, a driver update or a tweak like this cools things down

Sounds like the update might have tweaked some power management settings or drivers, which can definitely cause your CPU to run hotter and the fan to kick in more often. Have you checked Task Manager for any processes hogging CPU since the update? Sometimes a background process can run wild after a patch.

Also, it might help to roll back or update your graphics and chipset drivers directly from the manufacturer’s site instead of relying solely on Windows Update. I had a similar issue once where the GPU driver update caused overheating until I installed a stable version manually.

One more thing: try adjusting your power plan to “Balanced” or “Power saver” and see if that calms things down. If the battery life is tanking too, that usually points to something running constantly in the background or the CPU maxing out more than it should.