Any tips on how to stop your laptop from overheating?

What are you setting it on? If it is on you bed or something that won’t let it breathe, it is going to overheat. Also, look into a laptop stand that has fans for cooling it.

It depends what is heating up. Sometimes it’s the graphics chip, and you can change the load on it by changing the way your desktop looks (turn off animations, etc.)

For me, the best solution is a usb cooling pad. There are a lot of them around, and they really help.

Don’t put it on any sort of fabric. If you are on your bed or something, put it on a book or a binder, and if that doesn’t help, it is most likely something in your computer.

What @lanahopple said for one (don’t cover vents, or the bottom). Do you smoke, or compute around a dusty env? Have the vents cleaned out.
Go into the BIOS if you know how, or have a check-up to see if the fans work and at what speed(s). Or, simply try and remember how the laptop ‘behaved’ aside from its performance when you bought it.

There are laptop cooling pads, some really powerful ones. You could also try that.

I got one of these, it seems to work pretty well. I have a macbook.

Check to make sure that your system is not hosting any spyware running in the background that keeps your CPU constantly running. Also, take-off from your Start-up any unnecessary programs that will use-up your memory, thereby forcing your system to compensate by using virtual memory.

Also, couldn’t stress enough as well, the importance of ventilation. Excessive gaming also generates more heat than regular computing.

I had a thing the size of a laptop with two fans in it. I put it on a flat surface (not the bed or my lap) then put the laptop on top of it. Helped a lot. I bought one of those lap desks for writing to put my laptop on because I want to have it on my lap.

I place the back side of my laptop on top of a ½” strip of wood. It improves airflow and tilts the keyboard more to my hands. A cheap fix.

Is it under warranty? That shouldn’t happen.

Many people block the air vents and then wonder why things get hot. It happens with all sorts of electronics, and laptops are no exception.

Some people let so much cruft accumulate in their heatsinks that the machine just chokes, sputters and dies. Cleaning a clogged heat sink is often best accomplished with compressed air since taking a laptop apart is a bitch.

Some apps flog the chips. I know that when I run games, the power draw goes up (sucking down trhe battery in my netbook if I am on that) and my chips get toasty. It’s not so much of an issue on my tower, but any heavy-duty stuff on my netbook leads to a louder fan (it speeds up as temps rise) and a warmer lap.

As others have said, sitting it on a bed is bad because the cloth will trap the heat. You need to get a laptop chill mat, available at Best Buy, Sam’s Club, and most other major retailers. If that does not help, then your laptop probably has internal issues (which, not being a techie, I wouldn’t dare to diagnose).

Raise it so that air flows beneath.

Buy a cooling mat or in emergency put blue ice pack under it.
It likes just the tilt for air and is extra happy with a blue ice pack right under the processor.
Don’t use it to watch movies.