How to Check the Internal Temperature of Your Laptop

The temperature of a laptop is very important, and having it reach too high of a level can result in data loss, hardware damage, or complete loss of function. There are many components in a computer that keep it in the right temperature range-the heat sink, CPU fan, vents fans, and, in some cases, a cooling liquid-any if any of them fail, or start to fail, the overall temperature of a laptop may raise, causing damage over time. If your laptop is beginning to feel hotter than normal, or if the fans are funning constantly, it is important to check the temperature of your laptop to make sure that it isn't running too hot.

Step 1

Check your BIOS. Not all laptops will have a thermometer meter in the BIOS, but many do, and you can get the reading easily. To boot into BIOS, shut the computer down, then turn it on. Watch the boot screen closely, and it will list the button to press in order to enter BIOS. In most laptops, that button is F2; in others, it is usually ESC or TAB.

Once you're in BIOS, tabbed through the tabs to system, and look for a temp control or thermometer listing. If there isn't one, then your laptop doesn't have it. If there is, take note of the core temperature-it should be around 60 degrees Celsius, or around 120 Fahrenheit. If it is higher, that isn't necessarily bad-it all depends on your computer's cooling system. If the unit is reporting a high temperature, and the case also feels hot and the fan is running, then you might need to get it repaired.

Step 2

If the BIOS doesn't include any temperature readings, then call your laptop's manufacturer and ask them if there is a program installed that shows the temperature-these programs are a relatively new things, though, so if your machine is more than a few years old, you might have to go to step 3.

Step 3

At this point, your only option is to install a program that will measure it. There are a few different programs to do this, but the odds are you don't want to spend money. The best free program that I could find is called MobileMeter, which is freeware and supported by Windows. Download it, unzip the archive, then right-click and choose "Run as Administrator". If you don't run the EXE as admin, the program will get an error.

Once the program launches, it will show you the frequency the program is running at (the gigahertz/megahertz), and the temperature.