Laptop Runs HOT When Brave Browser Open

I usually have seven tabs open at all times: Gmail, Tradingview (x3), my webpage, and my crypto trading platform (plus a random search tab).

I have a new-ish Dell Inspiron 17, 5000 series (if that matters) 32 GB, 1.8 GHz, and when my Brave tabs are open, the machine runs hot and loud until closed. This never happened with Chrome on my broke down, five-year-old Acer Aspire, so I’m assuming it’s a Brave thing.

When I open the Task Manager, it is showing 40 Brave applications open. That number increases every few days. If I selectively try to close the superfluous ones via the Task Manager, they just pop back up in the list.

I have closed the Browser and reopened. It only makes it worse. I have rebooted the laptop which temporarily cuts down the number of Brave apps showing in Task Manager, but over time, the number climbs back up, and my laptop runs hot, continually. (No the exhaust port is not blocked.) My husband is experiencing the same issue and can’t figure out how to stop it.

We have Brave Version 0.62.51 Chromium: 73.0.3683.103 (Official Build) (64-bit)

What can we tweak to quell the excessive heat and wear to our machines (and still use Brave)?

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Hi, Welcome @ClariceStarling the brave.exe processes do add up quickly. Personally, I normally keep Brave open all the time, until I shutdown/restart the computer, there isn’t a way to close Brave completely without loosing windows/tabs on the next startup, unless I just force close all the applications when I shutdown/restart. Laptops normally run hot almost no matter what is running (web browsers might use more processing power than some other applications). Also I believe laptops made of predominately plastic on the exterior are more notorious for overheating, although any laptop will overheat if it’s placed on soft insulation materials for more than a few minutes(blankets or any fabric), so I would suggest you get a Cooler Master laptop cooler for your laptop. They raise the laptop up to a more ergonomic angle for typing on the keyboard (if you use that) and the wider the fan, the more cooling effect(160-200mm or wider), and look for one made of mostly metal (metal conducts the cold, and dissipates heat faster than plastic, an insulator) and one with a fan speed controller.

In the Windows Task Manager you can click once or twice on “CPU” at the top of the list in the Processes tab, to sort them by highest CPU usage, and notice how often a brave.exe process gets high on that list. (Two or three of the main brave.exe processes might alternate somewhere near to the highest.)

Additionally, you can open another task manager, one that’s specific for Brave, to switch to individual tabs and/or close them. Go to the menu (three horizontal bars on top right)>>> More Tools>>> “Task Manager” or use the keyboard shortcut [Shift] + [Esc] … Double clicking on an item in that list will switch to that tab. Closing tabs with a high “Memory footprint” might make your laptop run cooler.

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Some web sites just absolutely crush Brave. Just one tab open to ESPN will spike by CPU over 90%. Looking through the community posts, resource utilization seems to be an ongoing challenge for Brave. I love the idea and will continue to support it, but it’s very difficult to make it part of my daily workflow with issues like this. I really hope they continue to make progress.

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@ClariceStarling A 1.8 GHz CPU is low for today’s standards. How many cores does it have? Is that 32 GB of RAM? If so, then that’s not bad, though the CPU speed is limiting.

@aphex978 If the CPU speed on your computer is low also, then that would be one reason why the CPU usage spikes when opening tabs. Consider upgrading to a build. (Don’t get any computer with Windows 10, either build a computer yourself or buy one from somewhere that doesn’t have an OS on it, and assimilate the computer with WinBorg 7 Ultimate or try a Linux build such as PCLinuxOS or Fedora or Linux Mint. https://startpage.com/do/dsearch?query=laptop+build+yourself&cat=web&pl=opensearch)

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To use a modern web browser I should not need a custom-built Linux box (btw I’m using a 2018 Dell laptop with 16GB Ram and dual 2.7 Ghz i5s - not high end for sure, but sufficient power for most end-user desktop applications. CERTAINLY enough to power a freaking web browser!). Chrome and Firefox run great. My point in simply that I hope Brave continues to make progress on resource consumption before I can move to it full time.

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Alright, that is not too low end. I’ve noticed some problems too, not overheating, just the windows on Windows 7 getting mixed up :point_up_2: :up: when reopening a previous session, and tabs on Android get mixed up :point_up_2: :up:, and all of the tabs in Brave for Android flash :camera_flash: before a person’s eyes :eyes: every time the app is re-selected, after a little bit of time :watch: away. And if I open the list of tabs, I can’t use Brave on Android till all of the tabs are loaded, if even sometimes crashes when trying to reopen previous tabs.

You should still have a laptop cooler, regardless of which browser you use, a laptop cooler can help keep your laptop at a manageable temperature :thermometer:

@Mattches @eljuno

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