My laptop overheats (90+ idle) when plugged in. On battery, it hovers around 60 when idle.

[canyoudont]

 

 

What I've tried:

-Cleaned the heatsink, replaced the dried thermal paste with Grizzly Kryonaut, and de-dusted the fans.

-Changed 'maximum processor state' from 100% to 99%

-Used the 'best battery life' setting instead of 'best performance'.

 

The only applications running are chrome and steam (downloading a game).

[bezza...]

what laptop

[canyoudont]

5 minutes ago, bezza... said:

what laptop

Asus X441BA

[Whatisthis]

What OS are you running?

 

That cpu is old and slow and will be running at a relatively high load at all times if you’re on win 10. 
 

here is a visual for how bad it is: https://cpu-benchmarks.com/cpu/amd-a4-9125/