If you have a Nintendo switch, you may have experienced that the Nintendo's fan can become too loud during gameplay or when you just boot the console.

 The Nintendo switch's fan can become loud because the fan speed increases due to the increased temperature of the system. In a typical scenario, the Nintendo switch's fan speed is directly proportional to the system temperature. 

Consequently, the higher the temperature of your Nintendo Switch, the faster the speed of the fan will be and become loud and vice versa. with that said your Nintendo Switch's fan can become loud due a lot of reasons. 

Now in this article we are going to talk about the things that causes your Nintendo switch's fan to become loud and how to fix them. 

Below I have listed the most common problems that causes the Nintendo switch's fan to become loud.



  • Nintendo switch is overheating
  • Nintendo Switch's Fan is clogged with dust or dirt
  • Nintendo Switch has bad ventilation 
  • Air intake is clogged/blocked
  • Dried thermal paste
  • The fan is Dying

Nintendo Switch is Overheating

The Nintendo switch's fan can become too loud if it is overheating. It will spin to the fullest to try and cool down the console, now there might be other reasons that may cause your Nintendo switch to become hot and cause the fan to spin to the fullest and become loud.

It can be that your CPU or GPU is working so hard and becomes hot due to high graphics games and huge game that require too much CPU and GPU usage.

Now this will cause the fan to work so hard trying to cool the console and become loud. 

As we talked in the introduction that the fan is directly proportional to the temperature of the console. 

Now the fan shouldn't be continuously spinning.
If it is continuously spinning becoming loud, try to take you hands off the console and let it cool down before you continue playing.

Fan is clogged with dust, debris or dirt

The Nintendo Switch gaming console is a portable gaming console. Which means it is expected to be exposed to dust debris and dirt because we carry it around, put it in our pockets, backpack, hand back or even purses. 

These places exploits the Nintendo switch to dust, debris and dirt as they are exposed to all of these. 

The Nintendo Switch's fan can become loud due to clogged vent, debris or dirt clogged the fan hence causing the fan to be loud because it will require more work to spin as it is clogged. 

Check to see if the air vent is clogged and clean with cloth. For debris you will have to open the Nintendo switch and monitor debris clogged in the fan.

Bad ventilation


air vent nintendo switch

Your Nintendo Switch's fan can become loud if there is bad ventilation. If your system is not properly ventilated, it will kick the fan into overdrive to keep itself cool, causing the fan to be loud. 

It's possible that dust has gotten into your Switch's vents and cooling system, causing the fan to work harder than it should have to in order to keep cool. 

Now, this happens If you don't have enough space around the system, it could overheat and cause the fan to run at a higher speeds to cool it down. 

Make sure you have plenty of room around your system. Also make sure the vents aren't blocked by anything like dust or other debris.


Air intake is clogged or blocked


The Nintendo switch console has an air intake which is located at the back of your console. This allows the air to go inside the cooling system of the Nintendo Switch and out through the vent. 

Now if the air intake is blocked the switch will be unable to draw cool air into the cooling system causing the console to become hot and the fan to run to the fullest causing loud noise.

Check that the air intake is not blocked or clogged with dust. If clogged, dust the air intake and clean with a dry cloth.


Dried thermal paste

As we discussed earlier in the introduction that the fans speed is directly proportional to the consoles temperature. 

When the temperature rises the fan spins fast trying to cool down the console and it will reduce its speed as the console continues to cool down. 

Now the CPU of the Nintendo switch is covered with a heat sink. 

This heat sink cools down the CPU by heat conduction. The heat is transferred from the CPU to the heat sink but the heat sink is not directly attached to the CPU.

It cannot conduct the heat from the CPU when it is attached directly, so we put thermal paste to help with the conduction of heat transfer. 

Now this thermal paste can become dry overtime causing heat transfer to be difficulty between the CPU and the heat sink. 


This will cause the CPU to become too hot causing the fan to spin to the fullest trying to cool the CPU hence causing loud noise.


The fan is faulty

The worst case scenario is a faulty fan. If all the discussed faults above don't work then you probably have a faulty fan. 

A faulty fan can cause a whirring sound which maybe loud. If your fan is making a whirring sound then it needs replacement. Replacing your Nintendo Switch's fan is simple and you can do it on your own. 

I will update a guide on how to replace your Nintendo switch's fan.

Conclusion 

With everything discussed we can see what causes the Nintendo Switch's fan to become loud is the temperature, As long as you have cool temperatures and your console is not getting hot you the fan shouldn't be loud unless it faulty.