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User profile for user: Amanaka284
Amanaka284 Author
User level: Level 1
14 points

Powerbook G4 running hot... never hear the fans turn on

I recently just installed a new hard drive on my PowerBook G4, as well as updating to OS X 10.5.4.

My laptop now runs very very hot, and I never hear the fans come on.
In fact, twice my laptop froze (mouse tracking included) and began making screeching noises through the speakers. Forcing quit and restarting seemed to fix everything, but I am assuming the system locked up because it got too hot.

I have searched online and have found programs available like smc fan control etc. However, theyre all for Intel macs...which.. I do not have.

I just ran the Hardware test and nothing came up.



Long story short- I am curious if there is any programs out there that are similar to smc fan control for Powerbooks.

I am running my laptop with a fan blowing on it, and it is keeping it at around 40-50 degrees C, but cant find a solution to adjusting or even KNOWING if my fans are working appropriately.

Thanks in advance for your time.

Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Aug 12, 2008 6:59 PM

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12 replies
User profile for user: DaVeKmacplaudit
DaVeKmacplaudit
User level: Level 1
9 points

Sep 26, 2008 1:33 PM in response to DATM

Guys

Same here for me. My PB G4 seems to automatically go to sleep and then once i press space bar it wakes up eventually. I looked on system profile and the log files, and discovered that it seems to do a emergency overtemp Powermanagement sleep. Then i assume onces it's cooler decides to come back on. I have iStatpro to check temps and it seems to be about 47 C when it sleeps. The fans are not running at this point. I noticed that my fans have run in the past, when the temp gets to around the late 40's, they turn on slow RPM and do their job and cool down. It seems since the latest update (a few days ago) to 10.5.5 they haven't worked, and i've experienced the auto sleeping mode. Have they been switched off, or the threshold changed to turn on?
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User profile for user: Wide Awake
Wide Awake
User level: Level 1
0 points

Oct 25, 2008 11:46 AM in response to Amanaka284

Shame this hasn't been resolved. Seems to be a popular problem as I look around. My system randomly falls asleep and as of recently it does it too often - almost unusable. After researching it seems the problem is the temperature, but this is only a semi-educated guess because it used to do it when I first started up. It would fall asleep within the first 10 min and then I wouldn't have the problem any longer. Now it seems to fall asleep when it starts to get hot and then it will continuously go to sleep. Seems to be much worse now that I've upgraded to 10.5.4.

Maybe we should all buy an ice block to work on! 🙂 Lets keep this thing going until someone figures it out. Good luck to all.
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Powerbook G4 running hot... never hear the fans turn on

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