iMac Heat Issues

The question is, are you using a tool Apple engineering recommended?

If not, I wouldn't treat the tool's measurements as gospel. Many third party heat measurement tools are out there, but assume a unique hardware configuration. Unless you are using the exact tool and version Apple engineers are using, I wouldn't assume that tool is giving you an accurate reading.

If you have unexpected shutdowns, it may indicate a problem with the power in your home. Have an electrician look for possible surges, poor grounding, or something else. Use an uninterruptable power supply by APC, to ensure the proper power gets to your computer.

Anyone else going through this?

I currently have 5 iMacs and have owned three others in the past and have never had an issue that was heat related, even on the old G-5 models which ran hotter than the Intel models due.

If the Apple engineers are telling you it is too hot maybe you should continue discussing with them the reasons for it. Heat does not seem to be a widespread issue. Some folks have reported heat problems but there really are not all that many posts out here discussing it.

If you have had 5 replacements due to heat it may be possible that it is a local environment issue, electrical issue or perhaps a peripheral issue. I would doubt that it is a software issue although I guess it is possible. Since you seem to have the attention of the engineering department you should discuss all of those possibilities with them and try to rule each one out in some manner.

Hope you get it sorted out.

And where does Apple document these sensors in code for the general public to use on every Mac?

The sensor may not be right on top of the hard drive. It may be in a place related to the fan to cool it down. It may be telling the fan to turn on to cool down air going to the drive before it even reaches the drive.

The point is, we don't know. Just because a sensor says the temperature is hot, does not mean the machine is about to fall apart.

Instead, you should take it in to an engineer who has the proper tools to diagnose the temperature, and determine if a replacement is warranted.

Only an Apple Authorized service center would have those tools.

As a consumer you are provided with a couple tools to tell you if something is amiss:

1. The hardware test that comes with your Mac.
2. Techtool Deluxe which comes with Applecare.
3. Disk Utility which comes on your Mac's installer discs, and newer retail Mac OS X installers.
4. System Profiler in Apple menu -> About This Mac -> More Info.
5. Energy Saver in Apple menu -> System Preferences.

Unless the tool tells you it has been tested with that particular model and vintage Mac and has been able to diagnose immediate system failure from the tool's own documentation, reading the temperature of your machine you might as well get a false assumption that your machine is about to blow up. It won't most of the time. Also there is cooling gel on the computer's innards that can prevent places from overheating as well. So don't assume your software is able to detect all hardware faults, unless it is documented to say that it can, and what those faults are when it detects them.

119.3v? It needs 120v. Sounds like the UPS needs a new battery or isn't giving the proper potential to the machine. Any variation from the norm can give computers fits.

Hi
Your ambient is about 5ºC above mine which would put all my temps in the 30-40º range and and my hottest Power supply position 1 at 50-60º range...until I play a game or do work on multiple programs, ie ms word, indesign, photoshop etc. Then all temps go up by 10-20º. Am I worried, no longer. The fans ramp up naturally and I can cook an egg on the top left hand of my mac. My question is, does the heat affect your mac's performance at all?

Performance alone can be impacted by the fans or processor heat, as more energy is drawn towards the fans, and keeping the machine from overheating. If you read the Energy Saver preferences, it offers the options of either slower performance, or automatic settings to change how the processor and fans react:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/8596.html

But just because your performance is impacted, doesn't mean your machine actually is itself overheating. The true test of overheating is if you suddenly see your system shutting down on its own, without your prompting either by System Preference setting to do so, or manually from the Apple menu. The system does have safeguards if it is functioning to shut down the machine automatically if it overheats.

That's why the hardware test Apple offers is important, it can tell you if most of those safeguards are working. Otherwise, an authorized service center might have to tell you if the safeguards are in place. I've seen many cases where a fan is malfunctioning from the Apple hardware test reported here, and once even on my Powerbook. I took it in to Apple and they tried fixing it, and eventually replaced my machine.

The fact you are going through multiple replaces either tells me you have convinced the engineers each of those machines has had problems worth replacing before their even testing it, or there was a problem on some of those machines, but not others. Regardless, I would not use the heat from a third party utility report as the sole basis for replacing your machine.

Based on what you stated

+"All I know is I bought a client of mine over 20 dell machines. Only one had an issue and it was quickly replaced. My impression is that Apple is a bit too into pushing out new hardware and not enough into quality control. "+

Assuming that is representative of all Dell machines (and I hope it isn't) that is a 5% failure rate. With today's manufacturing technology that is an extremely high number. Apple's failure rate is well less than 1%....I think I will stick with Apple.

This data is specifically targeted at the G5 iMac, iPods and a non sequitur PC article. Apple did acknowledge the G5 had issues and offered assistance to affected owners. The G5 has not be sold since about March of 2006, in computer terms this is VERY old data.

However that being said you are correct I cannot produce up-to-date statistics stating the iMac failure rate is below 1% nor can you produce statistics pertinent statistics stating they are above 1%. For that I'll concede an error in my statement and offer my apology for making an unsupported claim.

Apple sells some 2.6 million Macs last quarter:

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/07/21results.html

Even if you look at the longest thread here:

http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1114

and look at the 24000 views of the vertical lines, only 340 replies were made,
frequently from the same people.

340 of even one quarter (we are dealing with four distinct Mac model series, iMac, MacBook, MacBook Pro, and Mac Pro) of the 2.6 million (650,000) is far less than 1%, and with an average of at least 10 people per thread, you are dealing with at most 2,400 unique views, which is less than 1%. You would need at minimum 6,500 iMac owners to even reach one percent failure rate. And then you consider the number of iMacs reporting into that board cover the iMacs for the past 12 quarters, that makes the percentage even smaller!

Sure, for every one person that does report in, there is another who doesn't. Even assuming that, you still don't make 1%.

Statistics of the actual failure rates are not disclosed by any means.

And most people don't report in success, because this is a troubleshooting board. How many people do you know will actually want to troubleshoot a healthy machine? Think about this carefully.

And remember, Apple Discussions is free. So your chances of seeing people who have failures who don't wish to pay AppleCare a visit with their pocketbook is much higher here than elsewhere.

Finally, year after year, Consumer Reports gives Apple Customer Service the highest rating in the industry:

http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/consumer-reports-takes-a-shine-to -apple/
http://www.macworld.com/article/133293/2008/05/consumer.html
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2006/10/5614.ars

And this in the last three years that Apple has had Intel Macs.
Apple sales have increased year after year, even in this bear market.

So what does that say?

Message was edited by: a brody

Message was edited by: a brody