Software Fan Control?

Hi aktungmak,

'Laptops' are now called 'notebooks' for a very good reason. It isn't recommended that they are used on the lap because of heat dispersal and circulation. There are also the fertility issues. Google 'fertility laptop'. If you need to use it on your lap, use an atlas, piece of hardboard/plywood etc., to allow normal ventilation.

AFAIK there are no UI, or any other, changes to control the fan.

Have fun.

Adrian

Hey, if it is not getting too hot while on your lap then there is nothing wrong with having it on your lap. Laptops Rule!!!

Hi,

It can be done with Linux, but I don't suggest it. If you think about it, Apple set things for a reason. If I am not mistaken, the fan in the iBook turns on when the CPU usage is high for x amount of time. You might want to invest in a laptop stand/rest.

By the way, I bet if you have the power to control the fan; you will have one of the " logic board failures" (term overused).

Jon

Mac Mini 1.42Ghz, iPod (All) , Airport (Origional & Express), G4 1.33Ghz iBook , G4 iMac 1Ghz, G3 500Mhz, iBook iMac 233Mhz, eMate, Power Mac 5400 LC, PowerBook 540c, Macintosh 128K, Apple //e, Apple //, and some more... Mac OS X (10.4.5) Moto Razr, iLife '06, SmartDisk 160Gb, Apple BT Mouse, Sight..

it's not good practice to play with kernels unless you know exactly what you are doing... fan speeds and temperature regulation are all controlled by the system and should not be toyed with anyway.

Peter.

Yeah...Hi Peter,

Um, I don't know why you responded to my post about how you don't suggest it. Was that pointed to me? Where you just reiterating/agreeing with

"It can be done with Linux, but I don't suggest it. If you think about it, Apple set things for a reason...By the way, I bet if you have the power to control the fan; you will have one of the "logic board failures" (term overused).
"

Jon

Mac Mini 1.42Ghz, iPod (All) , Airport (Origional & Express), G4 1.33Ghz iBook , G4 iMac 1Ghz, G3 500Mhz, iBook iMac 233Mhz, eMate, Power Mac 5400 LC, PowerBook 540c, Macintosh 128K, Apple //e, Apple //, and some more... Mac OS X (10.4.5) Moto Razr, iLife '06, SmartDisk 160Gb, Apple BT Mouse, Sight..

I just know a few people who played with such things.... these people no longer have working computers, it is a precaution...

😝

Apple spends quite a bit of time and testing to determine what temperatures the fans on various model Macs should turn on at. You should not try to control this function yourself. As the others have suggested, the iBook needs to have the space underneath for airflow. The "feet" on the bottom are for more than making sure the bottom doesn't get scratched, they're there to pick up the iBook a few millimeters above the flat table surface. Not all the cooling features of the iBook are "active". Some cooling is dependent on having air flow naturally around the bottom of the iBook. It's not necessary to buy an expensive active cooling device for your iBook, I just use a $4.99 plastic cutting board from the grocery store under my PowerBook. It's just the right size and is sturdy and flat. This allows air to flow underneath.

-Doug

It seems funny that the OP wants his ibook to run cooler but almost everyone that responded says NO, apple wants it to run HOTTER than you do.

Apple set the fan operating temp as high as would be safe to reduce battery consumption don't you think? Not because they desire for it to run that hot. If it were necessary to run that hot (147F to 157F) they would have put a heater in it to insure it would run hot enough if you are only doing light computing!

There is a vast range of temperatures that will work well, and if cooler is better for the operator (desired by the OP) then it sounds good to me. 😉

Oh, and to those who think that business designs things the way they do "for a reason", just remember that that reason is ultimately to help THEIR bottom line, not yours. If it helps yours, that's gravy. Think about it.

Just out of curiosity-->why do you wipe your drive and reinstall every 2 months?

Lyssa brings up a very good question. Why is that?

~JB-
The closeness in names is getting to be very confusing.

"Oh, and to those who think that business designs things the way they do "for a reason", just remember that that reason is ultimately to help THEIR bottom line, not yours. If it helps yours, that's gravy. Think about it. "

Well, as far as I know; this is a discussions board, which means we discuss matters. There is no clear cut way of turning the fan off and on without putting the iBook at risk. I (can't speak for others) am just trying let the OP know the possible risks that are involved with changing the fan control. You may want to look into being a spokesman for a cigarette company. The buyer wants to smoke, then don't put the warning labels on the front with those big letters. I bet I will see a see a future post where the OP (as well as others) scream bloody murder because their logic board has failed due to the "Logic Board Epidemic". Maybe your right, the original poster asked how to, so here it is. Maybe you can answer the post that says " iBooks Are Awful Don't Purchase Them!!!!". The part that they leave out is; " I decided to alter the computer with a "hack" because Apple purposely didn't want users to mess with it". Just a quick thought, when fans run; do they create heat? If there is an increase in energy consumption; will that cause even more heat? I don't specialize in heat transfer, so I can only give you my opinions. The last thought; would you rather have the bottom of the computer heat up or the logic board?

aktungmak,
Do you have anything plugged into your computer when this heats up so quickly? This includes the iSight, FireWire hard drive, hard drives in general, external optical drives, or anything of that nature. If you think there is a problem; bring it to your local Apple Store/Reseller and see what they have to say. Please mention that you want to alter the fan control. I would be interested to see what they say. Does both sides of your iBook get so hot (palm rests)? I think if both sides got so hot, you have major problems. I believe in the bottom right hand corner lies the battery; if that is getting so hot, you need to get it checked out. You may also want to download Temperature Monitor so you can see how hot it is really getting.

Just some thoughts,
Jon


Mac Mini 1.42Ghz, iPod (All) , Airport (Graphite & Express), G4 1.33Ghz iBook , G4 iMac 1Ghz, G3 500Mhz, iBook iMac 233Mhz, eMate, Power Mac 5400 LC, PowerBook 540c, Macintosh 128K, Apple //e, Apple //, and some more... Mac OS X (10.4.5) Moto Razr, iLife '06, SmartDisk 160Gb, Apple BT Mouse, Sight..

Hi Aktungmak,

You don't need to do that so often. You are on a Mac now; forget your PC tactics. As of right now there is no real threat to your Mac, no viruses that you have to clean off. You do not have to defragment your hard drive because of Hot File Adaptive Clustering. You may want to look at Knowledge Base Document #25668 on About disk optimization with Mac OS X.

Developer Connection Document on HFS+ Volume Format says,

"Most files on a disk are rarely, if ever, accessed. Most frequently accessed (hot) files are small. To improve performance of these small, frequently access files, they are moved near the volume's metadata, into the metadata zone. This reduces seek times for most accesses. As files are moved into the metadata zone, they are also defragmented (allocated in a single extent), which further improves performance. This process is known as adaptive hot file clustering.
The relative importance of a frequently used (hot) file is called its temperature. Files with the hottest (largest) temperatures are the ones actually moved into the metadata zone. In Mac OS X version 10.3, a file's temperature is computed as the number of bytes read from the file during the recording period divided by the file's size in bytes. This is a measure of how often the file is read."

I hope that helps,
Jon

PS Would you like to know some techniques I use to save space on my hard drive? I needed to ask because it does not really go with your orgional topic.

Mac Mini 1.42Ghz, iPod (All) , Airport (Graphite & Express), G4 1.33Ghz iBook , G4 iMac 1Ghz, G3 500Mhz, iBook iMac 233Mhz, eMate, Power Mac 5400 LC, PowerBook 540c, Macintosh 128K, Apple //e, Apple //, and some more... Mac OS X (10.4.5) Moto Razr, iLife '06, SmartDisk 160Gb, Apple BT Mouse, Sight..

Anyway, the reason I wipe the hard drive periodically is so that I can clear out the drive, defragment and additionally remove any viruses that are on my Mac. I take off all my Music, Videos, Photos etc and reinstall OSX.

You can do that if you want. But, there are no viruses for Mac OS X available "in the wild. If you've got one, you downloaded it on purpose. Also, you don't need to defragment a computer running Mac OS X on a hard drive that's formatted in "Mac OS Extended" format ([url=http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25668]Apple says so here[/url as Jon already noted]). So, you're probably slowing things down by re-configuring the installation that Mac OS X has built previously.

So, in my 27,000-post-Apple-Discussion-voice, I'd say you're wasting your time. The hard drive in my 12" PowerBook is a clone of the hard drive from 12" 500MHz G3 iBook and it's been running along smoothly for five years starting with updates from Mac OS X 10.0.4 until 10.4.6 (not even "Archive & Install" updates, just direct updates). I can account for all my "used" and "available" hard drive space, so if you're losing 5GB every couple of months, it must be the way you're working with your files...

You can call Apple about the original question if you want, but they're not going to suggest anything to you that isn't available already as a download from Apple or documented in the Knowledge Base. They may tell you not to use you portable computer on your lap anymore too, since this doesn't allow for normal ventilation of the iBook that needs to be resting on a solid, flat surface to function normally.

-Doug