I think I fixed the moo! How I put the cow to pasture.

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Level 1

0 points

I think I fixed the moo! How I put the cow to pasture.

Please, tell me I'm crazy here. I need others to try this out to make sure I'm not losing it.

I was surfing last night while watching TV.. the MacBook in my lap like normal. After about 2 hours, I realized that the bottom was warm but not hot.. not nearly as warm as usual. I also listened closely and realized.. no moo! CoreDuoTemp was telling me the system was in the 54 degree range and steady.

Normally my MacBook will get into the high 60's when simply surfing... This time I had iChat, Bits on Wheels and Firefox all open and running. So I tested it... I opened 5 firefox windows, Google Earth, iTunes and Photobooth on top of the already open apps. The temp went up to 64 but wouldn't go beyond.. no moo.

I started thinking.. what did I differently today? Ahh.. I set up a private network and connected to a friend's iBook to transfer some files... My personal file sharing was sill turned on. I turned it off and sure enough, the temperature quickly started going into the 70's.

So, I enabled personal file sharing again and things dropped back below 64.. no moo.

So I decided to throw everything at it.. I left everything open and opened Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign.. pretty much everything in my dock. Under that heavy of a load (and without having upgraded my ram) the processor surged to the upper 60's, gave me a quiet little moo and subsided. Normally under even half of this load the thing would sound like a herd of cattle being branded..

Even now I'm running 7+ apps and the core temp is steady at 64.. no moo.

Guys, try this out.. make sure I'm not crazy.

Macbook (Black), Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Posted on Jun 20, 2006 10:41 AM

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Answer 1

kjk

Level 4

1,323 points

Jun 20, 2006 11:03 AM in response to mdeppi01

i have had personal file sharing on since I got my MacBook, and have had the moo off and on the whole time. I can try turning it off and back on again to see if it makes any difference.

As a side note, there is definitely some correlation with Windows File sharing-several people have reported that turning this on made their CPUs run under unusual loads-turning it off and back on again seems to have fixed it.

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Answer 2

yaume

Level 3

655 points

Jun 20, 2006 2:07 PM in response to mdeppi01

I would love to try this. I just activate file sharing by checking wich box in the file sharing sys pref panel?
Sorry, I'm not very knowledgeable. I've never used file-sharing. Would you post the exact step-by-step for all the dummies like me? I'd be happy to report-in any changes.
If this works, we shall chant your name through the ages! 🙂
Cheers,

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Answer 3

iDave

Level 2

434 points

Jun 20, 2006 3:16 PM in response to mdeppi01

All Hail mdeppi01!

It seems to have worked for me. I did have file sharing on already, so I unchecked it and rechecked it.

(For the person who wanted to know how to do this, go to the system preferences via the Apple menu (below the blue apple on the upper left side of the monitor) - you'll see the icon of a folder for Sharing. Click on it. If it's already checked on, uncheck it, then check it again.)

I sort of cheated - I did something else. I pulled out the battery, pulled out the power cord, and then held the start button - the one above the keyboard on the right - for 10 seconds. This, I think, reset the power manager (PMU).

Now, not only is the moo gone - at least for now - but so is the sizzle in my power adapter brick. Ok, I cheated again - I put the power adapter into my refrigerator after it started sizzling (for the first time) last night. Virtually no sizzle when I pulled it out - I showed THAT adapter!

Resetting the PMU (and perhaps rechecking file sharing) also seems to have helped with a sleep problem - the Macbook's, not mine. I couldn't get my Macbook to stay asleep. It would go to sleep (it takes about 30 seconds), but wake up after ten seconds. Waking up was preceded by none other than that **** "moo" sound. Once the moo sounded, the computer woke up.

Now, no moo, no sizzle, and I can put the computer to sleep. So I suggest making sure file sharing is on, and perhaps resetting the PMU - and maybe even putting the power adapter, if it's noisy, in the 'fridge for a little while.

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Answer 4

iDave

Level 2

434 points

Jun 20, 2006 3:22 PM in response to iDave

I might add that, for me, the moo usually only made itself known when I had a bunch of applications going at once. Last night, after shutting down all but Firefox, the mooing remained.

I have a feeling that if I had more memory - I'm running with just 1GB of memory - that the moo would be hard to call up.

At the moment I'm running Firefox, iTunes, the itel coreduo temperture gauge (147 degrees F), Photoshop CS, Nikon's Picture Project, iCal, and Nvu (a web authoring program).

No mooing, no sizzle.

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Answer 5

richbodo

Level 1

0 points

Jun 20, 2006 7:48 PM in response to mdeppi01

If your fans are always running, there will be no moo, and you will have a cool laptop. I'm not sure why turning on file sharing would do this. I turned it on, and my fans are not running, and no moo. However, I'm at my usual 75+ degrees Centigrade, which, as reported elsewhere, causes all sorts of other problems.

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