wow, is this the normal temp for G4 powerbooks?

[maclova]

I used the application Temperature Monitor to check out the temperature of the various parts of my mac including the processor since I noticed that my fan has been on basically the whole time I've been using it (others seem to have reported this occuring over at apple.coms forum), below is the temperatures reported in faranheit, is this normal for a 1.5G4 PowerBook with 768MB RAM and a 100GB HD?

[maclova]

Note: This is a brand new customized PowerBook and those stats are shown with just Safari, MSN Messenger and TextEdit running in the background

[hayne]

Check with Activity Monitor to see if something else is taking the CPU.
It isn't normal for the fans to be running all the time unless you are running applications that keep the CPU and/or GPU (graphics processor) at high usage for extended periods.

But otherwise, those temperatures don't sound all that high - they are just a bit above normal body temperature. For comparison, my iBook is currently showing a GPU temperature of 104 F while under light load and on battery power. If I run something intensive and am charging a depleted battery at the same time, I think I've seen some of the temperatures approach 140 F.

[maclova]

hmm k...I'm not too worried about the fans because there's a rumor at the apple forum that Apple chose to lower the temperature it takes to turn on the fans with the MacOS X Tiger 10.4.1 update...just was surprised by these numbers, thanks for the reply

[roncross@cox.net]

You are probably ok. Most of these things are tested to 80'C. You are no where near these values. However, if you ever get to 50'C you should be concern.

thx
RLC

[styrafome]

Those temperatures are on the low end of what I've seen my PowerBook normally operate at. But I rarely hear the fan. Under load mine goes to 135 degrees F or so.

[roncross@cox.net]

Quote: Originally Posted by styrafome Those temperatures are on the low end of what I've seen my PowerBook normally operate at. But I rarely hear the fan. Under load mine goes to 135 degrees F or so.

Are you using a G5 powerbook? How are you able to measure the temperature?

thx
RLC

[styrafome]

Just an ordinary Aluminum PowerBook G4 1.25 GHz measured with Thermograph X.

[maclova]

Quote: Originally Posted by roncross@cox.net Are you using a G5 powerbook? How are you able to measure the temperature? thx RLC

The application I'm using is called Temperature Monitor and can be found and downloaded for free (freeware) here: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/19994

Apparently PowerBook G4s come with quite a few temperature sensors...I never expected to find any...I mainly downloaded the app and ran it to pass time by...but hey...now I know I can make sure my processor doesn't get too hot as well as the various other devices with sensors

[roncross@cox.net]

Quote: Originally Posted by styrafome Just an ordinary Aluminum PowerBook G4 1.25 GHz measured with Thermograph X.

Either thermographx is not calibrated correctly or your system may be running too hot due to insufficient cooling or system designers have increased the operating temperature of these systems.

When you let it cool off to room temperature and then start it up, does it still read 135F or does it takes times to climb to 135F?

thx
RLC

[maclova]

Isn't it true that at 140F your processor burns out?

[roncross@cox.net]

Quote: Originally Posted by maclova Isn't it true that at 140F your processor burns out?

I am not sure what you mean by burn out. At 140F, your system will start to slow down and you will start to notice instability in your system. It may freeze, crash, be slow to open up applications, etc... If it is running hot, it may be something as simple as dirty FAN not properly removing heat from the system. You may want to take it in to get the dust remove from the FANs, etc... if you haven't done so already.

In the current design of these computer systems, they will test these parts for reliability (processors, memory, etc...) at 80'C for a certain number of hours to ensure that the parts will last 10 years under normal use. Of course, your system should never really get that hot due to circulation of FAN and heat sinks. There has actually been a lot of talk about reducing the reliability of computer parts down to 3 or 5 years because most people will not keep their systems for 10 years. Reducing the reliability criteria will also allow these systems to run hotter, let say 50-60'C. This would allow G5 processor to be put into laptops, although, I wouldn't put one in my lap at 50-60'C.

This 10 year reliability criteria is adopted from the automotive industry. Most people will keep or transfer an automobile for a 10 year period so this criteria was entirely appropiate. However, the 10 year reliability criteria is less appropiate for parts that will most likely be discarded after a 3 to 5 year period.

The bottom line is that the hotter your system runs, the sooner it will fail. The cooler your system run, the longer it will last.

thx
RLC

[maclova]

ugh...well my N64 Emulator will have to go then (uses roms of all owned games)...when I play N64 games my processor heats up to 135F

[roncross@cox.net]

If you are concerned about heat and at 55'C you should be, use a cooler plate and see if that reduces the temperature for you while you are playing your games.

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/directron/nbcooler.html

thx
RLC

[maclova]

ah ok I'll check that out

[schwartze]

If you are concerned about the battery, check to see if yours is one of those being recalled.

https://depot.info.apple.com/battery...x.html?lang=en

[Caius]

Quote: Originally Posted by maclova Note: This is a brand new customized PowerBook and those stats are shown with just Safari, MSN Messenger and TextEdit running in the background

Totally off topic:

Try Adium instead of MSN Messenger (if you use the m$ client that is.) Adium has alot more features, and I find just having tabbed conversations a real help.

On topic:

I have seen those temps out of my 12" 1.33Ghz pb. I had been playing games/iTunes all afternoon, for about 4 hours mebbe. And it was sat on a drawing board with a knife resistant covering on. (Read: a covering that is heat loving.)

Quote: This 10 year reliability criteria is adopted from the automotive industry. Most people will keep or transfer an automobile for a 10 year period so this criteria was entirely appropiate. However, the 10 year reliability criteria is less appropiate for parts that will most likely be discarded after a 3 to 5 year period.

I still have macs from as far back as the Apple IIe (1983?) and the Mac Classic SE. This may apply to pc's that outlive current technology quickly, but I think we all know how reliable and useful macs are in the longer term. Admittedly in the workplace this maybe different, I know at my dads uni they cycle through macs on average about 2 every year at most.

[olealf]

This thread is starting to worry me. I've got nearly the same values as the initial poster a few minutes after I woke my 12" PB from sleep. When I run processor intensive tasks it always climbs up to 55°C (processor topside) after short time.

So is it true that 55°C is a temperature at which I shoult start worrying as a few posters said?

What are other PowerBook users experiencing?

[styrafome]

Quote: Originally Posted by roncross@cox.net Either thermographx is not calibrated correctly or your system may be running too hot due to insufficient cooling or system designers have increased the operating temperature of these systems. When you let it cool off to room temperature and then start it up, does it still read 135F or does it takes times to climb to 135F?

I just woke it from sleep a few minutes ago. Of course, it started at room temperature. Operating temperature is now 105F . Battery temperature is 70F.

Are you really sure about the 50C danger zone? Where is the document tha states that? The range of room temp to 140F has always been the operating temperature range of my PowerBooks. Not just for my current PowerBook G4 (in Panther), which is already 1.5 years old, but for my PowerBook G3 FireWire 500 (in Jaguar) that I bought in 2000 and still runs every day as an iTunes music center, and that one also can reach 140F particularly when the iTunes visualizer is on and it's feeding that to the TV in mirror mode because the CPU and video card both get a workout. It has incredibly reliable uptime (currently 70 days since last restart) and six months from now it will be six years old. My G4 also has uptime as long as I want, typically a week, so it doesn't fail at these temperatures either. Both machines' RAM is maxed out, which should produce even more heat. As far as I can tell, these Macs have all the stability and durability anyone could want, despite their being laptops with very bad ventilation compared to desktops. Yet if their running temps are above spec, I'd be hard pressed to recognize any symptoms.

[roncross@cox.net]

As I said before, 55'C is a need for concern, but not necessarily a need for alarm!!! I am highly suspicious of anyone reaching 55'C immediately after the power book wakes up from sleep. It should take several minutes to get to 55'C from room temperature as this is more than double the room temperature; processors don't normally heat up that quickly. If yours does, then you need to definitely have it checked out. Also be sure that if it is running at 55'C, the FANS are ALWAYS on and the lid is up as this is the only way for heat to effectively escape out of the system. If you clog the heat at such a high temperature, you are asking for trouble.

I would also be very suspicious of any 3rd party temperature sensor as it may not be calibrated properly. At 55'C and higher temperatures over an extended period of time, your system will start to show instabilities in one way or another.

It is expected that intensive use will cause the system to run hotter. You are probably ok to run the system at an intensive level for a short period of time, from time to time, less say from 2-4 hours a day, however, if you need to run at an intensive level for an extended period of time, you should definitely think about putting your powerbook on a cooler plate of some sort to increase the life of your computer's CPU.

If you are running your powerbook on a battery and want to prevent these high temperatures, consider reducing the processor power in the energy saver section of system preferences. This will effectively prevent the powerbook from reaching high temperatures because the voltages are scaled downed so the power dissipation is less and thus generate less heat; you will also have less power. If your temperature sensors reads 55'C with and without the reduced processor power, then the temperature sensor is probably crap.

So the moral of the story is that intensive CPU usage will generate more heat, and more heat means that the life of the CPU will be decreased. However, you can help to reduce the heat by runner on a cooler plate and reducing the processor power in the energy saver section of system preferences.

I remember that when I use to run AMD and Intel processors, they had a built in mechanism that would shut down the processor if the temperature reached 60'C. Of course, when I overclock the processor, I had to disable this feature and sure enough the processor would fail prematurely. I am not sure if apple enables some kind of warning on their processor when the temperature gets too high. Maybe, this is the purpose of Apple's kernel panic.

thx
RLC