overheating ibooks

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
my fiance has an ibook, old model 500mhz. and the problem that keeps happening is it keeps overheating and crashing.

we've tried giving it plenty of air around it, clearance for it to cool down but it still keeps crashing within about an hour.

is this a common problem with this model or just something peculiar to his ibook?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 20
    fellowshipfellowship Posts: 5,038member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by missyvortexdv

    my fiance has an ibook, old model 500mhz. and the problem that keeps happening is it keeps overheating and crashing.

    we've tried giving it plenty of air around it, clearance for it to cool down but it still keeps crashing within about an hour.

    is this a common problem with this model or just something peculiar to his ibook?




    I have the 14 in 700mhz iBook and all I can tell you is to put it on a perfectly flat desk such as a glass top table.



    Heat can be trapped simply being on furnature or a lap. When on a glass table I never have a heat problem.



    Fellowship
  • Reply 2 of 20
    mggmgg Posts: 124member
    Sounds like you have already tried to put some air around it, but I found the griffin icurve to help a lot with my 800mhz. 12 inch ibook.
  • Reply 3 of 20
    tomtomtomtomtomtom Posts: 5member
    I have that machine and have never had a problem with excessive heat. It sounds like you need to get that checked out.



    I do alot of allnighters with some large photoshop files on mine and it's a trooper
  • Reply 4 of 20
    trumptmantrumptman Posts: 16,464member
    Does the fan come on? The fan in the iBooks and Powerbooks is quiet loud when it kicks up. It sounds like a vacuum cleaner but hey it seldom comes on and when it does it gets the job done.



    I used both my Powerbook and iBook (when I had it) in bed and on couches, etc. In fact neither one of them has likely ever been used on a desk, maybe the dining room table. Neither has overheated enough to crash.



    I did have one scary experience where my wife wanted to sleep and thought I had left the Powerbook doing something so she closed the liked 9/10's of the way and threw a blanket over it to block out the screen light (this was on our bed) I came back and found the book VERY warm and the fan working overtime. However even then it didn't crash though it was so hot I wouldn't have been surprised by something being melted.



    Perhaps your CPU didn't get thermal paste or the fan is sitting on it wrong.



    Nick
  • Reply 5 of 20
    retrograderetrograde Posts: 503member
    Are you sure that the crashing is related to heat problems? I have an iBook 500 which I have had various problems with but heat has not been one of them.



    Bad RAM can be the cause of excessive and unpredictable crashing (if you have installed any extra third party RAM you may want to remove it and try running the iBook for a while without it to see if that is a problem).



    I had a lot of insane freezing problems with my iBook which were the direct result of a bad optical drive (well actually it was the connector that connected the optical drive to the motherboard, but anyway). I was told by an Apple Technician that if the optical drive is not functioning properly that iBooks will not either.



    These are just a couple of thoughts off the top of my head. Of course it could be a software issue too? It would be helpful if you told us whether you were running OS 9 or OS X.



    Good luck
  • Reply 6 of 20
    retrograderetrograde Posts: 503member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by trumptman

    Does the fan come on? The fan in the iBooks and Powerbooks is quiet loud when it kicks up. It sounds like a vacuum cleaner but hey it seldom comes on and when it does it gets the job done.



    I might be wrong about this but I don't think the iBook 500 has a fan? I can't say I ever remember hearing mine come on and, as you note above, I think I would notice as fans get quite noisy: my wife's Titanium is very noticeable when the fan kicks in.
  • Reply 7 of 20
    well its running os 9.1

    and it tends to crash when on the net but not always, so not sure whats causing it. but it does get worrying warm alot.

    not sure about the ram, as its 2nd hand.

    and the fan, guess i need to listen to it.
  • Reply 8 of 20
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Retrograde

    I might be wrong about this but I don't think the iBook 500 has a fan? I can't say I ever remember hearing mine come on and, as you note above, I think I would notice as fans get quite noisy: my wife's Titanium is very noticeable when the fan kicks in.



    No, they do have fans. The one on my iBook wasn't that loud but it was noticable.
  • Reply 9 of 20
    retrograderetrograde Posts: 503member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by EmAn

    No, they do have fans. The one on my iBook wasn't that loud but it was noticable.



    I think you are wrong on this. I have never heard a fan cut in on mine and a brief search shows me this article by Charles Moore where he says at one point in the article:



    Quote:

    The current dual USB iBook has no cooling fan at all, and it can get pretty toasty even with the current, relatively mild and cool-running G3 750 chips.



    I would prefer to find an Apple database article to give added authority but this is all I have found so far.
  • Reply 10 of 20
    retrograderetrograde Posts: 503member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by missyvortexdv

    well its running os 9.1

    and it tends to crash when on the net but not always, so not sure whats causing it. but it does get worrying warm alot.

    not sure about the ram, as its 2nd hand.

    and the fan, guess i need to listen to it.




    I'm afraid I had a hunch that you were running OS 9.1 \



    Unfortunately that makes troubleshooting a little more time consuming and tedious as my guess is that it is probably a software problem: most likely an extension conflict. Crashing is relatively rare in OS X now and tends to point to a hardware problem.



    My suggestion (besides checking the RAM which you should test at some point) is to try rebooting with all of the extensions-- except the ones required by the OS--turned off and see if you can run for any length of time without any problems. If things turn out well it will probably come down to isolating what extensions are giving you problems.
  • Reply 11 of 20
    retrograderetrograde Posts: 503member
    I guess maybe a Mod could move this post to the Genius Bar?



    I think this guy might get a little more help/advice if it was in there
  • Reply 12 of 20
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member
    I had a iBook 500. Now I have a PowerBook Mini. When I go across the hall and feel my old iBook it is downright COLD. You must have a defective unit.
  • Reply 13 of 20
    escherescher Posts: 1,811member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Retrograde

    I think you are wrong on this. I have never heard a fan cut in on mine and a brief search shows me this article by Charles Moore where he says at one point in the article:



    Retrograde: The white iBooks, including the 500Mhz model which you and I have, do have fans. EmAn is right about that. But the iBook/500 runs so cool that the fan will come on very rarely, if at all. I clearly remember Steve Jobs specifically addressing the fan-point when he introduced the new iBooks. He said the iBook did have a fan, but should only come on under the most extreme of circumstances.



    I've never heard the fan in my iBook/500 either, but I am certain that it is in there.



    Escher
  • Reply 14 of 20
    retrograderetrograde Posts: 503member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Escher

    Retrograde: The white iBooks, including the 500Mhz model which you and I have, do have fans. EmAn is right about that. But the iBook/500 runs so cool that the fan will come on very rarely, if at all. I clearly remember Steve Jobs specifically addressing the fan-point when he introduced the new iBooks. He said the iBook did have a fan, but should only come on under the most extreme of circumstances.



    I've never heard the fan in my iBook/500 either, but I am certain that it is in there.




    Well after much more searching on the web it looks like I must eat my hat! Although Charles Moore ought to be eating one too (brief aside: I don't know if anyone else has noticed but Charles Moore seems to get more "facts" wrong in his columns then almost any other Mac journalist, which is a shame because he is such a Mac portable enthusiast).



    In any case, my apologies to EmAn and thanks to Escher: it looks like the iBook 500 does indeed have a fan! Although as you point out Escher, and as I can personally testify, it rarely if ever comes on. A couple of links seem to suggest it does as you can clearly see it in the pictures residing about rear centre near the screen hinge:



    Better



    Good



    Although this site which specifically shows some pictures of an "iBook 500" take apart doesn't seem to show a fan where the others are pcitured above? But most likely the guy taking the iBook apart has removed the fan before taking the photo:



    Picture on right



    The most annoying thing about this is I can't find any reliable information from Apple itself...



    As for missyvortexdv if you are hearing your fan kick in a lot then perhaps you are having heat problems. Hopefully things are getting better for you there or you have found a software solution to your problems.
  • Reply 15 of 20
    well i still haven't heard the fan kick in, but installed linux for powerpcs this weekend and no crashes, no overheating. but then it also hasn't been put on furnishings either, only desk.

    but will have to test the ram and extensions if it does keep doing this.
  • Reply 16 of 20
    retrograderetrograde Posts: 503member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by missyvortexdv

    well i still haven't heard the fan kick in, but installed linux for powerpcs this weekend and no crashes, no overheating. but then it also hasn't been put on furnishings either, only desk.

    but will have to test the ram and extensions if it does keep doing this.




    This makes me think all the more that your problems are software related. If it was a heat problem the fan would most likely have kicked in and on top of this you are getting the mac to run well in linux which wouldn't happen if it were hardware related: ie. you would get the same crashes when running linux.



    I can understand there are reasons why people may want to stick with OS 9 but have you considered running OS X Jaguar which, in my experience, is much more stable on my iBook 500 even if slower than running 9 natively. But, to be honest, it is plenty fast for most of the tasks I do normally: word processing, web browsing, email, chat, iTunes, DVD movie watching, etc.



    Wanting to run 9 is understandable though in certain instances but it may mean testing the extensions and reading sites like MacFixit to see if there are any known conflicts with software you are running.



    Hope everything turns out well.
  • Reply 17 of 20
    well i see that its software related now. though getting more circulation might solve the heating it gets.



    yes, os x might solve it and if it was mine i'd get it

    But its my fiance's ibook and i do use it but its not mine so... its up to him, i will mention it



    and i've also heard bizarre problems of installing os x on ibooks/imacs that might possibly mess it up (something to do with the ROM?)



    Heard this from my local mac dealer who had many people come in with their logic boards burnt out and sometimes hardrives too.



    i guess short of installing os x with fingers crossed or mesing around to figure out if its an extension, then it could just be put up with and have a stand or something.



    i just hope this is an os9 problem or to do with his ibook, coz i'm getting one soon and it would really unnerve me if it got as hot as his does.
  • Reply 18 of 20
    retrograderetrograde Posts: 503member
    I'm not too sure about the ROM issue you/the dealer mention although I can tell you that I haven't had any problem with OS X on my iBook 500. The problems may have ocurred on earlier coloured/clamshell iBooks? But I shouldn't be commenting at all on this because I really don't know anything about ROM problems.



    Unfortunately heat will most likely always be an issue at some level depending on how sensitive people are to the heat and in what ways they use their laptops (on their laps for instance). It will probably always be an issue because iBooks and Powerbooks cram everything in such small spaces that there isn't the space for cooling that large desktops have. So unfortunately they always run a little hot to the touch but the upside is that we can port them about and use them where ever we want at the drop of a hat



    One way to help with the heat issue is, as you suggested, to buy a stand to go with it. I can heartily recommend the Podium CoolPad by Roadtools which I use with my iBook. It is great because it allows my iBook to smoothly rotate should I want to show someone something, it allows me to angle the iBook at various heights for comfort and this elevation, crucially, allows the laptop to cool more efficiently. Also the coolpad provides a buffer between the iBook and your legs should you be using it on your lap. There are other alternatives out there too depending on what sort of stand you would like.



    Glad to hear you are thinking about buying a new iBook. If you do it will come with Mac OS X and should run much more solidly than OS 9.
  • Reply 19 of 20
    i had a look at the coolpad, and it looks good.

    seen a few other things around like icruve and koolsink, but thats one of the best.

    not sure where i can get it from in the uk (my fav macshop site didn't have it or any of the others like the icurve), but someone must sell it atleast on ebay.



    as for the thing aobut new ibooks coming with os x, well i've got a month or two before i get it (for uni) and may not be getting a new one. but i do want os x, i noticed how peeved my fiance was at not being able to get the cool software from magazine cover cd's because he only has os 9.1



    the Rom issue, was on old ibooks but i think possibly also newer old ones (like 500-600mhz models). i'm pretty sure 700mhz+ models are ok as they pretty much had it as standard shipped.
  • Reply 20 of 20
    retrograderetrograde Posts: 503member
    I'm in the UK too and I bought my Podium Coolpad from a UK company called TeleAdapt which I just telephoned to put my order in and which they shipped out to me the very next day at regular Royal Mail prices. This was cheaper than the UK Apple Store which, last time I checked, also sold Podium Coolpads in one their peripherals sections on the store.



    There are other alternatives like you mention like the iCurve but if you look at this thread you will see that there are some unsatisfied customers... but really it depends on what you are looking for.



    Oh, and if you are thinking of buying your iBook before June 15th you should check out this thread of Escher's where he points out a story where Apple UK is offering interest free financing on certain new Macs. Although it looks like you may have to purchase from a reseller rather than from Apple directly (it may be best to ring Apple to check on this though). In any case, if you are looking to buy soon this is a very good opportunity.
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