15" AlBook Owners (1.25GHz) - How often does your fan run?

murbotmurbot
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I'm just curious how often people are actually having their fans come on. I think the fan in my 867MHz 12" came on twice ever, maybe three times. But I've seen people at other boards complaining about the heat and fan noise in their 15" AlBooks, and I really don't recall seeing too much of that here.



So, choose a poll option above, and feel free to post any comments on heat and noise you have. I'd like to hear from users with 5400 rpm drives too, make sure you say if you have one.



Thanks!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 13
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    Doesn't run often, but just when gaming or hard loads. Once I get my screen replaced, this will be the best ever, I had a little post buying remorse, but this computer is a dream
  • Reply 2 of 13
    buckeyebuckeye Posts: 358member
    Only when playing games, and not always. Maybe 3 times since I have owned it.
  • Reply 3 of 13
    wrong robotwrong robot Posts: 3,907member
    Asterix, your screen is messed up! wow, what a total bummer.





    The fan in mine only turns on when I'm playing games, or when I have a big Garageband project open, and it turned on once while watching a DVD.



    it doesn't really bother me at all though, it freaked me out the first time I heard it, I thought I had another whiny computer(my old iMac DVSE was silent as a rock until one day it started making this loud high pitched whine) so yeah, given how quiet this computer is most of the time, and how cold it is in boston, I don't mind a little heat, or a little noise from time to time.
  • Reply 4 of 13
    machemmachem Posts: 319member
    My fan used (pre-10.3.2) to come on at 335 K like clockwork. Now it comes on at 333K. 2K = 3.6 F so that is significantly cooler. Temperature doesn't go above 333.9 K.



    Noise doesn't bother me at all, especially now when I'm next to by B&W which sounds like a DC-10 by comparison. I hit 'fink update-all' and I've been therefore compiling for over an hour (and it will go at least an hour more).
  • Reply 5 of 13
    cosmonutcosmonut Posts: 4,872member
    Mine's come on twice ever and that was in the course of about an hour. I don't remember exactly what I was doing, but I remember thinking at the time that it didn't seem like I was doing anything worthy of having it come on.



    That was a week or so ago and it hasn't happened since.
  • Reply 6 of 13
    pbpb Posts: 4,255member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by murbot

    I'm just curious how often people are actually having their fans come on. I think the fan in my 867MHz 12" came on twice ever, maybe three times. But I've seen people at other boards complaining about the heat and fan noise in their 15" AlBooks, and I really don't recall seeing too much of that here.





    I am a little confused. You have a 12" Powerbook and you are interested to see what owners of 15" Powerbooks have to say? Why not 12" Powerbook owners? And under what MacOS X version? First generation 12" Powerbooks (867 MHz) are reported to suffer seriously from the fan syndrom under 10.3.2 (fan on almost constinuously even under very light load... and it's still winter... ). This issue alone keeps me away from Panther.
  • Reply 7 of 13
    naderbynaderby Posts: 131member
    My PB15 SUPERDRIVE's fan only comes on when I'm running DVD2one or burning a DVD.
  • Reply 8 of 13
    murbotmurbot Posts: 5,262member
    I don't have a 12" model any longer, and am only interested in this issue with the 1.25GHz processor (SD model) 15"er.



    Of course I wouldn't mind if someone wants to comment on their 12" fan habits, but I'm more interested in hearing from 15" owners.



  • Reply 9 of 13
    sonofsylvanussonofsylvanus Posts: 579member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by murbot

    I'm just curious how often people are actually having their fans come on.... I'd like to hear from users with 5400 rpm drives too, make sure you say if you have one.



    Thanks!



    I got a 5400RPM 15ALPB 1.25. Fan comes on 1 when playing games (Return to Castle Wolfenstein/ Star Wars Jedi Something...) 2 Playing iTunes visualisations 3 ripping a DVD (handbrake at 1024 kbps ie SD spinning for 6+hours)



    NEVER comes on otherwise, but then I don't use any heavy apps.
  • Reply 10 of 13
    switchfromdellswitchfromdell Posts: 101member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by murbot

    I'm just curious how often people are actually having their fans come on. I think the fan in my 867MHz 12" came on twice ever, maybe three times. But I've seen people at other boards complaining about the heat and fan noise in their 15" AlBooks, and I really don't recall seeing too much of that here.



    So, choose a poll option above, and feel free to post any comments on heat and noise you have. I'd like to hear from users with 5400 rpm drives too, make sure you say if you have one.



    Thanks!



    I have PB 15 Al with 7200 RPM Hard Drive with 1G RAM. The fan comes on when the CPU temperature (using Temperature Monitor freeware) reaches 140 or more. It stays on until the temperature drops below 140.



    Since I am not a gamer, the CPU reaches this temp whenever doing Norton Antivirus scan or heavy recording on CD's.
  • Reply 11 of 13
    brussellbrussell Posts: 9,812member
    I think that there is a bug of some kind that can periodically effect PowerBooks. I just have an 800Mhz Titanium, but for a week or so the noisy fan was coming on constantly, and then it just stopped and at all other times it comes on normally (i.e., only with heavy graphics card work or when running classic). At the time, I looked on the Apple Support boards, and there were a few people complaining and others saying it didn't effect them. Obviously things have changed since I got my PowerBook 1-1/2 years ago, but I do think there's a real issue out there that sometimes effects PowerBooks, but under normal circumstances the fans only come on rarely.
  • Reply 12 of 13
    foadfoad Posts: 717member
    My 15" AlBook's fan comes on everyone once in a while. It mostly comes on when it has been sitting a pillow for awhile or if i do heavy rendering or compositing.



    When the fan comes on though, it can be sorta loud, but nothing like some other laptops I have seen from HP and the like.
  • Reply 13 of 13
    carson o'geniccarson o'genic Posts: 1,279member
    I can hardly remember the fan ever coming on. Mine runs warm when I'm using it all day, but the that doesn't bother me. I get the feeling that with the last Panther update that the improved battery useage may be related to a tad less cooling..Pure speculation on my part. I do have a problem with my trackpad going too senstive and my cursor jumping all about when the Powerbook is hot. I use a BT mouse, so I disabled the trackpad and the problem is solved. However, if I'm right and the heat is to blame becuase of modified heat/power management then Apple may have gone too far in the last update. I posted on this problem under the AI help forum and the good people of this forum helped me figure it out. I'm curious if anyone else has noticed heat-related cursor wierdness with their powerbooks. I have to eventually send mine in to get rid of the white spots, so I'm wondering if I have an additional problem particular to my Powerbook or if its a global problem.
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