Excessive Fanning: PB Hot Flashes

nebulousnebulous
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I have a 12in G4 PB, and right now it's spinning its little internal fan like mad. I don't know what could have brought this on. She's in a warmer climate, and I know they run on the toasty side, but honestly she isn't running hot enough right now to require fan usage 24/7 for four days in a row!



Has anyone else noticed that their PBs have "hot flashes" or anything similar to this? I don't have that many programs running (right now it's just Safari, iTunes, an alarm clock program, and my mail). Even when I re-start it, right from start up the fans begin whirring. Some programs seem to be running slower than usual as well. For example: there's quite a bit of lag while typing this out.



Any advice? Should I clean up my system a bit (I went through and freed up 15 gigs of memory last night, but it's still thinking that the fans are necessary)? What would be the best procedure for doing this, if it's recommended (in the FAQ section, I presume?)?



Thanks in advance!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    thedustinthedustin Posts: 176member
    If for some reason you are running 10.3.1, I heard the 12"ers run their fan constantly if plugged in. My girlfriend's stopped constantly running after 10.3.2, and only runs when needed in 10.3.3.



    _thedustin
  • Reply 2 of 12
    nebulousnebulous Posts: 193member
    Thanks for your reply!



    Well... right now it's running 10.3.3, and I would hardly consider the constant fanning necessary, although my poor little PB seems to have different ideas. I just tried unplugging it, and the fans are still going. Even at night, when no programs are open and it's just running the basic screen saver, the fans still twirl at full blast.



    Any advice? I'm assuming that it's because my computer thinks it is a lot busier than it actually is, so if nothing works then I'll probably just end up backing up everything I have on it, and doing a good, thorough cleaning of the HD, although I'd like to avoid this if at all possible.
  • Reply 3 of 12
    billybobskybillybobsky Posts: 1,914member
    turn off the computer and go outside...
  • Reply 4 of 12
    thedustinthedustin Posts: 176member
    Instead of a screensaver, which is cool, I have my disply shut off after 5 mins of no activity (17" PB.) In the long run I think it will save my display's life by an extreme amount. Screen replacement is about as much as new machine. Well, almost. I think screensavers use alot more processor than you would think.



    _thedustin
  • Reply 5 of 12
    nebulousnebulous Posts: 193member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by billybobsky

    turn off the computer and go outside...



    Hehehe. Actually, I just did that. The outside world is pretty dang nice right now. Unfortunately it didn't stop the fan.



    thedustin, thanks for the tips on shutting off the screen. I didn't know that they could wear out like that, and your advice probably saved me a new screen/computer in the long run. I tend to let my display run forever, but I guess I'll let it turn off every once in a while from now on.



    Sigh... it sounds like the weird fan problem is kind of here to stay. Time to call AppleCare. \
  • Reply 6 of 12
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    I have this problem too. It's annoying as all hell for some reason.
  • Reply 7 of 12
    dmband0026dmband0026 Posts: 2,345member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by torifile

    I have this problem too. It's annoying as all hell for some reason.



    Yeah, but you have a Rev. A, don't you? It's well known that those things run really hot.

    I just got my 12" 1.33 yesterday, I've had fan activity maybe twice, and I've been on it a lot in the past two days...especially with the revolution and all.
  • Reply 8 of 12
    chaos215bar2chaos215bar2 Posts: 24member
    Try running Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder. See if there is anything in the list that is using a lot of "% CPU". The fan turning on is based on how hot your computer is. Your computer will not heat up or be sluggish because it "thinks" it is doing a lot of stuff. Also, freeing memory will help very little with processor usage when you are not using the computer.
  • Reply 9 of 12
    jwri004jwri004 Posts: 626member
    Have you tried running ThermoGraphX or TempMonitor?
  • Reply 10 of 12
    nebulousnebulous Posts: 193member
    Well, I ran the activity monitor, and the thing taking up the most %CPU was the activity monitor itself, so I don't think that was the issue.



    I also downloaded that temperature gauge. My computer usually hangs around 140 - 147 degrees F. Is this normal?



    I'm calling up Apple Care as soon as I finish typing this out, so it's hopefully going to get sorted out today. My dad thinks it's probably a problem with the fan sensor or something internal like that.



    Thanks for your help, everyone!
  • Reply 11 of 12
    nebulousnebulous Posts: 193member
    Wheee! So AppleCare fixed the problem for me. I figure that I'll post it here in case anyone else is having the same troubles.



    I guess I didn't see the print program on the activity monitor, but this little gem of an application was using up 92% of my CPU because it was madly trying to print a job I had assigned it a few days ago. It wouldn't print because the firmware for my AirPort needed to be updated.



    So that was that. I updated the firmware, was able to print, AND got rid of the annoying fanning. It looks like you guys were on the right track with having me check the activity monitor. I just missed seeing the important application.



    Thanks again!
  • Reply 12 of 12
    buckeyebuckeye Posts: 358member
    This may help you in the future - Menu Meters



    It is a little app that makes all of your activity meters visible in your Menu Bar so you can instantly see if something is bogging down your CPU or being a RAM hog or whatever else. This is one of my all time favorite apps. I can't recommend it highly enough.
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