12in AlBook fan is as loud as a MDD

[jholt5638]

After using the powerbook for awhile the fan kicks in full bore. This fan is as loud as MDD was. Is this normal or is the fan getting ready to fail? Anyway to quiet it down?

 

[TheWhiteFalcon]

The 12" PowerBook is a great size portable...that's about where my nice things to say run out. The 867MHz model is notorious for running very hot as well, which means it's also very loud. I have the same one, if you do very much the fan runs full blast quite easily.

 

[MJ313]

I wonder if replacing the thermal paste helps. I would guess that's a monster job to do, seeing as how doing anything in the 12" is a monster job

 

[jholt5638]

I guess I don't get why my 1.2GHz ibook G4 is practically whisper quiet and doesn't seem to heat up as much, but the powerbook is so loud.

 

[TheWhiteFalcon]

I don't recall how many fans the iBook has. The PowerBook has one tiny fan, which has to spin fast to get out the heat. The 867Mhz G4 ran hot in whatever it was in.

 

[jholt5638]

found g4fancontrol on these very forums adjusted the settings. My book was 1 degree over the default settings causing the fan to kick on bumped it up a couple now quiet yay

 

[Cory5412]

If the thermal paste has never been replaced, it may not be a bad idea. I've even had "pretty modern" (2009) PCs that have needed to have their thermal compound replaced at this point, so it stands that a machine eleven or twelve years old such as an early 12-inch PowerBook G4 from 2002/2003 may also need that treatment.

One thing I would be careful with as you play with fan control software is that there's a joke about MacBooks: Apple prioritizes acoustics very highly and the fans on modern MacBooks and MacBook Pros activate at literally T-Junction, which is Intel's terminology for (the hottest you should ever let the chip package get under normal condition."

2014 Apple and 2003 Apple are sort of different, but I don't think they're different enough for playing fast and loose with that particular setting to be a very good idea, because it's likely already running very close to the maximum recommended temperature for that chip, which as TheWhiteFalcon said is already kind of high.

Of course, the other (and most simple, really) thing is to turn the machine off and hit the vents with a vacuum cleaner or an air compressor to clean out any airways. Keeping airways clean and free will make it so that when the fan does need to spin up to send hot air out, it will operate as quietly as it can and also be able to push air out more efficiently, and hopefuly therefore slowly.

 

[CompuNurd]

Thermal paste really helps. I put Arctic Silver on my white MacBook and it dropped temps by 10-20F. Get good thermal paste, not the cheap crap like at RadioShack. What I used was the RS stuff, and when I put Arctic Silver on, I got the 10-20F temp drop.

 

[Macdrone]

Well I've found its not the type of paste but the amount is important. It's only used as a conduit to get rid of air gap. So less is more kinda thing. The heat sink is still what moves the heat away and the fan cools the heat sink. My lampshade imac was a real good example of this. Lots of heat realated shut downs when new. Took it apart to max the ram and the paste was everywhere, like a overlooked cheese sandwich. Removed it, put a super thin film evenly, not one shut down after.

Sold it years ago to a student.

 

[jholt5638]

After the responses here I reset the fans to default. The wife and used last night to watch video and mp3 streams. Checked the temps occasionally were between 45-53C. Woke this morning carried downstairs was still working great. Then all the sudden screen went dark cap lock & num lock lit up fan spining full speed. pulled the battery and power cord. Pluging in power cord only it turns dark amber almost red no power up. Battery only cap & num lock light up fan spins no boing. tried resetting pmu with shift-ctrl-option-power no change. Guessing the logicboard has gave up the ghost in the machine.

 

[jholt5638]

Looking at the battery more closely the casing is bowed up and actually popped the cover off the battery on the one side. Guessing battery shorted and killed the logic board

 

[TheWhiteFalcon]

Was it an Apple battery or a China special?

 

[jholt5638]

Apple branded battery or a very convincing knockoff

 

[TheWhiteFalcon]

http://www.apple.com/support/batteryexchange/faq/en_body.html

I'm not sure if Apple's still running that, might not hurt to check.

Or at least see if the battery was a time bomb to begin with.

 

[jholt5638]

Yep battery was on the list, I doubt there is anything Apple will do at this point, good thing you showed me this my ibooks are both on the list aswell

 

[jholt5638]

I took the whole thing apart to check for any damage didn't find any. Put it all back together, figured I'd try one last time before stripping it for parts, and it turned on not sure what happened but works now

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Gremlins!

 

[Macdrone]

The modem board under the hard drive in mine was suspect. Look for black marks everywhere.

 

[butterburger]

My 1GHz has loud, full-blast, max rpm, high-speed, constantly spinning fan. After reading of jholt5638's success by removing modem, I just finished trying it. I guess the mainboard is damaged, because removed modem and reset-all did not result in changed fan behaviour. But I did confirm:

OpenBSD/macppc Boot device considerations:

ide0 (cdrom) is valid as a root drive only if no hard drives are connected to the Ultra bus.