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driven · Nov 11, 2006, 07:16 PM

Recently (actually, like yesterday) I noticed that my fans on my G5 are spinning up a lot more than usual. In the past I hardly ever heard them. Now over the past day I'm hearing the fans spin up quite frequently. I'm not doing anything particularly different with it.

What kinds of things can I check? Can something go wrong internally to cause such a change?

(Just bouncing the idea off of you all to see if anyone has had any similar experiences)

Tuoder · Nov 11, 2006, 07:21 PM

You might check to see that there isn't anything rubbing on the fans. Also, if the fans kick on a whole dang lot, one of them could be going bad.

driven · Nov 11, 2006, 07:25 PM

Thanks ... I'll gut her open later tonight or tomorrow and see what's up.

Big Mac · Nov 11, 2006, 10:25 PM

If there is airflow obstruction in the back (like you've moved it to a confined space), that will cause the fans to go on high. And if you've recently performed an internal upgrade, there's the possibility that the plastic air cover may not be on properly.

driven · Nov 12, 2006, 12:11 AM

Originally Posted by Big Mac

If there is airflow obstruction in the back (like you've moved it to a confined space), that will cause the fans to go on high. And if you've recently performed an internal upgrade, there's the possibility that the plastic air cover may not be on properly.

Didn't move it, but I'll check for dust or something.

Appleman · Nov 12, 2006, 01:24 AM

Have an external disk (i.e. iPod) or more than one harddisk inside, or more partitions? Why not start up from an old OS like the originally one that came with the PowerMac and see if anything changes (in the good old days there was Casady & Greene "Conflict Cathcher" where one could disable extensions (OS 9 and below) to see which program / extension was the culprit to problems experienced).
What I mean to say is that we use the same old hardware with constantly updated software.
As I am also an owner of a MacBook I experienced different behaviour of the fans with different software (Apple upgrade stuff) but with the same hardware.
Just an idea.
My Dual 2 GHz PowerMac G5 (Machine Model: PowerMac7,3) hasn't changed in fan behaviour.

driven · Nov 18, 2006, 12:59 PM

Well ... I checked for dust and obstructions. Nothing. In fact, it was remarkably clean both inside and out considering it's been sitting in the same place for several years now. (The rest of the room however was loaded with dust ... it was good motivation to clean anyway.)

I'm still not sure why the fans keep spinning up like they do.

BlueSky · Nov 18, 2006, 02:02 PM

If you have a browser open and parked at a particular site, that might do it. If I leave a tab parked at huffingtonpost.com, for example, my fans will keep spinning up. The Flash ads, I guess.