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Blue Flame · Jun 9, 2004, 11:10 AM

I've got a 17" 1.5 PB with 1GB of RAM and I was watching a movie last night on the Superdrive. I figured a little cooling would be a good thing so I put the DVD case underneat the PB in th middle so it had lots of air to cool with, and the thing ended up overheating. Wouldn't even play a DVD after about 1.5 hours.

Now, I've watched a couple DVD's before on it and never had a problem, but this concerns me. Has anyone else had this problem? Am I to understand that a laptop this powerful has a problem playing one DVD without overheating?

Any input would be appreciated. I just got the computer and I love it, but this overheating thing concerns me (at least I think that's what it's doing). It'd be a bit of a pisser if I had to buy one of those cooling pads by Targus just to watch DVD's...

iREZ · Jun 9, 2004, 11:54 AM

Well were you watching your DVD's in bed, If so its not a good idea to leave the PB on your sheets or blankets because it gives no ventilation. What do you mean by overheats? Does it just get really hot? Does DVD player shut off? Do you get a kernal panic? I'm not quite sure what overheating means because my 12" has never gone above 145� (+ or - 1�), the temp will climb when watching a DVD but once it hits the max it levels off and doesn't get any hotter.

JKT · Jun 9, 2004, 12:41 PM

The middle of your powerbook is where your RAM cover is, is it not (it is on the 15")? If so, you could actually have exacerbated the heating by sticking a (presumably) plastic non-conductive material directly on this area of your PB - you would have achieved the exact opposite of what you wanted.

Blue Flame · Jun 10, 2004, 12:07 PM

Originally posted by JKT:
The middle of your powerbook is where your RAM cover is, is it not (it is on the 15")? If so, you could actually have exacerbated the heating by sticking a (presumably) plastic non-conductive material directly on this area of your PB - you would have achieved the exact opposite of what you wanted.

yeah, it was in the middle and i just realized that this may have been the case....

d.fine · Jun 23, 2004, 10:12 AM

I think so too, with allowing more air to reach certain parts of the PB you deprived others of fresh air ... you try watching a movie again without puting the case underneath ? If you want to allow more air underneath the PB i'd suggest elevating the rear of the PB instead of the whole thing, that way you minimize the surface that gets 'blocked' when in contact with whatever is elevating the PB ... here's what I did to keep it cool since i made this 'stand' the internal fans haven't come on, the PB runs on average 10� to 15�C cooler ...

JKT · Jun 23, 2004, 10:18 AM

FWIW as a precautionary note and seeing as this thread has been bumped up to the top - since I upgraded to 1GB of RAM I have noticed that the region of the RAM cover gets particularly hot during usage and especially so during intense usage (e.g. gaming). Other than the top left upper side near the power inlet when I run off mains power, it is the hottest area on my PowerBook!

dodo_nutter · Jun 23, 2004, 12:07 PM

I've played a DVD whilst my PB was on a bed and although it got hot and the internal fan was blazing it didnt 'overheat'. got to about 63C and stayed there.

I definatly think what d.fine did was a really good idea...infact so good i copied the idea...have 1 big 12V computer fan that blows papers away from the air current under my 'modified' (read stood on) paper tray and that keeps the PB cool. this isnt needed normally but i do a lot of gaming at my desk and run a 17" CRT off it as an external which seems to make the thing cook.

My PB is on my bed now and im only surfing but the internal fan is on and the processor is at 61.8C Keeping the bottom and around the RAM dooor definatly helps cooling.

(PS. 100th post! woohoo finally got 3 stars!!)

d.fine · Jun 24, 2004, 02:41 AM

Thx

! The main reason why I did this is to prevent the internal fans from coming on, cause they make a lot of noise. But this I did not only out of sheer necesity, it is also the belief that a cooler processor/RAM/HDD and all components perform better, hence ... and some benefits came with this setup : the spare airflow cools the external LaCie FW HDD and the iSight (which I have noticed lately get hot too! was added later, not in picture posted above but can be seen here), plus it lets me hide some cables

I just like the idea of stressing a processor to all it's worth while being able to keep it cool, and not having to worry about if the PB is going to overheat or something of the like ...

cszar2001 · Jun 24, 2004, 10:15 AM

My PB has changed it`s "self-cooling" habits quite a few times in the past year.
It used to come on when the temperatures were above 60 degrees celcius. Now the fan comes on when I wake it from sleep.
It did the same thing a few months ago-but stopped all by itself.

Some people had the same experience after updating OS X to 10.3.3.
Keeping the area where the battery sits free of contact with any material is always a good idea. And yes: it is the hottest part of the PB.