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krx · Sep 7, 2006, 10:56 AM

I have a 12" 1.33 iBookG4 w/a 60GB Toshiba hard drive. I've had it a little more than a year. In that time, I've noticed that it seems to run increasingly hot, just under the hard drive (front left quadrant). The fan runs regularly now whereas I never heard it for the first 6 mos or so. This weekend it left a bright red burn mark on my daughter's thigh after about an hour of use. I know it shouldn't be directly on her lap (we were on the road), but I don't think it should be running so hot as to leave a mark either.

This is my third iBook and I've never had this problem before. Any ideas what might be causing it to run hotter now?

seanc · Sep 8, 2006, 06:35 AM

Sounds strange. The battery isn't generating any heat is it?

krx · Sep 8, 2006, 09:14 AM

No, the battery is not generating heat. But I came in this morning and found the fan was already running and the iBook was hot under the hard drive - and I put it to sleep last night before I went to bed. This is the first time that's happened.

Something strange is definitely happening.

seanc · Sep 8, 2006, 09:55 AM

Could the reason for the heat from the HDD be due to it failing?

Turn the Bluetooth and Wireless off when you sleep it tonight as something could be keeping it awake and/or making your hard drive work a lot.

krx · Sep 8, 2006, 10:29 AM

I just checked the activity monitor. Safari was using 50% of the CPU. I shut it down and then Word suddenly was using 70%. So I shut it down too. Everything else is using less than 2%. I reopened both and now Safari is using 20% and Word is using about 5% - with spikes up to about 15% as I open and type in a document.

I don't know what would cause them to start using so much CPU but maybe that's the problem with the HD overheating.

amazing · Sep 8, 2006, 01:13 PM

What version system software are you running?
Different OSs feature different versions of Safari, so you should be running Tiger to get the latest version.

OTO, Safari doesn't seem to deal with Flash very well, processor use goes way up. Maybe your homepage uses too much Flash--you can experiment by keeping Activity monitor open (view all processes, and keep the graph situated so that you can see it in a corner of the background as you switch to various websites.)

With the Activity Monitor graph visible in the background, switch from your favorite webpages to something simple like Google. What happens to processor usage?

Next, switch to Firefox--it's less of a resource hog. Less heat, less fan noise.

For me, the main thing that heats up my 12" PB is using anything that runs in Classic. If you leave any Classic software running in the background, processor uses jumps the max, heat goes sky-high.

krx · 04:04 PM

Originally Posted by seanc

Could the reason for the heat from the HDD be due to it failing?

I sure hope not, Applecare just expired on Aug 30.

Originally Posted by seanc

Turn the Bluetooth and Wireless off when you sleep it tonight as something could be keeping it awake and/or making your hard drive work a lot.

I'm curious about this. I don't use bluetooth but how might my wireless connection keep it working? The odd thing is that it was still asleep when I came in this morning, though the HD was seemed to be working and the fan was on - and, as I said, it was pretty hot.

seanc · Sep 8, 2006, 05:40 PM

Originally Posted by krx

I sure hope not, Applecare just expired on Aug 30.

I'm curious about this. I don't use bluetooth but how might my wireless connection keep it working? The odd thing is that it was still asleep when I came in this morning, though the HD was seemed to be working and the fan was on - and, as I said, it was pretty hot.

You can always crack it open and replace the hard drive yourself if you ever needed to.

I don't know how wireless might affect it, I just suggested it to kill two birds with one stone in eliminating them as being the problem.

Something is definitely wrong with your iBook.

krx · Sep 8, 2006, 06:11 PM

Originally Posted by amazing

What version system software are you running?
Different OSs feature different versions of Safari, so you should be running Tiger to get the latest version.

OTO, Safari doesn't seem to deal with Flash very well, processor use goes way up. Maybe your homepage uses too much Flash--you can experiment by keeping Activity monitor open (view all processes, and keep the graph situated so that you can see it in a corner of the background as you switch to various websites.)

With the Activity Monitor graph visible in the background, switch from your favorite webpages to something simple like Google. What happens to processor usage?

Next, switch to Firefox--it's less of a resource hog. Less heat, less fan noise.

For me, the main thing that heats up my 12" PB is using anything that runs in Classic. If you leave any Classic software running in the background, processor uses jumps the max, heat goes sky-high.

I'm on 10.4.7 running Safari 2.0.4. I've heard about people having problems w/Safari on this version of Tiger, but haven't heard of it overusing/heating the HD. My homepage is Google, and I've been watching the Activity Monitor while surfing around. It spikes up to 38% or so but doesn't stay there; goes back to around 20%. Classic isn't running so that can't be it...

I've noticed that the longer I run Safari the slower it seems to get. I thought this was a problem with memory leakage but now I don't know...

krx · Sep 21, 2006, 12:14 PM

Well everything was fine for the last two weeks or so then just now the fan kicked on so I checked the activity monitor and Safari was using 78% of the CPU. I had several windows open so I closed one (on Mapquest) and immediately Safari dropped down to 1.5%. Shorthly thereafter the fan stopped ... and we're back to normal.

For now.

amazing · Sep 21, 2006, 12:22 PM

Well, if you really don't want to use Firefox, you should download NightShift from versiontracker. It allows you to download and install the latest nightly build of webkit, the KHTML rendering engine behind Safari. Might help?

Firefox uses the Gecko Mozilla version...personally, I get less beachballing using Firefox.

krx · Sep 21, 2006, 06:43 PM

Your right, it's probably time to try another browser. Firefox sounds pretty solid, so I'll give it a try. I just wasn't convinced that it was my (only?) problem, esp since Word was gobbling up massive CPU as well, when I checked the Activity Monitor before...

I've heard talk about "nightly builds" but I don't know what this means. What is this?

amazing · Sep 22, 2006, 11:05 AM

Safari uses the KHTML engine and Apple open-sourced Webkit in 2005. So there's a cooperative effort to "fix" the WebCore and JavaScriptCore portions of WebKit. Since many people aren't enamored of how JavaScript, for example, is handled in Safari, this is an alternative.

Once you've downloaded and run NightShift, you'll find that WebKit is installed in the Applications folder. For webbrowsing, you startup WebKit, which starts up Safari but directs Safari to use the newly downloaded resources. Your bookmarks, etc, are all present, but you'll see Webkit running in Activity Monitor and in the Dock, not Safari. There's less beachballing and it seems to be faster (ymmv, you'll have to try it with your favorite websites.)

The Safari resources are not replaced or altered. You can quit WebKit and startup Safari and then compare your experience.

Or, more simply, you can try other browsers such as Firefox. Keeping the bookmarks synced is somewhat of a problem if you're switching between browsers--so I've more or less stabilized on Firefox.

Dr. DDS · Sep 22, 2006, 01:27 PM

my ibook started getting hot when i had problems with the installed RAM.
Had you tried run Apple Hardware Test from the DVDs?

Will C · Sep 22, 2006, 04:03 PM

Is your iBook also running more slowly than you are used to? It could be that your HD is getting a bit full and the computer is having to do a lot of disk thrashing to keep all those cached items organised - I recently had this with my ibook and noticed that I was down to only 500MB free space. Clearing caches and deleting some old files helped - I would recommend at least 1GB free space or more - some guides suggest 5-10% for OS X.

How much free space do you have on your HD?

krx · Sep 23, 2006, 05:17 PM

Originally Posted by amazing

Safari uses the KHTML engine and Apple open-sourced Webkit in 2005. So there's a cooperative effort to "fix" the WebCore and JavaScriptCore portions of WebKit. Since many people aren't enamored of how JavaScript, for example, is handled in Safari, this is an alternative.

Once you've downloaded and run NightShift, you'll find that WebKit is installed in the Applications folder. For webbrowsing, you startup WebKit, which starts up Safari but directs Safari to use the newly downloaded resources. Your bookmarks, etc, are all present, but you'll see Webkit running in Activity Monitor and in the Dock, not Safari. There's less beachballing and it seems to be faster (ymmv, you'll have to try it with your favorite websites.)

The Safari resources are not replaced or altered. You can quit WebKit and startup Safari and then compare your experience..

Very interesting... When I've got some time to play around with it, I'll give this a try. Thanks.

Originally Posted by Dr. DDS

my ibook started getting hot when i had problems with the installed RAM.
Had you tried run Apple Hardware Test from the DVDs?

I haven't yet. The RAM is the Apple original, so that shouldn't be causing problems (except that @ 516MB, I need more). I tend not to use any Hardware Tests except as a last resort since doing so in the past for minor trouble has been the catalyst for my HDD becoming FUBAR. Probably shouldn't blame the Hardware Test (and I don't, really) but it has made my hesitate to use it.

Originally Posted by Will C

Is your iBook also running more slowly than you are used to? It could be that your HD is getting a bit full and the computer is having to do a lot of disk thrashing to keep all those cached items organised - I recently had this with my ibook and noticed that I was down to only 500MB free space. Clearing caches and deleting some old files helped - I would recommend at least 1GB free space or more - some guides suggest 5-10% for OS X.

How much free space do you have on your HD?

I have over 50% of a 60GB drive available, so we can rule that out. But thanks for the suggestion.

hookem2oo7 · Sep 23, 2006, 05:21 PM

I have a 60gb toshiba in my ibook 12", and it runs very hot for a laptop drive. according to temperature monitoring utilities, it idles around 48*C and I've seen it as hot as 58*C. not healthy, but this drive is on its 2nd year of near 24/7 use, so no problems yet.