[MissEm]

Hello,

I have a G3 iBook that overheats. The bottom of the laptop gets really hot, and then I hear a clicking noise. About 15 seconds after the clicking starts, the laptop completely locks up and has to cool down completely before I can turn it back on. The last time this happened, it took a couple days before it would boot normally.

I can't hear a fan going when the computer is on and I'm not sure if this is normal. I thought maybe it could be a fan problem and I did find a replacement fan on ifixit.com, but I wanted to see if anyone knows of any troubleshooting steps I can go through to make sure that is really the problem before I take this step.

In case anyone is wondering, I did check to see if my battery is part of that recall, and it's not.

Incidentally, the battery also drains pretty fast (1 hour or so).

The laptop doesn't overheat every time I turn it on, but it happens more and more as time goes by.

Anyone had a problem like this? Any suggestions or help would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

Em

[Grrr]

For an older G3 iBook, the battery life isn't surprising to be honest. Some people get much worse than that.. You cant do anything besides replace it, if you choose to.

As for the overheating.. I had one that used to cut out occasionally, which im pretty sure was due to overheating. But then I was in a very hot country at the time, and i had been using it on a sofa. Which made it overheat pretty quick.
However, I never once heard any kind of a fan in it. If it did have one, it was extremely quiet..

I suspect that maybe your cooling vents and whatnot may have become clogged over the years. It may be worth getting it opened up and some kind of air duster used in there to remove any fluff that inevitably builds up inside.
Hopefully thats all it is?

[UberTyrone]

I've had the same problem as well, with my first iBook. It was an upgraded G3.

From what I've been able to find out, those notbooks were notorious for running hot. It was on the newer models (late model G3's, and most G4's) that Apple really got the heat syncs right.

Let me know if you find out anything else with this. I'm refurbing my old 14" for my mom, and any new info would be helpfull.

[seanc]

You say the bottom of the laptop gets really hot and that it starts clicking, it may well be overheating but the clicking indicates that your hard drive is dying. Make sure EVERYTHING is BACKED UP. The laptop shouldn't take 'a couple of days' to start working again which would indicate the hard drive dying.