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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > Tiger Over Heats My G4 Powerbook

Tiger Over Heats My G4 Powerbook
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cpdcrsdr
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Apr 30, 2005, 03:35 AM
 
okay so i installed tiger on to my g4 1.33 ghz powerbook. i noticed that my laptop was over heating and the fan was turning on A LOT. the bottom was always hot to the touch and i either have to have it on a glass counter top or elevated with a fan turned on next to it in order to keep it cool so it doesnt over heat. and im not joking i actually have a fan blowing across my laptop haha. does anyone know whats up with that. or have any suggestions . i tried changing the settings in the system preferneces and that doesnt seem to help.
     
moodymonster
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Apr 30, 2005, 04:09 AM
 
it may be hot when you first run tiger 'cause Spotlight is indexing your files, if you click on Spotlight it'll tell you whether it's doing this or not - you could also launch activity monitor and see what's using the processor.
     
cpdcrsdr  (op)
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Apr 30, 2005, 11:19 AM
 
thanks for the reply moodymonster but i doubt its not the indexing it does it all the time and it already indexed. it seems to be mostly when i plug in the adapter that it runs really hot. it never did that before i installed tiger
     
tbd
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Apr 30, 2005, 11:42 AM
 
Did Tiger change your default power settings to High instead of Automatic?
     
amazing
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Apr 30, 2005, 11:43 AM
 
Sounds like you've got some software installed that's conflicting with Tiger--that's one of the risks of being an early adopter, namely you've just paid to be a beta tester. You should open terminal and run "top" to see what's maxing out the cpu. Then, identify the software responsible and kill the process. Of course, caveat emptor: be sure you know what's what before you jump in.
     
Sophus
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Apr 30, 2005, 12:00 PM
 
Originally Posted by cpdcrsdr
okay so i installed tiger on to my g4 1.33 ghz powerbook. i noticed that my laptop was over heating and the fan was turning on A LOT. the bottom was always hot to the touch and i either have to have it on a glass counter top or elevated with a fan turned on next to it in order to keep it cool so it doesnt over heat. and im not joking i actually have a fan blowing across my laptop haha. does anyone know whats up with that. or have any suggestions . i tried changing the settings in the system preferneces and that doesnt seem to help.
Have a look at the Activity Monitor to see if some app is using an abnormal amount of CPU. Could be a conflicting app or someting wrong with your install.
     
iomatic
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Apr 30, 2005, 04:19 PM
 
kernel_task is taking around 95MB RAM for me, as well as Dashboard widgets, a few 100MB... that's pretty bad.

How do you quit Dashboard?
     
gordo19
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Apr 30, 2005, 05:21 PM
 
I had this problem too - nearly 3rd degree burn to my errr..... lap.

What I found was a process called mdimport was still running and hogging 80% upwards of the processor.

I had not done a full restart after the automatic one after install. a user implemented restart solved then problem.

mdim is for metadata import, ie spotlight indexing. even though the initial index import was completed quite quickly this task was still maxing out, the restart brought it under control

Hope this may be of use.
     
dialo
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Apr 30, 2005, 05:38 PM
 
A whole lot of people have been having their powerbooks heat up due to virex
     
iomatic
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Apr 30, 2005, 06:56 PM
 
Don't have Virex.
     
MacPsycho
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Apr 30, 2005, 07:54 PM
 
Same problem: since Tiger install, 17 " PB 1.33 is always hot, fan goes almost continously, and battery level is just over an hour.

We need a fix for this quickly.
AlPB 17" G4 1.33 | 512MB | SD | 80GB
     
gordo19
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Apr 30, 2005, 08:10 PM
 
MacPsycho

have you tried a full restart, It did work for me.
     
amazing
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Apr 30, 2005, 08:17 PM
 
I haven't updated to Tiger yet, precisely because of stuff like this. So I have no personal experience with the issues, so just maybe the following will help some folks:

Perhaps everybody's tried this already, but step one would be to repair permissions. Step 2 would be to boot into open firmware and type "reset_nvram" (return) then "reset_all" return, whereupong the PB reboots.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238

Step 3 would be to reset the PMU
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449
     
bovie
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Apr 30, 2005, 08:56 PM
 
I noticed my fan comes on more after I installed tiger. I think it is because of Core Image.
iMac 20in, 2.0Ghz, 1.5GB Ram, Mac OS X 10.4 - Windows XP Pro
PowerBook 12in, 1.5Ghz G4, 1.25GB Ram, Mac OS X 10.4
PowerMac 1.3Ghz G4, 1GB Ram, Radeon 8500, OS X Server 10.4
     
chabig
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Apr 30, 2005, 10:06 PM
 
Originally Posted by iomatic
kernel_task is taking around 95MB RAM for me, as well as Dashboard widgets, a few 100MB... that's pretty bad.
I wouldn't worry about the RAM footprint. Those are small numbers and OS X automatically manages your memory so you don't have to worry about it.

Chris
     
iomatic
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May 1, 2005, 03:23 AM
 
Indeed, a 1.0 release is going to be full of problems, but yet, those kinds of diagnostics _shouldn't_ be necessary for the lay-user.

Did I just type that?



The fan is annoyingly fast.


Originally Posted by amazing
I haven't updated to Tiger yet, precisely because of stuff like this. So I have no personal experience with the issues, so just maybe the following will help some folks:

Perhaps everybody's tried this already, but step one would be to repair permissions. Step 2 would be to boot into open firmware and type "reset_nvram" (return) then "reset_all" return, whereupong the PB reboots.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238

Step 3 would be to reset the PMU
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449
     
ferdy
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May 1, 2005, 06:38 AM
 
My PW also heated a lot after upgrading to Tiger. Currently I fixed the problem in the following way: (1) installing Tiger again, using the new intallation option instead of the upgrade option, (2) resetting the PRAM and NVRAM (restart and press Command+Option+P+R simoultaneosly before the grey screen comes on).
So far it worked.
     
RussianTiger
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May 1, 2005, 09:07 AM
 
2:cpdcrsdr
Your PB is not over heating, it works in the normal operations, it depends on the what tasks you run. Tiger eat a lot of cpu time, specially QT 7, so it's normal for your PowerBook to be hot all the time if you run complicated tasks, and as people told you, probably it was Spotlight that actually indexing and eats a lot of cpu time, there is no reason to worry about PB becoming hot, it's always have been like this since PB G3. I remember mine G3 292Mhz with 83Mhz bus, always was hot, mine PB G4 Al 1.25 always hot as hell, it's a Apple man, it's not like Sony that makes cool notebooks in the world. Apple PowerBooks have always been a problem since the 1998, battery life and they are really have got hot in the all meanings.
I remember my first PowerBook 145b and it was not hot at all, 520c was not hot at all, but G3 became the hot **** in my ass.
     
cambro
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May 1, 2005, 10:10 AM
 
RussianTiger...could you please crawl back into your hole and stop polluting these threads with crap?

The G3 is hot in your #ss?
     
RussianTiger
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May 1, 2005, 11:06 AM
 
Originally Posted by cambro
RussianTiger...could you please crawl back into your hole and stop polluting these threads with crap?

The G3 is hot in your #ss?
YOU'VE GOT BULKY NUTS? You don't like the true?
Looks like the U.S. needs to learn more democracy rules before getting out from your own country and tell other what to do. Don't you think so?
     
Monkeymike
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May 1, 2005, 12:21 PM
 
My PB is doing the same thing. And I am not doing anything complicated. Just surfing the net and normal stuff. I hope that this will be resolved. On a bright side though, my PB used to make this high pitched sound all the time( this was documented in the forums a while ago. A lot of people had this issue) but since installing Tiger the sound is gone!!
"The sleeper must awaken"

15" Al Powerbook G4 1.25 Ghz
iBook 800
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10 gig 2nd Gen iPod
     
Sarah31
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May 2, 2005, 02:23 AM
 
Ditching Virex helped me out. My fan was running and my computer was not sleep very well because Virex's VSheild (part of the startup stuff) was stealing alot of cycles. I cleaned it off my system and now my PB is working just great.

Thanks for suggesting that.
     
iomatic
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May 2, 2005, 11:25 PM
 
Spotlight finished indexing months ago-- oh wait a minute! I have a sony xbrite monitor also attached, but this fan thing wasn't here before....


hmm...

...
     
markclausing
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May 3, 2005, 06:07 AM
 
I think you should install the latest CHUD tools (download from versiontracker).
CHUD enables a 'CPU-icon' in your System Preferences in which you can enable NAP.
NAP should be enabled by default, as it is a power-saving feature of the cpu. It will cool down the cpu drastically when the cpu usage is below 100%.

I did an upgrade from panther to tiger and I had an old version of the CHUD tools installed, which broke the NAP function. With the newer version all is back to normal.
http://www.prinshendrikkade.com
MacBook Pro 2Ghz 2Gb 100Gb 256Mb
     
Randman
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May 3, 2005, 06:15 AM
 
Interesting. My PB17 is running a couple of degrees cooler on average. I did an archive and install and all went well.

For the people with heat issues, how did you install? How long did Spotlight take to Index? It took about 30 minutes with about 70GB of the 80GB hard drive full.

This is a computer-generated message and needs no signature.
     
Judge_Fire
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May 3, 2005, 08:01 AM
 
Every time I view QuickTime in Safari, it sends the browser's CPU usage to +90% and keeps it there even with no windows open. Only quitting Safari helps.

J
     
Randman
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May 3, 2005, 08:04 AM
 
Do you use pithhelmet? On autofill, do you have Other Forms selected? Is it very full? Have you emptied the cache, or deactivated it? Have you quit and reopened the app or flushed the flavicons with a third-party app?

This is a computer-generated message and needs no signature.
     
iomatic
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May 3, 2005, 11:53 AM
 
my 12" 1.33 was just an upgrade install. Same performance on a 5400rpm 80gb hd with Spotlight. i'll try pram zappage. anyone else with an external monitor (DVI)?


Originally Posted by Randman
Interesting. My PB17 is running a couple of degrees cooler on average. I did an archive and install and all went well.

For the people with heat issues, how did you install? How long did Spotlight take to Index? It took about 30 minutes with about 70GB of the 80GB hard drive full.
     
Monkeymike
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May 3, 2005, 11:56 AM
 
I just did the upgrade and spotlight took about 20 mins. My fan is still running a lot and the Powerbook is still getting hot from doing nothing but using Safai!
"The sleeper must awaken"

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iBook 800
G4 Flat Panel iMac 700
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10 gig 2nd Gen iPod
     
83caddy16v
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May 4, 2005, 10:36 AM
 
My 15" Powerbook is doing the exhibiting the same behavior: much hotter than before with several apps open, fan comes on not long after startup, less than 1hr battery life before "low battery" warning pops up. I have had several shutdown and restarts over the past couple of days since the installation.

I'll reread the above posts and try a couple. I hope this is a fixable item!!!
     
83caddy16v
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May 4, 2005, 11:47 AM
 
Follow-up: Virex stated it was missing something when I opened the app -- I uninstalled it and my fan has finally shut off! I will reinstall later today to see if it is better.
     
amazing
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May 4, 2005, 01:37 PM
 
Virex is incompatible with Tiger--so don't reinstall it. Consult the database about Tiger incompatibilities at macintouch.com.

You really don't need virex in any case. Just refrain from forwarding MS Word docs to anyone. If you do need virus checking because of PC friends or colleagues, then I think Sophos is compatible.
     
PHYMAC
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May 4, 2005, 03:38 PM
 
I reset the PRAM and NVRAM and so far so good! It looks to be running cooler and the fan has yet to come on, which before doing the reset, it was on all the time.
     
gotwalp
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May 4, 2005, 04:56 PM
 
I got rid of Virex and zapped my pram and am now running about 20 to 25 degrees (f) cooler. Fan has not come on all day When I first installed tiger, fan did not shut off and my battery was lasting about an hour max. All is good now.
Cheers,
Gotwalp
     
fisherKing
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May 4, 2005, 05:32 PM
 
my 12" 1.33 is also running hotter than in 10.3...
played a *gasp* game today (the gooball demo) and the fan roared...

hotter, a little buggy, quirky...
but wait till 10.4.1....
"At first, there was Nothing. Then Nothing inverted itself and became Something.
And that is what you all are: inverted Nothings...with potential" (Sun Ra)
     
83caddy16v
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May 4, 2005, 11:30 PM
 
amazing - thanks. I have not reinstalled Virex and my PB has been back to normal all afternoon
     
amazing
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May 5, 2005, 12:21 AM
 
Originally Posted by 83caddy16v
amazing - thanks. I have not reinstalled Virex and my PB has been back to normal all afternoon
Glad it worked!
     
PHYMAC
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May 5, 2005, 01:02 AM
 
Don't bother re-installing Virex because it doesn't work with Tiger anyway. But the resetting of PRAM and NVRAM really worked as the fan has yet to come on after that, and it had barely shut off after I installed Tiger.
     
Monkeymike
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May 5, 2005, 02:42 AM
 
Yipee!! I got rid or Virex but nothing changed so then I reset the PRAM and no more fan.... I am much happier now! Thanks for the tips guys!
"The sleeper must awaken"

15" Al Powerbook G4 1.25 Ghz
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iomatic
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May 8, 2005, 03:21 AM
 
zapping pram doesn't work for me. alas.


     
   
 
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