[hurric00]

Hi
I know it's summer and my room gets pretty warm but my pb fan sometimes goes on really fast and non stop almost as soon as i turn it on and open email or sth. One time (at end of nite) it came to a point when a black screen came and told me I had to restart. I only suspect this is because of the heat?

It's been almost a year since I bought this and I'm not too sure if i should buy the apple care (mostly because of the price).

What do you guys do to keep your pb's cool (other than keep the room a/c'ed because that's not an option)? what goes under it?

I just tried not to use it as much when it's hot... any suggestions?

Thanks

[d.fine]

This is something I made in my free time, but there are many solutions out there that are fanless, made of Alu ...
This one keeps the PB on average 10�C cooler, internal fans hardly ever come on again.



There are things like Koolsink
Check this MacNN forum where this is sometimes discussed.
Good hunt

[jorgem4]

Originally posted by d.fine:
This is something I made in my free time, but there are many solutions out there that are fanless, made of Alu ...
This one keeps the PB on average 10�C cooler, internal fans hardly ever come on again.



There are things like Koolsink
Check this MacNN forum where this is sometimes discussed.
Good hunt

How are you powering does fans?

I would like to do something like that but I no sh*t about electrical engineering...right now I have an iCurve and I got a little personal fan that runs on batteries and I put it under the PB on the iCurve stand and it cools the PB like by 10 degrees! But the fan is load as hell and batteries last like a day...

[d.fine]

Originally posted by jorgem4:
How are you powering does fans?

I would like to do something like that but I no sh*t about electrical engineering...right now I have an iCurve and I got a little personal fan that runs on batteries and I put it under the PB on the iCurve stand and it cools the PB like by 10 degrees! But the fan is load as hell and batteries last like a day...

With a 12v adapter. I did it the iffy way and just cut the cables from the fans and connected them to the adapter (the adapter just plugs in the wall). Red is + and black is - . The adapter can put out 12, 9, 6 or 3 volts so I can also adjust the speed of the fans (and with that the noise level).
You can also make the fans USB powered, it's the same principle (+ and -) but I don't know whether that would be taxing on the system. I have a friend who has done that (with 1 fan) and it seems to work fine. It is a more 'portable' solution because it is USB bus powered. I'll try and post some pic if I can.

[escher]

Originally posted by d.fine:
This is something I made in my free time,

d.fine: Do the fans on your homemade cooling stand blow air under the PowerBook? Or do they suck air away, drawing in cooler air from the front?

PowerMacs and other desktops are cooled via the second (aspirating) method. The same principle is used with the fan above your kitchen stove or in your bathroom. So I'm curious to see what principle is used for cooling stands.

My Rev.C 12-inch PowerBook's fan goes crazy as well. I'm definitely planning to build a cooling stand/dock at some point.

Escher

[d.fine]

Originally posted by escher:
d.fine: Do the fans on your homemade cooling stand blow air under the PowerBook? Or do they suck air away, drawing in cooler air from the front?

PowerMacs and other desktops are cooled via the second (aspirating) method. The same principle is used with the fan above your kitchen stove or in your bathroom. So I'm curious to see what principle is used for cooling stands.

My Rev.C 12-inch PowerBook's fan goes crazy as well. I'm definitely planning to build a cooling stand/dock at some point.

Escher

The fans blow air under the PB. So if I put my hands on the desk in front of the PB I get cold air on them.
Now the fans blow air under the whole PB, as well as into the little heatsinks that you see at the bottom of the LCD.

This is a temporary stand. I plan on changing the fans to 60 mm, as well as transparent ones (don't like the orange). The glass plate will also be changed for an aluminium plate (better heat conduction), and I should expect yet more temp difference ...

[Kenstee]

Try this procedure..

http://www.deleet.de/ray/pbfanfix.html

The fans were made to really roar starting with 10.3.2. Downgrading to this extension solves the problem. It's easy and it works.

[yodacai]

Originally posted by hurric00:
Hi
I know it's summer and my room gets pretty warm but my pb fan sometimes goes on really fast and non stop almost as soon as i turn it on and open email or sth. One time (at end of nite) it came to a point when a black screen came and told me I had to restart. I only suspect this is because of the heat?

It's been almost a year since I bought this and I'm not too sure if i should buy the apple care (mostly because of the price).

What do you guys do to keep your pb's cool (other than keep the room a/c'ed because that's not an option)? what goes under it?

I just tried not to use it as much when it's hot... any suggestions?

Thanks

I use this cooling pad from Targus under my 12" RevC PB. It draws hot air AWAY from the PB to dissapate heat. On average, it allows my PB to run about 10 degrees cooler and keeps the fan off under normal usage (web browsing, email, Office, etc.) I highly recommend it!

[Saramin]

My 12" Rev C fan goes crazy as well. Playing a six year-old game like Starcraft should not make the laptop sound like a lawn mower with an identity crisis.

With regards to the fix above, has anyone tried it for an extended period of time? I'm a little leery of just turning off the fan under 60 Celcius. The bottom is hot even when it's on, and I'm kind of worried about hardware damage and such.

[jorgem4]

Originally posted by d.fine:
With a 12v adapter. I did it the iffy way and just cut the cables from the fans and connected them to the adapter (the adapter just plugs in the wall). Red is + and black is - . The adapter can put out 12, 9, 6 or 3 volts so I can also adjust the speed of the fans (and with that the noise level).
You can also make the fans USB powered, it's the same principle (+ and -) but I don't know whether that would be taxing on the system. I have a friend who has done that (with 1 fan) and it seems to work fine. It is a more 'portable' solution because it is USB bus powered. I'll try and post some pic if I can.

I would love to see more pics of your fans and of your friends if you can. Also what kind of adapter did you use? (pic)!

[dwood]

Most games fully tax the CPU, so whether you're playing starcraft or halo, give the game a lil time and your fans should be roaring and your case should be quite warm/hot.

Originally posted by Saramin:
My 12" Rev C fan goes crazy as well. Playing a six year-old game like Starcraft should not make the laptop sound like a lawn mower with an identity crisis.

With regards to the fix above, has anyone tried it for an extended period of time? I'm a little leery of just turning off the fan under 60 Celcius. The bottom is hot even when it's on, and I'm kind of worried about hardware damage and such.

[d.fine]

Originally posted by jorgem4:
I would love to see more pics of your fans and of your friends if you can. Also what kind of adapter did you use? (pic)!

No problem. Here are some pics of my setup. The two fans' cables come together on the plug (you can see its a temp setup on how I finished those connections) which is what came with the adapter. There are 2 red and 2 black cables, I just quickly finished those with some shrinktube to make it one clean cable. Its like inserting a battery, + with + and - with -, otherwise it just wont work. I took some closeups of the adapter so you can clearly see what I used (I blurred out the brand name, don't want to make this an add). You can also see that the adapter can be adjusted to put out 3, 6, 9 or 12 volts. Works like a charm. Hope this helps.
The USB Fan setup of my friends' pics will follow, as soon as I get a chance I'll go over there and take some.

[jorgem4]

Originally posted by d.fine:
No problem. Here are some pics of my setup. The two fans' cables come together on the plug (you can see its a temp setup on how I finished those connections) which is what came with the adapter. There are 2 red and 2 black cables, I just quickly finished those with some shrinktube to make it one clean cable. Its like inserting a battery, + with + and - with -, otherwise it just wont work. I took some closeups of the adapter so you can clearly see what I used (I blurred out the brand name, don't want to make this an add). You can also see that the adapter can be adjusted to put out 3, 6, 9 or 12 volts. Works like a charm. Hope this helps.
The USB Fan setup of my friends' pics will follow, as soon as I get a chance I'll go over there and take some.

Hey man! Does are some great pics! Thanks a lot! I think I am going to build one to put under my iCurve. With just one fan...I have a 12" PB so the the are to cover is not that big. I forgto to ask you...how loud and the fans? And what brand or kind of fans do you recomend for this kind of apparatus?

Thanks for all your help and idea sharing.

[d.fine]

Originally posted by jorgem4:
Hey man! Does are some great pics! Thanks a lot! I think I am going to build one to put under my iCurve. With just one fan...I have a 12" PB so the the are to cover is not that big. I forgto to ask you...how loud and the fans? And what brand or kind of fans do you recomend for this kind of apparatus?

Thanks for all your help and idea sharing.

I used Thermaltake 80 mm fans, but I'm going to change those to 60 mm fans, smaller. The fans don't make an excessive amount of noise, but they are louder than the G5 running next to me (mine is really really quite). Of course I can adjust the speed, as explained earlier, and with it the noise. I'd recommend an aluminium plate, which is better for heat dissipation, and with that you'd need only 1 fan, get a 60 mm one (most fans say dB level on packaging, pick a silent one), and if you get a PS like mine, you can adjust the speed. Have fun !! And post some pics

[MilkmanDan]

Ok, StarCraft used like 100% of your CPU power. Its a very badly ported OS X game. I found that the 10.3.4 updated made my fan work a lot harder, and I think 10.3.5 fixed this.

I would say just prop it up a bit somehow, or buy a cheap laptop stand. I honestly don't see a need for fans blowing under your powerbook, unless you live on the Sun, Mercury, Death Valley, or hell. One of my roomies just wedged some cardboard under the back of his 12in, lifting it up a bit. This only really worked with a mouse and keyboard, like any other stand. I used a wire mesh paper hold from Target to make a stand with. Total price $3.

[Saramin]

Originally posted by MilkmanDan:
Ok, StarCraft used like 100% of your CPU power. Its a very badly ported OS X game. I found that the 10.3.4 updated made my fan work a lot harder, and I think 10.3.5 fixed this.

I would say just prop it up a bit somehow, or buy a cheap laptop stand. I honestly don't see a need for fans blowing under your powerbook, unless you live on the Sun, Mercury, Death Valley, or hell. One of my roomies just wedged some cardboard under the back of his 12in, lifting it up a bit. This only really worked with a mouse and keyboard, like any other stand. I used a wire mesh paper hold from Target to make a stand with. Total price $3.

I have a weird way of using my laptop where I sort of prop it up on one leg and balance it. Around 70% of the surface area of the bottom of the case is exposed to air in that situation, including the hottest part.

As an update on the whole fan thing, I've discovered something interesting. If I cripple the processor to half it's effectiveness by setting it to 'reduced' in the energy saver preference pane it pretty much solves all my problems. I have noticed absolutely no slowdown in either Starcraft or graphic-intensive games like NWN when doing this and only minimal slowdown when launching applications, yet the fan runs almost 20 degrees cooler. Not sure why, but it seems to work. With this setting enabled I generally hover around 50 Celcius with the most processor-heavy applications running, where before I was nearing 70C. And, like I said, absolutely no slowdown of any significance. Funky.

[escher]

Originally posted by Saramin:
If I cripple the processor to half it's effectiveness by setting it to 'reduced' in the energy saver preference pane it pretty much solves all my problems.

Interesting observation, Saramin. I just switched the processor in my Rev.C 12-inch to reduced as well. I'm really curious to see whether it will help reduce fan noise.

Escher

[Saramin]

Originally posted by escher:
Interesting observation, Saramin. I just switched the processor in my Rev.C 12-inch to reduced as well. I'm really curious to see whether it will help reduce fan noise.

Escher

Let me know how it goes. I have the same machine as you and for me it's been a wonder fix.

[escher]

Originally posted by Saramin:
Let me know how it goes. I have the same machine as you and for me it's been a wonder fix.

Swtiching to "reduced" processing power didn't do anything for my PB. I guess it really is the 5400 rpm BTO hard drive that is heating things up too much. Or maybe my fan is whinier than average?

I still absolutely love this PowerBook.

Escher

[d.fine]

External Cooling ...

[BenN]

I used to use an iBreeze for cooling my PB; now I use an iCurve.

If the whole point of the cooling is to reduce fan noise, then using external fans kind of defeats the object of the exercise, doesn`t it?

My PB`s fans still come on when I`m doing something CPU intensive (usually when Temperature Monitor gives a CPU reading of 60 deg C or higher). But raising the PB off my desk provides better airflow to the bottom surface, and hence better heat dissipation.

My $0.02

[Saramin]

Originally posted by BenN:
I used to use an iBreeze for cooling my PB; now I use an iCurve.

If the whole point of the cooling is to reduce fan noise, then using external fans kind of defeats the object of the exercise, doesn`t it?

My PB`s fans still come on when I`m doing something CPU intensive (usually when Temperature Monitor gives a CPU reading of 60 deg C or higher). But raising the PB off my desk provides better airflow to the bottom surface, and hence better heat dissipation.

My $0.02

Dunno, maybe it's just a minimum temperature thing. For me my fans turn on at 47 degrees Celcius and switch to full blast around the 52 mark.

[d.fine]

Originally posted by BenN:
If the whole point of the cooling is to reduce fan noise, then using external fans kind of defeats the object of the exercise, doesn`t it?

Not necesarily since you can see to it that the external fans you use are quiter than the internal fans ... so there'd be a noise reduction and the internal fans wouldn't come on again. I always believed, and still do, that a cooler machine performs better that a hot one ... and in the case of the PB it's about comfort as well, a PB burnin' the hair off your legs doesn't sound like fun

[Voch]

I use a Targus CoolPad Traveller to cool my TiBook. It works fairly well but isn't going to keep the fans off (they rarely go into fast mode with the CoolPad, but then again I rarely play newer games). It also tilts the 'Book a little, adds swivel capability and keeps the bottom from getting scratched.

Voch

[SplijinX]

Awesome setup, might have to hack together something like that. For those of you looking for a simpler solution, take a look at this Antec external fan:

http://www.antec.com/us/pro_details_...p?ProdID=77078

It's powered by USB, so just plug it in and blow it at your PB. Not too fond of the colored lights, but I'm sure you can open it up and put in the fan of your choice if so desired.

[escher]

Originally posted by BenN:
If the whole point of the cooling is to reduce fan noise, then using external fans kind of defeats the object of the exercise, doesn`t it?

Not at all, BenN. Large fans with long fan blades spinning at low rpm are more efficient and quieter than small fans with short blades. Because the internal PB fan has a tiny diameter, it has to turn very fast (high rpm) to move air. External fans can have a much larger diameter, which allows for slower rotation speed with the same amount of air flow and thus less noise. Therefore, an external cooling setup makes sense and does not defeat the purpose of reducing noise.

My Rev.C 12-inch PowerBook's fan comes on at 47 deg C. I have never heard it go into "full blast." But I also rarely reach temps above 50 deg C, except while ripping CD's and batch-processing images.

Escher

[Edit: With 10.3.5 my fan comes on at 47 deg C/116 deg F, although I seem to remember that it came on at 45 deg C/113 deg F before the OS update.]