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rx7star · Jan 2, 2006, 09:10 PM

I have a PB G4 17" 1.33 and the fan comes on fairly frequently (every five minutes or so) even though I am only running Firefox with five tabs and iTunes. The fan will stay on for a couple of minutes and then shut off. If I try to view a movie trailer on Apple's quicktime site the fan will almost always come on.

I looked in the activity monitor and do not see anything unusual. I also reset the power management, and ran a hardware diagnostics and everything is clean.

Do you guys have any ideas what might be going on? I'm actually really worried about a possible virus or trojan. I used Norton to scan my computer and it is clean but I do not know whether or not Norton is full proof.

Is there a full proof way of scanning for viruses or trojans? And could that be the possible cause of my constant fan situation?

Thanks!

tooki · Jan 2, 2006, 09:47 PM

There are no viruses, trojans, adware, spyware, worms, or other malware for Mac OS X in the wild at this time. Zero.

tooki

brokenjago · Jan 2, 2006, 10:26 PM

What he said. Nothing, Nada. Zip. Zero.

Zero!

Probably normal operation. Those laptops get hot, and need some coolin' lovin'.

That being said, you probably don't need Norton AntiVirus.

Also, what version of OS X are you using?

mduell · Jan 2, 2006, 10:58 PM

Originally Posted by tooki

There are no viruses, trojans, adware, spyware, worms, or other malware for Mac OS X in the wild at this time. Zero.

You missed the gift from our friends at Sony.

Bastards.

rem · Jan 2, 2006, 10:58 PM

Try running 'top -u' to determine if processes you don't need are keeping your pb's cpu busy. The only "login item" I don't zap is icalalarmscheduler. Some apps are cpu hogs. For example, I've noticed that Firefox tends to keep my cpu a lot busier than Safari even while both apps are doing the same thing (maybe I have too many FF extensions running). RIght now I have FF running one tab (this forum) and its using 25% of the cpu! Also ensure proper ventilation. For example, using a PB while its sitting on a blanket will negatively impact heat dissipation.

If the fan(s) still seem to turn on too often, I'd probably run it by a Mac store.

betasp · Jan 2, 2006, 11:10 PM

Check the activity monitor and see what is taking up CPU cycles.

tooki · Jan 2, 2006, 11:27 PM

Originally Posted by mduell

You missed the gift from our friends at Sony.

Bastards.

That was no oversight. The Sony kernel extensions are not malware, per se. For one thing, it's not surreptitiously installed, nor self-replicating, nor installable by accident: you must manually launch the app, and you must also explicitly authenticate it. It's also easily removed.

tooki

rx7star · Jan 2, 2006, 11:48 PM

Thanks for the replies!

I am running OS X 10.3.9

What really gets me is I had the same PB prior to this one I am typing on right now (my old one got stolen), and I brought this one off of craigslist. The computer looks pristine and seems to be running very smoothly expect for the fan issue which I did not experience on my previous PB G4 17" 1.33. Being on the more paranoid side, I had thought that the fan kept on running because the previous owner had some sort of trojan put on the computer before he sold it to me (you never know, especially when dealing with folks on craigslist!). Anyways, since you guys said that virus and trojans are not possible, what else could be causing it? Wouldn't I get the same type of reaction from all PB G4 17" 1.33 laptops? Maybe a hardware problem?

Is 'top-u' the same thing as looking at the processes in the activity monitor?

Thanks again!

freakboy2 · Jan 3, 2006, 12:18 AM

well, u should probably delete everything on the machine and start over. if you're running someone's old and likely nasty os install, you have no idea what they could have done to it.

that'd be my starting point to get rid of the loud fan

alphasubzero949 · Jan 3, 2006, 04:18 AM

Originally Posted by rx7star

Thanks for the replies!

I am running OS X 10.3.9

What really gets me is I had the same PB prior to this one I am typing on right now (my old one got stolen), and I brought this one off of craigslist. The computer looks pristine and seems to be running very smoothly expect for the fan issue which I did not experience on my previous PB G4 17" 1.33. Being on the more paranoid side, I had thought that the fan kept on running because the previous owner had some sort of trojan put on the computer before he sold it to me (you never know, especially when dealing with folks on craigslist!). Anyways, since you guys said that virus and trojans are not possible, what else could be causing it? Wouldn't I get the same type of reaction from all PB G4 17" 1.33 laptops? Maybe a hardware problem?

Is 'top-u' the same thing as looking at the processes in the activity monitor?

Thanks again!

This post perfectly demonstrates the problem I have with veteran users giving OS X noobs shell commands without fully understanding the ramifications of running them.

FYI It's not "top-u" but rather "top -u" (without the quotes). If you don't fully understand what the commands do in the Terminal, don't run them.

MARINEOSX · Jan 3, 2006, 07:49 AM

This may not be the problem but it could possibly help? It is at least something to try. Repair disk permissions, reset your PRAM and your NVRAM. NVRAM(Non-Viotile random access memory), and PRAM(parameter RAM) The PRAM is something that holds system cionfig files on Mac's. Reset this by restarting and at the chime press....Comand+option+P+R. for the NVRAM restart again and press Comand+option+N+V, this is like reseting all in open firmware. Also repair disk permissions. You want to use proper troubleshooting procedures. You should start with hardware then software but, It is a laptop so to just switch out hardware is not an option. Doing these 3 simple things will tell you if it is something simple or not. If it is a simple issue then it might be taken care of using these steps. If not then I would say download temerature monitor from Versiontracker.com this is free and you can see if your PB is reaching higher temeratures or if it is a software or hardware issue. If the temperature is getting high then it is starting then there is not much you can do. Have you cleaned it out? Make sure there is not a lot of dust around the vent? I hope that it isn't to serious.

rem · 10:13 AM

rx7star: you pretty much get the same info as 'top -u' from Activity Monitor if you select "CPU" at bottom left, "all processes" at top right, then sort by the CPU column in descending order ('top -u' refreshes faster).

As alpha points out I probably should have just said how to adjust Activity Monitor. Just in case you're interested in learning more about CLI tools, a good start is reading man pages (e.g., 'man top' from terminal).

I'd also highly recommend starting off by freshly installing OS X as you never know what the person before you did. For instance, s/he could have made tweaks to overclock your PB...

btw on that note, its unlikely as not many people overclock their PBs but just in case you might want to zap the pram too (i believe overclocking is done from openfirmware and zapping pram will reset it... can someone pls confirm?)

freakboy2 · Jan 3, 2006, 11:10 AM

Originally Posted by alphasubzero949

This post perfectly demonstrates the problem I have with veteran users giving OS X noobs shell commands without fully understanding the ramifications of running them.

FYI It's not "top-u" but rather "top -u" (without the quotes). If you don't fully understand what the commands do in the Terminal, don't run them.

yeah people shouldn't ever try anything on their computers that they don't completely understand.

rx7star · Jan 4, 2006, 02:35 AM

Thanks for all the suggestions! I will try everything out. Hopefully, that will solve my problems.

pcummins · Jan 4, 2006, 11:18 AM

Originally Posted by alphasubzero949

This post perfectly demonstrates the problem I have with veteran users giving OS X noobs shell commands without fully understanding the ramifications of running them.

FYI It's not "top-u" but rather "top -u" (without the quotes). If you don't fully understand what the commands do in the Terminal, don't run them.

This is why you use "man top" or "man xyz-command" to get the manual pages (if any). Sometimes it's just faster to do it in Terminal depending on what the job is over downloading extra tools to get the job done. You may want to review what it says about "top -u"... again, user beware!

rem · Jan 5, 2006, 12:53 PM

There is no risk with the "top" command. All it can do is display info about processes. I agree though that as a rule of thumb users should not just try without knowing what unknown commands do.