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sandman · Aug 11, 2005, 11:37 PM

I have a first generation 17" powerbook and just recently I have been experiencing some problems with the machine heating up under normal operating conditions. It only happens when I have the power cord plugged in. After a little while the fan will come on even if I'm not running any applications. The CPU jumps to over 130 degrees farenheit. When I unplug it though, the fan will stop and the CPU will begin to gradually cool to below 120 degrees. Even unplugged it seems to be making a louder "whirring" sound than usual. Sounds to me like I've got a big hardware problem and need to just take it in. Any help would be appreciated.

budster101 · Aug 11, 2005, 11:40 PM

Upgrade to 10.3.9 maybe? Did you run your updates? This may help...

sandman · Aug 11, 2005, 11:52 PM

Originally Posted by budster101

Upgrade to 10.3.9 maybe? Did you run your updates? This may help...

Actually, my signature is the one not updated. I'm running 10.4.2.

budster101 · Aug 12, 2005, 12:01 AM

Oh, then go back to 10.3.9

Or, update your signature then, that should take care of it...

sandman · Aug 12, 2005, 12:13 AM

Originally Posted by budster101

Oh, then go back to 10.3.9

Or, update your signature then, that should take care of it...

Thanks for your help.

This is definitely a hardware problem. I didn't change any software before this started happening. Anyone with constructive replies please feel free to post.

Thanks.

budster101 · Aug 12, 2005, 12:16 AM

Ok, sorry to be such a pain in the butt.

---

I think the problem lies with your charger or your outlet maybe. A clean source of power would help.
Also, just take the Powerbook into an Apple store and have them plug it into the genius bar to try and reproduce the problem with one of their power supplies....

If they cannot reproduce it, get a new power supply.

erikossu · Aug 12, 2005, 12:07 PM

I have this problem lately again with my old PB G4 550. I'd read somwhere that tightenind the scruwes that hold the heat shield to the processor would help. And it did. But now I have the problem again. I used different power adapters (Jojo and the new white box one). I hear that this model is running hot quit often, but it is getting really bad. Any ideas?

bighead · Aug 12, 2005, 12:54 PM

Originally Posted by sandman

I have a first generation 17" powerbook and just recently I have been experiencing some problems with the machine heating up under normal operating conditions. It only happens when I have the power cord plugged in. After a little while the fan will come on even if I'm not running any applications. The CPU jumps to over 130 degrees farenheit. When I unplug it though, the fan will stop and the CPU will begin to gradually cool to below 120 degrees. Even unplugged it seems to be making a louder "whirring" sound than usual. Sounds to me like I've got a big hardware problem and need to just take it in. Any help would be appreciated.

There's a couple of possibilities. My AlBooks (15" for all of them) all run at about 140F-145F because I'm almost always maxing them out. The fans kick in at about 140F when it hits that threshold. Could it be that you have "reduced" CPU set for battery power and "maximum" set for AC power under the energy saver? I'd say that is the most likely cause.

Second most likely cause is to try an erase/install of the operating system. If you run anything that can cause directory damage, and in turn cause damage to system files, you'd want to eliminate that directory corruption. LimeWire bad, zeroing hard drive good. I've not seen this terribly often, but often enough where I want to mention it.

The next step, or first step if you really want to, is to run the Apple Hardware Test that came with the machine. Sometimes that will pick up weird things. Also, since I forgot to mention it before, pull any third-party RAM you have in the machine. Cheap RAM that may not be in-spec causes thermal response issues all the time. If I can think of anything else today, I'll post it.

HvyMtlMdns · Aug 12, 2005, 01:31 PM

Originally Posted by sandman

I have a first generation 17" powerbook and just recently I have been experiencing some problems with the machine heating up under normal operating conditions. It only happens when I have the power cord plugged in. After a little while the fan will come on even if I'm not running any applications. The CPU jumps to over 130 degrees farenheit. When I unplug it though, the fan will stop and the CPU will begin to gradually cool to below 120 degrees. Even unplugged it seems to be making a louder "whirring" sound than usual. Sounds to me like I've got a big hardware problem and need to just take it in. Any help would be appreciated.

I had the exact same problem on my first gen 17" PB. It started about two weeks ago. Shortly thereafter, the fan became unbalanced and started sounding like a paperclip was stuck in it. I took it to the Apple Store along with an audio recording of the noise. The guy behind the genius bar listened for about 10 second and then started writing up a service ticket without further questions. I let him know that the PB seemed to be overheating lately with a lot of fan activation. I was also beginning to have problems on startup and shutdown. He told me that the logic board may have a problem as well. I got the computer back on Monday and sure enough, both the fan and the logic board had been replaced. The fan only comes on about 1/2 as much as it did before, but still a bit more frequently than I'm used to. Not sure if this helps, but just in case, you might want to have it looked at. Mine was still covered under the extended Apple Care.

sandman · Aug 12, 2005, 03:09 PM

Originally Posted by bighead

There's a couple of possibilities. My AlBooks (15" for all of them) all run at about 140F-145F because I'm almost always maxing them out. The fans kick in at about 140F when it hits that threshold. Could it be that you have "reduced" CPU set for battery power and "maximum" set for AC power under the energy saver? I'd say that is the most likely cause.

Second most likely cause is to try an erase/install of the operating system. If you run anything that can cause directory damage, and in turn cause damage to system files, you'd want to eliminate that directory corruption. LimeWire bad, zeroing hard drive good. I've not seen this terribly often, but often enough where I want to mention it.

The next step, or first step if you really want to, is to run the Apple Hardware Test that came with the machine. Sometimes that will pick up weird things. Also, since I forgot to mention it before, pull any third-party RAM you have in the machine. Cheap RAM that may not be in-spec causes thermal response issues all the time. If I can think of anything else today, I'll post it.

Well I do run LimeWire occasionally, so that could be the problem I guess. I don't have any cheap RAM in the machine so that isn't it.

I should also note that the charger itself gets extremely hot as well. I'm hoping it's a bad charger, even though it would be my third charger if I buy a new one (first one the wire freyed right at the plug end and eventually quit working).

Thanks again for everyone's help. I'm going to run the hardware test now.

maclogin · Apr 13, 2006, 10:58 PM

I have a 1Ghz Powerbook 15" which I bought from a shop that fitted 2 x 512mb of RAM.
I thought the noise of the fans kicking in was usual until my father bought the exact same model as my laptop.

Recently he got a faster powerbook and let me swap his Powerbook 15" with my one. I installed my ram into it. The noise of the fans kicks in.

Now, I bought the RAM from an Apple specialist shop in Brighton, UK and I assumed that the RAM was good but after 3 years I now realise that the RAM was not so good as it has no markings on it at all and looks different from other ram blocks Ive seen, it has 8 chips on each side rather than 4. I will be ordering some ram from crucial and hopefully this will end my noisy Powerbook. And if it does, then Im going to tell the world not to shop at a certain mac retailer in Brighton.