iMac G5 Warning !!

floatingspirit · Mar 21, 2005

Dont shut your Mac down and walk away with MS Word open!! My mom did that and hours later I stepped out from the THIRD floor and heard something like a car outside. Turned out my Mom's iMac's shut down process "timed out" becuase Word wouldn't close. The iMac's fans sounded like a helicopter and I was terrified it would be wasted. I felt the computer, but it didn't feel hot at all. Seriously, I could hear it from the top of our stairway on the third floor!

Just wanted to to caution folks about this. The iMac seems fine, thank goodness.

bankshot · Mar 21, 2005

This has nothing to do with Microsoft Word or the iMac G5 (other than the fans running, which is a GOOD thing so that it doesn't overheat -- yes they're loud

). Any good application with unsaved data will ask if you want to save when it gets the shutdown message. This dialog blocks the shutdown process until you choose whether or not to save, and if you take more than a few minutes, shutdown is canceled. Had your mother waited just a few seconds, she would have seen the dialog from Word immediately.

Completely aside from this, my suggestion would be to put the computer to sleep when you want to save power, and never shut it down anyway. With the exception of a few desktop machines that have chronic sleep problems, there's just no reason to ever shutdown a Mac. When it wakes from sleep, it's ready to go in under 2 seconds, right where you left off. You don't have to close all your applications, but instead you can leave them right where you were working. It's really too bad Apple doesn't highlight this feature more in their documentation. I see so many people coming from the Windows world wanting to shut the machine off every time they're done using it.

BornAgainMac · Mar 21, 2005

I heard that with a Powermac G5. It's hard to believe it is coming from your Mac they are so loud. I thought a jet was going to land on my building.

I applied a firmware update that my graphics card recommended and it fixed both the sleep problems with the black screen of death and the loud fans of death.

floatingspirit · Mar 21, 2005

bankshot said:
This has nothing to do with Microsoft Word or the iMac G5 (other than the fans running, which is a GOOD thing so that it doesn't overheat -- yes they're loud ). Any good application with unsaved data will ask if you want to save when it gets the shutdown message. This dialog blocks the shutdown process until you choose whether or not to save, and if you take more than a few minutes, shutdown is canceled. Had your mother waited just a few seconds, she would have seen the dialog from Word immediately.

Completely aside from this, my suggestion would be to put the computer to sleep when you want to save power, and never shut it down anyway. With the exception of a few desktop machines that have chronic sleep problems, there's just no reason to ever shutdown a Mac. When it wakes from sleep, it's ready to go in under 2 seconds, right where you left off. You don't have to close all your applications, but instead you can leave them right where you were working. It's really too bad Apple doesn't highlight this feature more in their documentation. I see so many people coming from the Windows world wanting to shut the machine off every time they're done using it.

I can't tell you how many times I've tried to explain that to my Mom(about just letting it sleep). She is a switcher. I understand that what happened is standard procedure, but there's no reason I can think of for why the fans should've been going a million miles per hour. That was a first.

jackieonasses · Mar 21, 2005

floatingspirit said:
I can't tell you how many times I've tried to explain that to my Mom(about just letting it sleep). She is a switcher. I understand that what happened is standard procedure, but there's no reason I can think of for why the fans should've been going a million miles per hour. That was a first.

Because if the computer locks up... and is still running... it isn't monitoring the temp. It runs it at full speed as a safety procaution... Don't worry. My old G5 did that once when it locked up. (it locked up once in a year) It is normal for that to happen.

kyle

JzzTrump22 · Mar 21, 2005

I wouldn't worry too much about that. My fan in my powerbook sounds like a mini motor sometimes.

uaaerospace · Mar 21, 2005

BornAgainMac said:
I heard that with a Powermac G5. It's hard to believe it is coming from your Mac they are so loud. I thought a jet was going to land on my building.

A little off topic I guess, but just wanted to share. I was an early adopter of the Rev A G5 PMs, and once when I came back to my dorm room, I heard the machine from outside and thought, "What in the world?" I unlocked the door, and tissues were all over my room. I am serious! I had my G5 sitting on my desk, and a box of tissues sitting behind it, and somehow it emptied that box. It was funny, but frighting at the same time. At the time I was not aware that the fans were an issue.

Boxer Shorts · Sep 9, 2005

iMac G5 Overheating problems

It seems Apple has been quiet about this but the iMacs G5 do have a fan/overheating/video problem.

Discussion forums have suggested self repair/mutulation to the fan housing or DIY replacing the fan.

See if your iMac serial number falls in this recall catagory first.

http://www.apple.com/support/imac/repairextensionprogram/

BS

wdlove · Sep 10, 2005

uaaerospace said:
A little off topic I guess, but just wanted to share. I was an early adopter of the Rev A G5 PMs, and once when I came back to my dorm room, I heard the machine from outside and thought, "What in the world?" I unlocked the door, and tissues were all over my room. I am serious! I had my G5 sitting on my desk, and a box of tissues sitting behind it, and somehow it emptied that box. It was funny, but frighting at the same time. At the time I was not aware that the fans were an issue.

That is a good story, thanks for sharing. Did you get pictures?

mkrishnan · Sep 10, 2005

floatingspirit said:
I can't tell you how many times I've tried to explain that to my Mom(about just letting it sleep). She is a switcher. I understand that what happened is standard procedure, but there's no reason I can think of for why the fans should've been going a million miles per hour. That was a first.

The fan thing is strange, as other people have mentioned...but for what it's worth, with the switcher thing... If you open MS Word, and edit a document without saving the changes, and then tell Windows to shut down and walk away, Windows will also not shut down. There's another thread about doing it in OS X the Unix way and forcing a shutdown (and I'm sure Windows has such a thing), but it is there for a reason. If she does the same thing on Windows, doesn't she get a similar result (minus the fans)? If so...It's hard to understand for me why she keeps doing it....

rainman::|:| · Sep 10, 2005

the iMac G5 can sound like a jet engine if it's not actively montoring the temp... for instance, during a firmware update (such as the recent Rev-A iMac sleep light update) the fans run at full speed, and let me tell you, it is a scary sound, coming from such a thin enclosure, it sounds like something's bound to come flying out. But your noise is probably normal, tho if the midplane is out of alignment, it can cause unusual noises and Apple will replace it (it's hard to tell if yours is normal, try going to an Apple store for comparison).

The video repair-extension is a separate issue from lockup-related fan power-up, and midplane-related noise problems.

BlizzardBomb · Sep 10, 2005

Hardware test on an iMac is so loud! It's hilarious

quagmire · Sep 10, 2005

Just do Option-Apple-F-O after a restart, and you can hear how loud an iMac can really get. It doesn't load the OS, so it turns the fans 100% so the G5 doesn't overheat.

Makosuke · Sep 10, 2005

The fan noise in this situation is obviously perfectly normal, it's just shocking for most people how high those usually quiet fans can get turned up. I know in my G5 combined they're usually quieter than the freakin' whiny Radeon fan, but after a crash I can hear them from a floor away and my wife panicked as badly as the computer had the first time she heard it. XServes, by the way, are nearly that loud even with the fans on "low".

So I take it in this case the iMac froze for whatever reason after Word cancelled the shutdown? That, I'd find odd, and worth at least a little troubleshooting, as it should've just sit there quietly.

What I wonder is why the fans can even go that high; seriously, even with my 1st gen G5 dual 2.0 processing in a disk intensive app at full bore, the fans barely increase in loudness at all if the room is at a comfortable temperature.

How hot of an operating environment would the computer need to be in before that fan speed was necessary?

jamesW135 · Sep 10, 2005

The fans are loud on most macs.

jsalzer · Sep 10, 2005

Normal???

Just to give your mom some credit, you need not have an unsaved Word document open for Word to stop a shutdown. It'll stop the shutdown even if there are no documents open if:

a) It believes you have made changes to the mysterious "Normal" - whatever the heck that is.

b) You have copied something to the almighty Microsoft clipboard. Heaven forbid they use the system clipboard under its own terms.

The fan - yup, it's scary. My iMacG5 came to me in a constant-high-blast state (Apple Support walked me through resetting the somethingorother inside).

Sun Baked · Sep 10, 2005

Really, forgot to shut the machine down properly -- so you are giving us a warning about it.

How about this warning, caution the following electronic product may be dangerous if used improperly -- may can extremely noisy surges of steam if turned up too high, can scorch and/or melt you undies (and burn you quite bad if you don't take them off first.)

iEdd · Sep 10, 2005

Sun Baked said:
Really, forgot to shut the machine down properly -- so you are giving us a warning about it.

How about this warning, caution the following electronic product may be dangerous if used improperly -- may can extremely noisy surges of steam if turned up too high, can scorch and/or melt you undies (and burn you quite bad if you don't take them off first.)

Well there's your problem, it's Black and Decker.. Faulty. Faulty product

floatingspirit · Sep 10, 2005

Smart A**

Sun Baked said:
Really, forgot to shut the machine down properly -- so you are giving us a warning about it.

How about this warning, caution the following electronic product may be dangerous if used improperly -- may can extremely noisy surges of steam if turned up too high, can scorch and/or melt you undies (and burn you quite bad if you don't take them off first.)

I'd like to give u a warning all right.

As there are many subsequent comments after so long, thank you. The event has not repeated itself. I just didn't realize that computer fans had the capability, within fairly normal parameters, to be so loud! After switching Mom, I kind of regret it. What I thought was so simple, she is still struggling with. Alas, I feel badly for her under-appreciated iMac

sambo. · Sep 10, 2005

my $0.02

jamesW135 said:
The fans are loud on most macs.

hehe, most owners of rev B G3 powerbooks (teh "bronze" jobbies) aren't even aware that they have a fan in them.

scared the crap out of me the first time mine started up.

but then it was 40+C.....

maya · Sep 10, 2005

sambo. said:
hehe, most owners of rev B G3 powerbooks (teh "bronze" jobbies) aren't even aware that they have a fan in them.

scared the crap out of me the first time mine started up. but then it was 40+C.....

Pismo FW, doesn't even make a noise, unless I out it through some movie files or DVD's. I need to clean the fan, since it sounds like it needs a good cleaning.

iBook G4, doesn't make a noise either, unless I watch some heavy duty video file(s).

iMac G5, runs with minimal noise. Its a desktop its expected, I hear it more since I am mainly a notebook user. And the only time it revved up is when I watch HD content.

Not sure what people here are referring to, must be the PBG4 and the PMG5, those are considered noisy.

jsalzer · Sep 11, 2005

Where you at.

maya said:
Pismo FW, doesn't even make a noise, unless I out it through some movie files or DVD's.

iMac G5, runs with minimal noise. Its a desktop its expected, I hear it more since I am mainly a notebook user. And the only time it revved up is when I watch HD content.

Not sure what people here are referring to, must be the PBG4 and the PMG5, those are considered noisy.

I'm not sure my Pismo even has a fan. If it does, I've never heard it.

As for the iMacG5, to quote the commercial, it's probably about "where you at". Since it's on your desk and not under it, and since such a large amount of air is getting pushed through such a small slit, it really is quite loud in a small office - to the point of getting in the way of being able to hear people well on the phone. And this is during normal operation (with Folding going on), not the full-blast jet engines. I almost want to get some of those sound-absorbing panels to put on the wall behind it to see if those will help.

In a larger space or on the floor where a tower would be, it probably wouldn't be an issue.

kwajo.com · Sep 11, 2005

I don't know if there is anything wrong with mine or not, but my lime clamshell iBook runs it's fan pretty loudly all the time, almost the same af my dual G5 at idle.

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