12" Powerbook G4 Temperatures

My iBook generally always ran pretty hot.

DarkSel said:

After I applied some new thermal paste on my CPU (not the GPU), I noticed considerably lower temperatures, especially during load.

However, my average temperature when browsing websites (like Macumors), is about 50 C. My fan is constantly on. When I watch Youtube or play some Warcraft, the temperature can increase up to 55 C.

Are you guys experiencing similar temperatures? How is your fan noise?

Also, I just noticed, my GPU is really fricking hot. At idle, it's almost 7 C hotter than my CPU. When I play games, it's almost 10 C hotter than my CPU. Is it worth it to open up the Powerbook again and apply thermal paste on the GPU as well?

Click to expand...

I have not done this, so I can't say it would or would not reduce temps. But I can tell you that Youtube is processor intensive. Your fans are going to run. Especially when anything pegs the CPU at 100%.

That said, my 17" PowerBooks only kick the fans in at 140ºF. Which is about 18 degrees higher than when your 12" PowerBook turns it's fans on. Maybe the difference in sizes, IDK.

DarkSel said:

How about your GPU temperatures?

I just did some more tests, and it seems that fans only power on once the GPU temperature reaches 55 C. The CPU temperature is at a constant 50 C, even when fans aren't running.

Click to expand...

How would I test that? The temps I am getting are from iStat and the only sensors I have are CPU, Power supply and hard drive.

Graphics processor bottomside temp of my iBook is now around 55C and I am only surfing the web. However, the only audible thing at the moment is the hard disk as it keeps this constant "hissing" and disk access noises as it does when it's on. Processor bottomside is around 50C. My iBook has Radeon 9550, I don't know whether or not that is normal temp for it.

DarkSel said:

I've been using this tool: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/12381/temperature-monitor

It's able to display both CPU and GPU temperatures.

Click to expand...

Oh, ok. I have that already. GPU is at 127ºF.

Just to clarify. At the time I grabbed that GPU temp my CPU was at 134º and the fan had been on for a bit. Temps were decreasing. I was web browsing at the time.

Only once in the 3 and a half years I've had this PowerBook have I ever heard the second fan kick in. That was a hot environment with poor air flow so I was above 145º (CPU) at the time. Most of the time I only hear one fan. Unfortunately, that seems to be quite often it's on as apps tend to tax my processor a bit (I have a failed external cache, so the load gets dumped on the CPU).

Hi,
this is an old conversation, but I had some trouble too with my PB-G4 12" and the fan nearly constantly running.
After I've found some good advice here at MR PPC-Forum I replaced thermal-paste and pads but it didn't take any effect on the persistantly running fan.
Using "Hardwaremonitor" and "G4FanControl" I finally found out the threshold-settings of the new mSata were causing the fan to run constantly since mSata-drives rund on higher temperature the mechanical drives. After changing the threshold-settings of the "disk"drive to 58°C the system runs stable on a constant but high level of temperature.
Actually the heat coming from the mSata is close to critical for heat-conduction within the compact construction of the 12" PowerBookG4.
Even "G4FanControl" has been a bit pricy it has been the solution to solve my fan-problem.

My current temperatures (thresholds):
CPU: 56°C (65°C)
GPU: 64° (94°C)
mSATA: 56° (60°)
(running WebKit, Mail, FanControl, Hardwaremonitor)

The GPU has the highest temperature sitting close to the mSATA with poor connection to the heatsink just in the middle of the Powerbook which feels really warm (according to the temperatures above) even if it's sitting on an aluminium leap-stand. (Good for writers sitting in cold rooms to prevent stiff fingers... )

Your comment about mSATA drives and heat is really interesting. For the short time I used a mSATA drive in my PB12 last summer, I noticed that it was getting stupidly hot under the palm rest. I was having real heat issues so eventually swapped it out for a 7200 drive. Close inspection of the GPU pad showed that there was only 25% contact between the pad and the heatsink so I replaced it with a very carefully positioned copper shim. The change in drive and heatsink work really brought the temps down. It's a little slower without the SSD but plenty usable. I concluded that the thermal dynamics of that mac just weren't suited to a SSD.

bobesch said:

Even "G4FanControl" has been a bit pricy it has been the solution to solve my fan-problem.

My current temperatures (thresholds):
CPU: 56°C (65°C)
GPU: 64° (94°C)
mSATA: 56° (60°)

Click to expand...

Very interesting to see that your mSATA temp is reported. After installing a mSATA (and adapter) in my PowerBook yesterday istat menus no longer has an option for HD temp . Maybe I should take a look at "Hardwaremonitor" to see what it offers. I should add that my system is also lacking a GPU reading.

UPDATE: Seems that my mSATA adapter doesn't support temp monitoring because it's not present in "Hardware monitor".

Hack5190 said:

Very interesting to see that your mSATA temp is reported. After installing a mSATA (and adapter) in my PowerBook yesterday istat menus no longer has an option for HD temp . Maybe I should take a look at "Hardwaremonitor" to see what it offers. I should add that my system is also lacking a GPU reading.

UPDATE: Seems that my mSATA adapter doesn't support temp monitoring because it's not present in "Hardware monitor".

Click to expand...

I use this model: "DELOCK Konverter IDE 44 Pin > mSATA 2.5Z 7 mm Bauh" only because I'm a novice to that mSATA-mod and this Konverter was said to often bought with the mSATA and because it mostly got five-star-reviews.

SecretSquirrel said:

Your comment about mSATA drives and heat is really interesting. For the short time I used a mSATA drive in my PB12 last summer, I noticed that it was getting stupidly hot under the palm rest. I was having real heat issues so eventually swapped it out for a 7200 drive. Close inspection of the GPU pad showed that there was only 25% contact between the pad and the heatsink so I replaced it with a very carefully positioned copper shim. The change in drive and heatsink work really brought the temps down. It's a little slower without the SSD but plenty usable. I concluded that the thermal dynamics of that mac just weren't suited to a SSD.

Click to expand...

Your problem with the high temperature under the palm-rest has been obviously the same as mine and related to the temperature coming from the mSATA. Due to the aluminium case the heat find its way out of the PowerBook, but it's essential to have some "air" below the Book. I mainly place mine onto an aluminium LeapStand - the same I use for my MBP since 2009. Got a couple of them for low money over the years. For heavy work I sometimes use a big ice-pack.
I also thought about a copper-plate to connect GPU and heat-sink but sticked with some new thermal pads. If the GPU would be able to sent more heat to the heatsink, I don't now if this might have negative impact to the CPU. Finally the heatsink is meant to have best effect im combination with the fan which I like to avoid running.
So I'm quite happy there is a kind of steady state at about 55-65°C for CPU and GPU on heavy workload. Taking into account reducing the drive's temperature from now 50°C to 30° both GPU and CPU would have a temperature at about 45-50°. At what temperature you drive/GPU/CPU runs just now?
Currently I don't want to give up the mSATA's speed, even if temperature seems to be a bit mismatched to the small 12" PowerbookG4.
I've placed the temperature-display of "HardwareMonitor" down to the lower right corner of the screen to get constant information about my "SteamBook"

bobesch said:

Your problem with the high temperature under the palm-rest has been obviously the same as mine and related to the temperature coming from the mSATA.

Click to expand...

Part of the problem is that msata runs on 3.3v and the pata connector supplies 5v. Some converter boards just have a linear regulator that drops the voltage like a resistor and turns the difference into heat, and others have a little buck converter that's a little more efficient about the conversion. My next project is to run a wire from the the powerbook DC board to supply the msata drive with 3.3v directly from that. Seems like that should help when on battery, and should help with heat too. Bunnspecial has been talking about sending me a spare 12" logic board that I could use to try this out. I'll post my results when I have something to report.

Also, I've done the copper spacer over the GPU on my 12" powerbook too, and it helps with the GPU temperature, but does raise the CPU temp as well when doing GPU stuff. They share the same heatsink after all. It dropped the GPU temperature when playing Halo from ~75 to 66 and raised the CPU from 55 to 59.

At what temperature you drive/GPU/CPU runs just now?
View attachment 618347

Click to expand...

Just browsing with TFF right now and the temps are: CPU - 42°C, GPU - 47°C, HDD - 35°C. Before, with the PB just idling and doing absolutely nothing, the CPU was around 55°C, the GPU floated between 58 and 65°C triggering the fan and the HDD Bottomside (compartment sensor) was also around 60°C. I figured it just wasn't healthy so pulled the SSD out and replaced the thermal pad with the copper shim. The machine as a whole will last longer with it's insides cooler - and it's a lot more comfortable to type on too!

SecretSquirrel said:

Just browsing with TFF right now and the temps are: CPU - 42°C, GPU - 47°C, HDD - 35°C. Before, with the PB just idling and doing absolutely nothing, the CPU was around 55°C, the GPU floated between 58 and 65°C triggering the fan and the HDD Bottomside (compartment sensor) was also around 60°C. I figured it just wasn't healthy so pulled the SSD out and replaced the thermal pad with the copper shim. The machine as a whole will last longer with it's insides cooler - and it's a lot more comfortable to type on too!

Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing this. Shows, how the leap of drive temperature (HDD 35° => mSATA 60° = 25° difference) add to elevated temperature levels of both GPU and CPU (plus additional heat coming from faster data transfer from the mSATA leading to higher workload of GPU/CPU and RAM-chip, which feels really warm too.)
After all I don't think, the additional temperature will reduce lifespan of the 'SteamBook', even if it nearly leaves our very limited 'comfort-zone'...
Finally the alu-body does manage to conduct the temp out of of the case without using the fan and temperature comes to a halt at steady state of an acceptable level. (Sending more temp to the heatsink doesn't make sense in my opinion unless one would like to stress the fan - maybe a long copper-pipe to the area above optical drive / below right half of the keyboard would make sense ...

Hmm - adding more metalwork in the drive area will also interfere with the natural airflow through the machine. For it to be effective you'd need to have contact between the SSD chips and the copper plate. You're really talking about installing a second heatsink. It really comes down to weighing the benefits and risks to justify that kind of work...

SecretSquirrel said:

Hmm - adding more metalwork in the drive area will also interfere with the natural airflow through the machine. For it to be effective you'd need to have contact between the SSD chips and the copper plate. You're really talking about installing a second heatsink. It really comes down to weighing the benefits and risks to justify that kind of work...

Click to expand...

No rocket-science...
The mSATA lies upside down direction to the bottom of the alu-case. So it's 'heatsink" is the bottom.
The mSATA-ide-adapter lies above the mSATA and a copper-plate could be easily fixed with a
thermal-pad.
Then you have to connect this copper-plate above the mSATA via flattened copper-pipe to a second thinner and wider one lying on the optical-drive. But maybe just convection of air will do a better job ...

The fan on my 12" has been getting a bit noisy lately. This evening I shifted it on my lap and the noise got significantly worse and wouldn't settle down. So, I finally took the time to remove the cover and oil the fan. Now it's back to nice and quiet. I should've done it much sooner. The only tricky part is I left it on the whole time Not too bad, just had to be careful not to drop a screw into the works.

uptime
20:51 up 418 days, 14:15, 6 users, load averages: 0.75 0.88 1.11

Oh, and the max temps dropped a couple degrees, so I guess I'm getting a little more speed out of the fan.

flyrod said:

The only tricky part is I left it on the whole time

Click to expand...

Let me get this straight - you had the 'Book opened and turned on and then oiled the fan? Wow, I'd never try that
I prefer removing the fan and building a custom powersource for it, using a 9V block battery. Spares me the danger of oiling something that should never ever be oiled

That is correct--open heart surgery. It's not that different than running a logic board spread out on a table. I'm not recommending it, just saying that it can be done. Fortunately the 12" fan is accessible with the keyboard and top cover removed. To actually replace the fan the whole thing basically needs to be gutted.