Why is my PowerBook getting hot while it's asleep? HELP!

Hi, I don't know what the heck is going on, but lately I've been putting my PowerBook G4 to sleep only to come back an hour later to find it mad hot (and I mean HOT!--the fan is running, too), and it won't wake up or respond to any sequence of buttons. I have to wait for the fan to shut off, and then finally I can press [ctrl+cmd+power] and it reboots. It will not just wake up after it cools off. I find this happens regardless of whether I select SLEEP from the Apple menu, or if I just close the lid.

My PB is also setup to log me out after an hour of inactivity, and I find that if I leave it to log-out automatically (like when I listen to iTunes when I go to bed), it also gets hot. I noticed this because I woke up in the middle of the night once from the fan turning on (the PB should have logged out, and then put itself to sleep).

So, is there anyone else experiencing this problem? What's wrong? It's only been happening over the last 2-3 months, and I've had it since September '03.

Oh, and the specs are:

Al PowerBook G4 15', 1.25GHz, 512MB RAM, MacOS 10.3.3, all the latest updates have been installed.

Thanks in advance

Ozi said:

are there any programs running whilst it is sitting there? If you have "folding" or SETI@home running, both these programs can lead to a huge amount of CPU activity and subsequent heat.

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No, I have nothing running except iTunes, and maybe Safari. But even so, the computer does log me out after an hour of not typing or moving the mouse. Plus, it gets hot even when I put it to sleep manually (w/o waiting for Energy Saver to do so), which, in principle at least, should halt any major CPU activity. It's bizarre.

Ozi said:

yeah its a sick puppy. have you tried putting it to sleep, and then placing it in your freezer? no? well try it. Problem solved.

Im here to help.

~ozi

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Very Funny! I actually considered getting one of those bean bags that you put in the freezer and it stays cold for several hours underneath the powerbook. In all seriousness though, I did reset the PRAM and the PMU, according to the instructions on Apple's support site. So I will have to wait and see if that helps. I also noticed that the Scheduling function in Energy Saver is not working at all. It won't wake the computer or put it to sleep (or shut it down) at the times I specify. It just does nothing, as if I hadn't set it at all. I've also noticed in the discussion forums on Apple's website of people having somewhat similar issues with their newer Powerbooks. Many who have the newest 1.5GHz G4's have been complaining of sleep/overheating issues.

Personally, I think it's the 10.3.3 update. I don't recall having this severe a problem before it (before that update, it happened once or twice since September, and under exceptional circumstances). Now, it's happening anytime that I don't first log-out manually, and then put the computer to sleep from the log-in screen.

Obviously, if it doesn't disappear I'll be in touch with Apple. That's why I got AppleCare, right?

Thanks again to all....