Temp reading off? Could this be why my fan goes constantly???

[jinotega]

I have a 1.83gh MacBook. It had the mooing problem, and it was so hot I had to use multiple magazines between my legs and the computer all the time. I ran the patch as soon as it came out, and everything was fixed. I never checked my temp during that time, so I don't have anything to compare.

About three days ago my fan started running constantly, but the computer is never hot. It's very annoying and loud.

Today I installed CoreDuoTemp and it's been between 69-73C/~160F the entire time, running just Firefox. There is no way this thing can be 160F right now. It's not even really hot, just warm. The air blowing out the keyboard is cool.

So, my theory is that the temp sensor is off by so much that it thinks the fans needs to run all the time. Could this be possible? Or is it something else? I don't have an apple store nearby, and I'd like to know more about this before I go to the tech at the repair shop.

 

[matttrick]

it isnt reading your notebook's temperature. it is reading the cpu temperature. that doesnt include the hdd or anything else.

 

[joebells]

firefox can use a fair portion of the cpu also if you've got some flash pages open. And yeah that temp is the cpu temp the fans are on to keep it form going higher of course. When I run firefox I install flashblock it blocks flash content from showing and puts a little placeholder in its place. If I really want to see the content I just click on the placeholder and it appears. Flash really takes alot of cpu for some reason. Install flashblock and then exit firefox and restart it and I bet it will help at least some.

Or if anything at least open up activity monitor and see what processes are taking up your cpu, see if it is firefox.

 

[jinotega]

My point was the before the patch, my macbook would get much much hotter before the mooing began.

This morning the fan started running after being on for less than 3 minutes - after being off for the entire night.

My CPU usage is around 50-55% with just firefox running. I've usually got firefox, word, excel, iphoto, preview, and calander open all at the same time. I don't have much open in dashboard.

My temp right now is 69C with a 50-55% CPU usage and the computer's been on for less than 15 minutes.

15 minutes later: I've turned on everything, and my CPU never got above 60% until I watched a video on YouTube, when it went up to 70-80%. Temp stayed the same. Fan stayed on.