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PowerBook fans ALWAYS running

ColoJohnBoy

ColoJohnBoy

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 10, 2003
1,129
0
Denver, Colorado
And I'm not doing anything processor intensive, just web browsing and word processing. I've repaired permission, reset PMU, recalibrated the battery... nothing works. Any ideas? Has anyone else had this problem? This sucker isn't even three months old...
 
ColoJohnBoy said:
And I'm not doing anything processor intensive, just web browsing and word processing. I've repaired permission, reset PMU, recalibrated the battery... nothing works. Any ideas? Has anyone else had this problem? This sucker isn't even three months old...
Click to expand...
That's a too bad!
I guesss all you can do is to buy some kind of cooling device.
http://www.hardwarecooling.com/default.php/cPath/33
http://www.pccasegear.com/category142_1.htm
Or if you are lucky, you can have it fixed.
Same has happened all the time with my 2 years old PowerBook 867 MHz. I gave it to an Apple repair centre twice, they changed the logic card, but it didn't help. They couldn't find anything wrong with my computer...
My girlfrined's PB 667 has almost never the fans running.
Anyway, I'm selling it when my iMac arrives.
 
Open up Activity Monitor and check what process is using up CPU cycles. Most likely it's a program that has hung and eating up resources.
 
This happened to me, the fan would NOT shut off on my Rev D PB. So, after doing a whole bunch of stuff that got me no where, I did what should logically be done. I reset it, and let the computer cool off. I started it up about an hour or two later and all was good. However, if that does not work, I would suggest calling Apple to set up an appt. to get it fixed - a faulty fan is never a good thing...
 
I think I fixed it (though only time will tell). It looks like Virex was the problem. Something called 'vshieldcheck' was eating up 75%-95% of the processor! I deleted every minute aspect of the program I could find, shut down, let it cool, restarted, and so far it's fine. Is this why Apple dropped it as a feature of .Mac?
 
Yeah, my nearly four year old Tibook with newish 40gig 5400rpm travelstar hard drive never runs its fan anymore. In fact, the only time I have heard it go on in the past six months is today, when I put a CD in the drive and forgot it was there. Not sure why this triggered the fan but I guess it was hotter. The fan ran a lot more with the stock 10 gig 4200rpm Fujitstu drive -- this could be a hd issue? Honestly, my machine is so quiet you don't know it is on and it is on most of the day.
 
ColoJohnBoy said:
I think I fixed it (though only time will tell). It looks like Virex was the problem. Something called 'vshieldcheck' was eating up 75%-95% of the processor! I deleted every minute aspect of the program I could find, shut down, let it cool, restarted, and so far it's fine. Is this why Apple dropped it as a feature of .Mac?
Click to expand...

yeah, apple probably dropped virex because it isn't really compatible with Tiger (you have tiger, no?). lots of powerbook users had the same problem as you, and it was usually caused by virex.
 
This thread has got me wondering, I've had my Rev D powerbook a few months now and although it's very quiet it's not silent by any stretch. Whenever it's on there is a quite sort of rushing/breathy noise which I guess is the fan operating at a slow speed. Also whenever I actually start doing something with it the noise increases a bit, I think it's when the harddrive spins up.

It's never very noisy, certainly nothing like some pc laptops I've heard when their fans come on, but this talk of silent pb's has me wondering. I can't say I've ever noticed much change in the fan noise other than that described above, it doesn't seem to get noisier when the laptop gets warm on the bottom. The fan noise is loud enough to come through when recording via the internal mic but then that seems reasonable I think?

So, does this sound normal to you guys?

If not do you think that it is caused by only ever putting the book to sleep not actually turning it off?

Oh and by the way, I'm still running Panther (without virex)
 
ColoJohnBoy said:
I think I fixed it (though only time will tell). It looks like Virex was the problem. Something called 'vshieldcheck' was eating up 75%-95% of the processor! I deleted every minute aspect of the program I could find, shut down, let it cool, restarted, and so far it's fine. Is this why Apple dropped it as a feature of .Mac?
Click to expand...

checking for viruses...
on a mac....

what a waste of CPU time!
 
JonMaker said:
checking for viruses...
on a mac....

what a waste of CPU time!
Click to expand...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. :p I suppose I overreacted a few weeks ago when there was talk about a trojan of some sort written for Mac. I'm a bit of a tard, I suppose.

In answer to a previous reply, yes, I almost always keep it on a hard, flat surface, or at least hold it so air is circulating beneath it. So far, since deleting Virex, the PowerBook has been mostly silent.
 
I have a similar problem with my iBook G4, which is a little over a year old. The fan is always on no matter what, and it's not even that hot. I was hoping it would stop once I upgraded to 10.4, but it didn't. It's an annoying, kind of "buzzing" type sound like it's not even running at full power or something.

Activity Monitor shows the most memory-consuming app to be, well, Activity Monitor. :p

So you think my only hope is to send it to Apple?
 
JonMaker said:
checking for viruses...
on a mac....

what a waste of CPU time!
Click to expand...
i doubt you will be saying the same thing in the next year or two as tiger gains in popularity.

the dashboard has opened up every mac to a whole slew of malicious coding, it is the most unsecure aspect of the OS, it is a shame apple didn't bother to think ahead on this one. hopefully they can fix the flaws in a timely manner.
 
i had the exact same problem. i just got a powerbook less than a month ago and my fans were running full blast very often. As soon as i installed Tiger, the problem is now non existent.
 
BrianKonarsMac said:
i doubt you will be saying the same thing in the next year or two as tiger gains in popularity.

the dashboard has opened up every mac to a whole slew of malicious coding, it is the most unsecure aspect of the OS, it is a shame apple didn't bother to think ahead on this one. hopefully they can fix the flaws in a timely manner.
Click to expand...
I'm not too concerned about the dashboard. I have no intention of downloading any widgets excepting those provided on Apple's website. Beyond that, you should track down the article talking about Macs and viruses, and why, because of the UNIX base and the structure of the OS Macs are effectively impervious to viruses and trojans. :)

If I do need virus software ever, it sure as hell won't be Virex.
 
zudo said:
This thread has got me wondering, I've had my Rev D powerbook a few months now and although it's very quiet it's not silent by any stretch. Whenever it's on there is a quite sort of rushing/breathy noise which I guess is the fan operating at a slow speed. Also whenever I actually start doing something with it the noise increases a bit, I think it's when the harddrive spins up.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's your fan--rather, it's probably just HD spin noise (I noticed the same thing, and just figured that the faster drive speed means a bit more 'white' noise than the older, slower drives). So it's normal (or rather, not unheard of).
 
PowerBook fans ALWAYS running

I'm a PowerBook fan - I don't have one yet, I just like them, and I run for atleast five miles everyday.
 
Kushiro said:
I don't think it's your fan--rather, it's probably just HD spin noise (I noticed the same thing, and just figured that the faster drive speed means a bit more 'white' noise than the older, slower drives). So it's normal (or rather, not unheard of).
Click to expand...

Cheers Kushiro, good to know I'm not the only one hearing this. Was beginning to think something might be wrong with the pbook, or that I have unusually good hearing!
 
ColoJohnBoy said:
I'm not too concerned about the dashboard. I have no intention of downloading any widgets excepting those provided on Apple's website. Beyond that, you should track down the article talking about Macs and viruses, and why, because of the UNIX base and the structure of the OS Macs are effectively impervious to viruses and trojans. :)

If I do need virus software ever, it sure as hell won't be Virex.
Click to expand...
You can have a malicious widget install itself without you having to intentionally do anything except visit a maliciously designed web site or clicking on a malicious link.

But 10.4.1 is suppose to fix this little bug/hole where no widget will auto install itself without asking for permission first.
 
The left section of my 12" PowerBook gets hot, especially the top left, near the display. Also the hinge of the screen gets hot, around 135.9º F. But when I first got scared of its high temperature, I discovered I had sort of blocked the back vent, and that was the main reason.
 
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