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PowerBook/iBook G4 owners: How hot does your machine run?

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Apr 19, 2014
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I'm currently getting CPU temps of about 47C and GPU temps ranging from 45-61C. The GPU temp increases steadily when the CPU frequency is increased before topping out at around 60, but the CPU temp stays more or less at 47. If I have the apmd power management daemon running, the GPU seems to stay at about 50 or under, so the fan might not be kicking in when it should without apmd.

I know these computers get hot, but I'm curious as to how much heat is normal. I'm thinking that I may have to reapply thermal paste, though that's probably a good idea anyway since that paste is about 8 years old.
 
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That heat is normal. They can get even hotter than that and still be within allowed limits.
 
I think those are normal temps or atleast nothing to worry about in general, but what machine model are talking about? Temperatures depend greatly on what's inside the machine...

EDIT: OK, I assume it is that 12", didn't read your signature at first. I think it has Nvidia FX5200 ?
 
556fmjoe said:
I'm currently getting CPU temps of about 47C and GPU temps ranging from 45-61C. The GPU temp increases steadily when the CPU frequency is increased before topping out at around 60, but the CPU temp stays more or less at 47. If I have the apmd power management daemon running, the GPU seems to stay at about 50 or under, so the GPU fan might not be kicking in when it should without apmd.

I know these computers get hot, but I'm curious as to how much heat is normal. I'm thinking that I may have to reapply thermal paste, though that's probably a good idea anyway since that paste is about 8 years old.
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Thats... really low.
 
I have the same 12" 1.5 that you do. Mine is almost identical to you as far as temps for the CPU and GPU while running Leopard. I think you're safe.
 
Thanks for the replies. I think the aluminum case makes it seem as if it's running hotter than it really is.
 
556fmjoe said:
Thanks for the replies. I think the aluminum case makes it seem as if it's running hotter than it really is.
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I was always under the impression (I think from an old interview or design video) that this was by design. The aluminum housing acts as a heatsink of sort, hence why Apple doesn't call them laptops and recommends against using them on anything that isn't a flat hard surface. The aluminum dissipates the heat, if you block that it can build up hotspots and/or overheat the Mac.
 
Mr Rabbit said:
I was always under the impression (I think from an old interview or design video) that this was by design. The aluminum housing acts as a heatsink of sort, hence why Apple doesn't call them laptops and recommends against using them on anything that isn't a flat hard surface. The aluminum dissipates the heat, if you block that it can build up hotspots and/or overheat the Mac.
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This is how I've understood it too. I think since the TiBooks they have done this, and Apple still does this with their newer machines. This could also be the reason the plastic MacBook was discontinued.

I know the bottom of my G4 PowerBooks (2x 1.5GHz 12" and 2x 1.67GHz 15") all get warm with normal usage. Doing anything intensive on the Early 2005 15" like browsing YouTube or other sites causes the fans to kick on and the bottom to get hot.
 
My Powerbook G4 get hot if it runs time machine, video streaming or permission repair. Together emails business, is the only work I doing with it after putting on retirement :)
Anyway it still working good since 2005!!!
 
128keaton said:
Thats... really low.
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I agree. I've had two of those same machines. A beautiful piece of engineering in all aspects except thermal. One regularly went past 85 C, the other one goes past 60 C as well. If you regularly (twice a year) push some compressed air into the intakes, you should be fine.

RGDS,
 
Mr Rabbit said:
I was always under the impression (I think from an old interview or design video) that this was by design. The aluminum housing acts as a heatsink of sort, hence why Apple doesn't call them laptops and recommends against using them on anything that isn't a flat hard surface. The aluminum dissipates the heat, if you block that it can build up hotspots and/or overheat the Mac.
Click to expand...

Heatsink is the right answer. Apple informed me upon my first TiBook purchase this was why they are not called "laptops". They also recommended flat surfaces and that I maintain the rubber feet on the bottom of the casing because that was "designed for airflow under the Ti powerbook" for cooling.
 
I removed the old thermal pad from the CPU yesterday and replaced it with some fresh thermal paste. The CPU now runs 4 C cooler at full speed than it did before. The pad was in pretty poor shape, so who knows how long it was on there. The fan was surprisingly clean though for a 9 year old computer.
 
Mine stays below 45 for cpu and 50 for gpu for most tasks.

I replaced the HDD with an mini SSD and decreased temperatures dramatically. I don't usually think of the HDD as making that much heat, but between the smaller SSD and the increased room for airflow it made a huge decrease.
 
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