Powerbook suddenly running hot

[Ish]

I have a 1.67 GHz Powerbook that is just over a year old. I'm running 10.4.5. Occasionally the Powerbook has run quite hot for a day or two then settled down again. It was one of the ones that had the replacement battery under the recall programme, though I've never had a problem with either.

It had had a long period of running quite cool when I took it back about a month ago for a replacement mother board. It was fine still when it came back; the only thing I did between it being cool and being hot was shortly afterwards to completely discharge the battery and charge it up again. The heat is concentrated at the back of the powerbook and the fan/s are constantly on. The only thing I've downloaded recently is Audio Recorder 3.0 but think this problem precedes that. I've repaired permissions since the download but am not a techie so not sure what to do next. Any suggestions please?

 

[AlBDamned]

I have a 1.67 GHz Powerbook that is just over a year old. I'm running 10.4.5. Occasionally the Powerbook has run quite hot for a day or two then settled down again. It was one of the ones that had the replacement battery under the recall programme, though I've never had a problem with either.

It had had a long period of running quite cool when I took it back about a month ago for a replacement mother board. It was fine still when it came back; the only thing I did between it being cool and being hot was shortly afterwards to completely discharge the battery and charge it up again. The heat is concentrated at the back of the powerbook and the fan/s are constantly on. The only thing I've downloaded recently is Audio Recorder 3.0 but think this problem precedes that. I've repaired permissions since the download but am not a techie so not sure what to do next. Any suggestions please?

Have you checked your RAM status? Running hot can sometimes be related to the lower slot frying problem.

 

[Ish]

Thanks for the suggestion. I haven't added any extra RAM. I did have the problem of the lower RAM slot frying some time ago and the RAM was moved into the upper slot as a temporary repair. About a month ago it was repaired properly when the mother board was replaced. Although I do have Applecare it was one of those faults with a free repair for this batch. What is it with this batch?? Was it a bunch of Friday computers?

Looking at the Apple support site, it seems there are others with powerbooks of a similar age with the same problem but haven't noticed a solution. I ran activity monitor while it was hot a few minutes ago and Mail was using about 80% of the CPU. After turning it off it settled down again. Mail is running okay at the moment. The powerbook does run more slowly when it's hot with the fans running so maybe its some app running amok in there.

 

[mad jew]

Sounds like you found the culprit. Now, I wonder how Mail managed to start taking up so many CPU cycles. You say Mail is running okay at the moment, what sort of CPU percentage does it have?

 

[Ish]

Almost nothing at the moment and only about 7% when I 'get mail'. Strange, because I've tried restarting the computer before and it didn't get any better. It's a bank holiday today and I'm not using the computer much at the moment but I'll give it a run through tomorrow then I should know. Maybe (hopefully!) it's like one of those ailments you get for ages then mysteriously disappears by the time you get an appointment with the doctor.

I'll post back tomorrow when I know how things are going. Thanks.

 

[Ish]

Everything's running smoothly now. Thanks for the help.