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Controling fans, cpu heat and Mac fan noise
Hell there,
We’re running a couple of G5 quad core macs at work, and they’re getting on a bit now. There’s quite a lot of fan noise even during the most menial tasks. They haven’t messed up once during the 2-3 years we’ve had them but I’m getting worried about overheating now.
We do some fairly intense AE work, requiring overnight renders etc, and there’s always alot of fan noise when we do this – it’s expected. But as I say, there has been more recently.
Basically, I’m just wondering if anyone has had any experience of a mac freaking out or blowing up mid-render. Will the CPU shut down if it gets too hot, doing no damage to the machine itself?
Thanks…
NJ
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7 Replies
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First ting that I’d do under those circumstances is to make sure that all those holes on the font and back panels are wiped off and that all the holes are free to breathe and circulate air. Most times I have heard of this, the holes are plugged with dust and don’t allow circulation.
Next up, download and install the shareware application smcFanControl found at
https://homepage.mac.com/holtmann/eidac/READ THE INSTRUCTIONS.
Installing this will allow you to better control the fan speeds and watch the inner core temperatures. It will also show you your temp and fan speeds so you can keep your machines from burning up.
When you have installed it, it will show up in the upper right corner of your screen as seen here…
I use this on our machines and it has saved my machines more than a few times when the machine temperatures rose so high that they’d have died had I not seen how hot they were getting.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronlindeboom
Publisher, Creative COW Magazine
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Glorious, I’ll check it out now.
So how hot is too hot?
many thanks,
NJ
Nico J BB
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I try to keep my units at 90 degrees or thereabouts. I keep mine a little below that. When they start getting to 100 or above, you need to be aware that something is up. When they get to 120 then you need to start panicking, as from my experience they will shortly be dieing an ugly death.
But use these tools at your own risk, as I assume no responsibility for anyone using this tool. It is what I use but I also use it at my risk and the author does not guarantee anything and it is not authorized by Apple, nor do they endorse the product in any way whatsoever. But I have been using it for well over a year and it has saved me on a few occasions when Summer heat plus intense working conditions would have cooked my machine.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronlindeboom
Publisher, Creative COW Magazine
Join the COW’s LinkedIn Group
Now in the COW Magazine: Commercials. A look at the history, strategy, techniques and production workflows of successful commercials. All brought to you by some of the COW’s brightest members. Accept no substitutes!Would you like to be in Creative COW Magazine with your story or contribution? Contact me.
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i think smcfancontrol is only for intel macs… i had tried to find something similar for a g5, but could not find anything that gave me fan control. there are some that will report the temperature, which is useful. i can’t remember the name, but google ‘mac’ temperature’ and you’ll find some….
your mac should go into sleep mode or possibly super-fan-blow mode if it senses overheating problems. i’m not sure of the exact cpu temp, but i’ve seen one go into a forced sleep mode consistently around 185 F.
cleaning the dust out, as ron mentioned, is good practice. you might also open them up and used compressed air to clean the fans off (including the gpu fan) and blow any other dust out.
g5’s run hot when under load, it’s part of the reason apple mad the switch to intel. i’d only get concerned about the fans blowing ir they start making an unusual noise, that can often mean that a fan may fail, and that would be problematic, but easy to fix or replace.
Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW -
Interesting. Very interesting…
My conclusion – I want a new mac!
Thanks again for the help…
Nico J BB
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I am sorry to have forgotten that this is indeed an Intel Mac-only bit of software.
“Ooops,” he said rather reddishly revealing his embarrassment.
🙂
That’s what I get for responding before I’ve had my morning coffee.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronlindeboom
Publisher, Creative COW Magazine
Join the COW’s LinkedIn Group
Now in the COW Magazine: Commercials. A look at the history, strategy, techniques and production workflows of successful commercials. All brought to you by some of the COW’s brightest members. Accept no substitutes!Would you like to be in Creative COW Magazine with your story or contribution? Contact me.
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I had this issue with G5 quad.
The way to solve it is to clean the waterblock. This is quite a long task, as you have to unmounted CPU(s) and coollant liquid systems, and you will probably need to modify the pipes, else it will be very difficult to fill the system after you have clean the waterblock.Régis
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