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Fan won’t stop! – Pre-Intel Quad G5
Hello,
I’ve searched so many message boards about this issue I don’t know what to do anymore…
First off, my machine runs fine. It’s starts up, it’s responsive, it’s not too hot. It wakes from sleep just fine.
I’ve had this computer for over 4 years now and over the past few months I’ve notice the fan running quite a bit more than usual. I didn’t think too much of it but now it just doesn’t spin down at all even when the computer isn’t doing anything. It’s quiet for about 20 seconds when the desktop is building on starting but then the fan kicks in, revs up about 50-60% and just stays there constantly. It revs up even higher if I start multi-tasking but for the most part it stays at this level. And it’s quite loud!
I’ve tried:
resetting the vram
resetting the SMU (PMU)
cleaning the dust from inside – but not where everything is removed and scrubbed down
running AHT which came back with no issues
ran disk utility a few weeks ago with no errorsAny ideas?
Power Mac G5 Quad 2.5 Ghz (11.2) (Pre-Intel)
6.5 GB RAM
OS X 10.4.11
FCP 5.1.4
Episode 5.1.1
DVDSP 4.0.3— experience is tough teacher
she gives the test first
and the lesson afterwards -
4 Replies
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It’s a pain, but actually remove the video card from the machine and inspect it for dust.
Is it the type of card that has its own fan? I discovered that my video card’s fan exhaust area was clogged with dust in such a way that blowing it out while it was in the machien didn’t help. I had to actually take the card out and pull the dust out of there with my fingers.
That was causing the video card to overheat which, in turn, caused the computer to run its fans all the time.
Look at this blog…that’s the same card I have:
https://blog.hyperjeff.net/?p=147
That fuzzy grey dust looked like plastic until I got the card out into the light and realized it wasn’t plastic! Scary stuff. Check your card to make sure it’s not something similar.
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Thank for this… I’m going to dig in there tonight and see what’s up. I’ll let you know what I find.
Thanks again!Power Mac G5 Quad 2.5 Ghz (11.2) (Pre-Intel)
6.5 GB RAM
OS X 10.4.11
FCP 5.1.4
Episode 5.1.1
DVDSP 4.0.3— experience is tough teacher
she gives the test first
and the lesson afterwards -
Hi there,
So we did a thorough cleaning of the inside and the fans still won’t spin down!
Is it bad for me to try re-setting the SMU AGAIN? I used a retractable pencil eraser and I’m wondering if the eraser retracted instead of pushing the button. Is it ok to push the button more than once?
Power Mac G5 Quad 2.5 Ghz (11.2) (Pre-Intel)
6.5 GB RAM
OS X 10.4.11
FCP 5.1.4
Episode 5.1.1
DVDSP 4.0.3— experience is tough teacher
she gives the test first
and the lesson afterwards -
Did you reset the PRAM yet?
https://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n2238
If that doesn’t work then you may need to call Apple (or a 3rd party repair company near you) and talk to them. Before you do that, download this widget:
https://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/status/istatpro.html
Flip the widget over to the settings on the back and turn on all the fan and temperature views. That way you’ll have an easy way of telling them on the phone what the fan speeds are and the computer temperatures are.
At this point we don’t even know if the problem is that the fans are running too fast for no reason or if the fans work but the computer is over-heating for some reason.
By talking to an expert you’ll hopefully be able to learn which problem you have and then they should be able to suggest what to do from there.
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