Overheating???

[Sogni]

It can't be... but...

For the past couple of days I've been having bad kernel crashes that I had originaly blamed on drivers. But after the computer kept crashing after I repartitioned and reinitialized the hard drive that idea went out the window (except for the fact I didn't "write zeros" when I initialized).

It crashed a few more times after the redo, but not as often. The kernel seemed to crash randomly with random kernel errors.

Then I thought to myself... "the last few days have been really pretty danged hot - nah, can't be - can it? Is my G4 Overheatting??? But I thought all the fans would cool it enough to survive SoCal Valley Heat"

Then I moved my big air mover fan into my studio and put it as close to the Mac as possible (can't get a straight shot at the Mac without blowing all my mess of pappers all over the place)... and guess what happened? Or what has NOT happened since?

It hasn't crashed!

But...


I thought the Fans inside the tower where enough to cool it??? Now what do I do? How do I cool it down short of forcing my friend to install an AC in my studio for me?

There IS AC in the building - all the way in the back of the building, I'm at the "front office" some 100 to 200 feet away, past the main large room where the AC is, and past 2 offices (I'm the very last one - or very first one, depending wich side you look at the place from). And I usually have my Air Mover Fan in the hallway pointing in with the door open.

But I also have a large window for a wall with metal blinds (2 heat sources when the sun hits the window). And I am NOT willing to cut up my case! (if it was a PC that's a different story).

Any suggesions to cool down my Mac or/and my studio? :P

Please note, I am pretty durn broke (and so is my friend/boss if you want to call him that) so I can't go out and buy expencive stuff. And breaking the window is not an option! And no i can't be opened.
And moving is not an option either!

Thanks for any help...

- Melting Mac 'n Geek. :P



[RacerX]

You might try leaving the case open a couple inches (if you have it on the left side of the monitor, use the monitor for a rest). This would let enough heat escape to keep your system cool (the rising heat would circulate the air in the case for you).

It may not be the prettiest solution, but it is inexpensive.

[ksv]

Uhm, I recommend you to get an application that shows the temperature of the processor first to confirm that the machine really is overheating, and that the problem isn't anything else. Try to do a search on versiontracker.com/macosx for "cpu temp" or something like that. Powerlogix has a pretty good app to show CPU temp/speed/cache speed/bus speed, but I think it'll crash on G4s faster than 533 MHz by some reason. But I think I saw a dockling once that showed the CPU temp. Eventually, you could boot up in OS 9 and do some testing, there are a lot more cpu diagnosis apps for OS 9, I think.
After you've done some testing, and the processor seems to run too hot (above 50°C is unusually high), you can at leas try to shield the Mac from the sun (put a white t-shirt over it or something ), and see if the temp goes down.
Anyway, if the Mac runs too hot during normal use without overclocking it or modifying the system in any way, something could be wrong with the computer.
If it's not the processor running too hot that is the problem, I'd to a new, fresh install of OS X. Also, if you have additional kernel extensions, daemons, etc. running, I'd try to turn them off.

BTW, I'm not sure if opening the case is a good idea. In an overclocking report on xlr8yourmac.com, I read that his G4 went about 7-8 degrees hotter when he opened it. So, I guess the G4 fan placements and designs are designed perfectly to keep things cold in the best way.

[ElDiabloConCaca]

One thing I noticed:

Have you added any RAM lately? I used to have 640MB of RAM in my machine -- 1x256, 3x128. Well, I decided, since RAM's getting ready to go up in price again that I'd just better go ahead and splurge and max my RAM out right now -- 1GB... 4x256. The chips are 256MB PC100/133 ($60 from Sam's Club -- I've had bad experiences with the cheaper, generic RAM from retailers online). One thing I've noticed is that the 256MB chips are really warm to the touch after running the system for a while, whereas my old 128's barely changed temp. even if the system was left on for days. Since the RAM in my computer sits above the CD drive when the case is closed, there's not a ton of airflow up there.

Also, as per my "bad experiences" with generic RAM, I added some 256MB PC100 chips I bought for $40 or so online from OWComputing.com. I got 4 of them, and with those installed, I was seeing a LOT of kernel panics and application crashes, especially with Microsoft products (bite your tongue, people, Microsoft makes some DAMN good Mac software!). At any rate, after swapping those generic chips out for some decent ones (Simple Tech chips) my kernel panics and crashes disappeared and now OS X is a rock-solid workhorse. Also, my system didn't like having "mixed" RAM in it, meaning that at one point I had RAM from 3 different vendors in there, and it didn't like that too much -- it cost a pretty penny to do this, but I took ALL the RAM out and put in 4 chips from the SAME vendor, and the problems disappeared.

Moral: Check your RAM. It causes more problems than people will like to admit to. Get some decent, good-quality RAM and you'll be VERY happy. If you've got a bunch of chips in there right now, pick two that are from the same vendor and take out the rest, run your system like that for a while, and see what that does for the problems.

[ksv]

Ehemm, are we promoting Microsoft products here?

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Hehe... hell no! I'm just saying that Microsoft Office X is a great $500 RAM-tester. Hehe... what else would you expect from Microsoft?

[simX]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

To quote appleturns.com: "See this? It's a tear and it's coming out of my eye."

Ahhh, that was good. A $500 RAM tester. Oh, geez. You kill me ElDiablo.

[Sogni]

I am in silent shock...

I have not done much testing yet - but it looks like ElDiablo was right...

The sad part about it? It seems to be my 512mb RAM chip.

I pulled all the chips out and one of them was REALLY warm (not sure which one, thought it was the 512 but am unsure now).

It's a "Generic" PC133...

I'm going to do some more testing - I'd hate to lose 512mbs, especially when I don't have money to buy another right now (I was working on getting 512 more dangit!).


ksv , I tried a CPU Temp app but it didn't work - so I think my Mac does not have a CPU Thermo. Damn!
My computer is not in direct sunlight - I try to stay away from sunlight alltogether. :P

testuser I don't have anything additional inside of my Mac other than the RAM which I have reverted back to how it came from ClubMac. I do have external stuff that I did unplug and it still crashed.

ElDiablo, actually I've found that GREAT computer testers are GAMES! We blew up my friend's Power Supply (yeah, weird - huh?) on his PeeCee playing Unreal Tournament (he almost fainted thinking it was his now unreperable VooDoo card! lol)


Thanks all for the help!
I'm soooo relieved that it's not the CPUs (or the computer itself). <whew>

I'm still keeping the Mac well ventilated and as cold as possible - you should see the chain of fans coming from the AC on the other side of the building to my studio! lol