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doug8429
Member
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Posted: Tue Jul 4th, 2006 06:16 am |
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I bought a G4 upgrade for my Pismo last year and am very pleased with it. It has far exceeded my expectations, both in performance, cost and the great service I've received. I'm posting this in the General Apple area, because I don't think this problem is related to the upgrade.
For the past few days, I've noticed that top half my keyboard gets very warm. And at times, it gets so warm that the fan starts up. This has only happened a few times, mainly when I'm doing any compute intensive stuff, like Photoshop, which I've attributed to increased CPU activity. However, it's happening now with very little compute activity. I've even shut down all apps and it still gets very warm.
Today when it did it again, I started touching different parts and discovered that the cover over the display inverter was extremely hot. In fact it was so hot, it was difficult to keep my fingers on it. It happens either with AC power or battery, and as I said, with little or no CPU/disk activity going on.
Any ideas about the cause of this? There are no functional problems caused by this, I'm just concerned about the excessive heat. I have a spare display inverter, but I thought I would post this before I replace it, in case someone else has had this problem.
Thanks in advance,
Doug
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Gary
Administrator
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Posted: Wed Jul 5th, 2006 08:00 pm |
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doug8429 wrote:
...I started touching different parts and discovered that the cover over the display inverter was extremely hot. In fact it was so hot, it was difficult to keep my fingers on it. It happens either with AC power or battery, and as I said, with little or no CPU/disk activity going on...
Hi Doug,
This is very bad... and I don't recommend using the system until fixed. Heat in the inverter area is nomally a short. Most often the short is caused by a cracked hinge, cutting into the cable. As you most likely know... a power/ground short will eventually burnout a circuit.
You can send into Daystar for service or just a free diagnostic via the link below:
http://daystar-store.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=172
____________________
Gary Dailey
Daystar Technology
http://Daystar-Tech.com, http://Daystar-Store.com
email: gary@daystartechnology.com, chat: garydailey@mac.com
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doug8429
Member
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Posted: Sun Jul 9th, 2006 12:44 am |
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Thanks for response Gary. I replaced the display inverter with a spare one that I had. It didn't correct the problem. If was a short/ground problem, wouldn't I be seeing some display problems?
After a little more diagnosis, I think the heat is coming from the CPU. It just happens to radiate up through the top of the keyboard, which are very warm to the touch. If it is the CPU, do you know of any reason why this would start so suddenly? I haven't changed any hardware or settings lately. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but this problem started around the time I updated the OS to 10.4.7 on 6/27. Is it possible that some system software/settings are to blame?
Is there anything I can do to diagnose this? Any MACh Speed Control settings I can change? I'd hate to spend the money to ship it to you, just to find out that I have something set wrong.
Thanks again,
Doug
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Gary
Administrator
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Posted: Sun Jul 9th, 2006 03:03 am |
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Hi Doug,
The CPU heat should not radiate up to the inverter area.. it normally follows the heat pipe out the side. It could be that the heat sink is not sitting straight. Is MAChSpeed control reporting a temp?
Lift the keyboard. The top of the EMI sheild above the CPU to should be hot to touch under heavy loads. But you should be able to hold you and on it. If you have to jerk it away, then yes, you are running hot.
We're updating Pismo upgrades to 10.4.7 everyday... and haven't noticed anything causing additional heat. Spotlight indexing can push a CPU for a day or so, when the Tiger OS's are first installed. 10.4.7 is a major update at the system level, so, it is possible that the OS may be pushing the CPU as it sets up its caches. This is easy to check. Simply open Activity Monitor and monitor the CPU processes. The "Nice" ones are the background processes, which should die back when you are working (but don't... ). These shouldn't last more than a few hours after an initial install. To help them finish sooner, set energy saver and screen saver to "never" and leave your system on overnight.
____________________
Gary Dailey
Daystar Technology
http://Daystar-Tech.com, http://Daystar-Store.com
email: gary@daystartechnology.com, chat: garydailey@mac.com
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doug8429
Member
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Posted: Tue Jul 11th, 2006 11:06 pm |
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Gary,
The MAChSpeed control is reporting a temp, but it's very erratic. It jumps from 12C to 20C to 24C, then back to 20C again. This is at the same time the EMI shield is too hot to touch, so I'm not sure how accurate the temp reading is. In fact, since the EMI shield is too hot to touch, I would think the temp should show a much higher value anyway.
I've checked the Activity Monitor and the top CPU process is the Activity monitor itself, running at ~5%.
Very puzzling...
Doug
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daystar
Administrator
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Posted: Wed Jul 12th, 2006 02:50 am |
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doug8429 wrote:
Gary,
The MAChSpeed control is reporting a temp, but it's very erratic. It jumps from 12C to 20C to 24C, then back to 20C again.
Hi Doug, the temp being reported by the CPU is buggy (from Motorola/Freescale). We've found that it will report in factors.
When reporting 20 to 24c, 26-28c is hot.
When reporting from 10 to 14c, 16-18c is hot.
When reporting 40-60c, it is accurate, and 70 and above is hot.
Based on that info, it sounds like the temp is actually in spec., The EMI should be hot, but not too hot to touch, and only hot under load. Theh card could have a short of some type, or a bad connection that has loosened over time causing extra heat. The repair would fall under our extended warranty (which is 50% off labor, 10% off of parts).
You can send in via the link below:
http://daystar-store.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=172
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