01-07-2004, 11:13 AM

A friend came round last night sporting his new 15" aluminium powerbook. I am planning to buy one soon and was glad of the live preview. I have to say that it is a very sexy machine. But he said it was noisy as he turned it on. Although I didn't think it was that noisy, it seemed that there was a fan running and it was making a bit of noise. I pointed out that an equivalent pee cee would probably sound like an aircraft in comparison.

I was just wondering what the deal is with fan in the 15" albook. I was under the impression (wrongly apparently) that there was no fan, the aluminium casing drew the heat away from the chips more efficiently and therefore it was quiet as a mouse. Although I wouldn't describe my friends powerbook as really noisy, it was definitely noisier than an ibook and even a titanium pb. :rolleyes:

01-07-2004, 01:17 PM

there is a fan, but i've only heard mine turn on once. when the fan is off, mine is virtually noiseless.

01-07-2004, 01:27 PM

I have the Ti powerbook. Whenever I do some thing compute intense, the fan kicks in. I hear it a lot working with video editting.

I believe that all of the iBooks and powerbooks have internal fans.

01-07-2004, 02:59 PM

Is it normal for the fan to be running as soon as it is switched on?

01-07-2004, 03:18 PM

Since I am running Jaguar (Mac OS X 10.2.6), I would say no. I am not sure what it does when running Panther (Mac OS X 10.3.2).

01-07-2004, 05:01 PM

in most computers and laptops there is a fan, which usealy is on low speeds, but kicks it into high gear when you are using a lot op cpu power
i seems that with the apple PB alu (i got one too, for about a month now), there is a fan, but is is of, untill the PB gets to hot, then it activates
but, in comparison to regular pc's and notebooks, it's a very quiet one

and idd, the alu frame draws a lot of heat (i could burn my finger on some parts of the frame, because my PB is always on 100 % load = more heat)

i used to have is on a separate pc table, end then the fan kicked in rather often
but now it is on my main desk, wood surface, and the fan almost never kicks in anymore, because the desk seems to drams some of the heat to (quiet convenient :-) )

01-07-2004, 09:47 PM

I just puchased a new 17" Powerbook about a month ago. I have DVD Studio Pro 2 and Final Cut along with Phototshop running at any one given time. I notice the fan every now and again. The video is very taxing on the processor. But don't worry about it. I hardly notice the fan anymore. Load some music into itunes and play it real loud when you hear the fan. lol

I also notice when I am watching video full screen that the fan kickcs in.

I am a first time MAC buyer and very very impressed with what I have bought.

By the way I purchased the Apple care extended warranty for my powerbook. I registered it on-line. I thought I would get confirmation in the snail mail or by e-mail. Has anyone else done it this way and have you recieved any confirmation of registration.

Shawn
Toronto, Canada

01-08-2004, 11:29 AM

Originally Posted by rocknrollvideo

I just puchased a new 17" Powerbook about a month ago. I have DVD Studio Pro 2 and Final Cut along with Phototshop running at any one given time. I notice the fan every now and again. The video is very taxing on the processor. But don't worry about it. I hardly notice the fan anymore. Load some music into itunes and play it real loud when you hear the fan. lol

I also notice when I am watching video full screen that the fan kickcs in.

I am a first time MAC buyer and very very impressed with what I have bought.

By the way I purchased the Apple care extended warranty for my powerbook. I registered it on-line. I thought I would get confirmation in the snail mail or by e-mail. Has anyone else done it this way and have you recieved any confirmation of registration.

Shawn
Toronto, Canada

it takes them a while to get the confirmation of the apple care out to you, but they do mail you a letter basically confirming it.

I have never heard my powerbook's fan come on. Now granted, I have a lot of other noise in my room from my PCs but when i use it outside of my room I never hear it. I can normally feel the fan running because of where i use the mouse is right next to my side exhaust vent. Just for reference, I have a Titanium running panther.

01-11-2004, 10:01 PM

correct me if im wrong but doesn the 17 Al book have 2 fans ?
i have the 17 myself and i'll agree to the fact of heat the case puts off to the point of wanting to flip it over sometime and cook eggs and bacon...but that might get messy
i dont notice my fan kick in that much anymore...its one of those things unless your looking to hear for it..you dont..

i your largly concerned about the heat/noise there are external usb fans i have seen or and cooled base for the book to sit on ( even seen a nifty liquid cooled base )

01-11-2004, 10:20 PM

ohhhh yea the powerbooks from before sept 2003 are great furnaces. its about 10 degrees where I am now and i love sitting in bed with my powerbook on my lap for a few hours to warm me up.

When i had my pee cee i had to turn it off at night because it was too loud to sleep with. With my powerbook it is on about 6 feet from my bed and i hardly notice it

01-12-2004, 03:25 AM

Originally Posted by trpnmonkey41

ohhhh yea the powerbooks from before sept 2003 are great furnaces. its about 10 degrees where I am now and i love sitting in bed with my powerbook on my lap for a few hours to warm me up.

When i had my pee cee i had to turn it off at night because it was too loud to sleep with. With my powerbook it is on about 6 feet from my bed and i hardly notice it

same over here
my pc had 5 fans in it, even with all of them at only 5 V (standard is 12 V) i couldn't leave it on at night, now, de PB 15 = silent
it's been on now for almost 3 full days and night, not disturbing me in my sleep at all
loving it

01-13-2004, 01:36 AM

ive had my PB 15 for almost a week now and i havnet heard anything from it, besides the obvious, loading of a cd and whent he hd has to load crap :-)

01-22-2004, 02:39 PM

I own the first Powerbook G3, 1997, upgraded to 9.1 lately.
I can't get in, and I don't remember changing the password (to
something I couldn't remember).
If anyone can save me paying Apple $50 to tell me how to break
through password security, I would be most grateful.
And please don't hate me for posting this, or send me hate mail. If no one responds, I'll get the point.
later,

01-23-2004, 01:52 PM

Start up with extensions off. (Hold the shift key during start up).

01-26-2004, 05:54 PM

i have a new 15" and only once have i heard the fan in then 4 weeks i have had it. The only noise i hear once in awhile is a high pitched beep/ringing sound, and im still not sure what it is..but it seems to have stopped. As for sleeping with it, doesnt make any more noise than my pet rock...and its kinda relaxing to watch the little white light in front