New Mac Owner - Noisy Fans

[Surfside]

I am putting my neck out on this one. I have not read ALL of the forums on this site, so I realize that I could be posting this in the wrong section.

I just bought my first Mac today - I have been waiting for this day for a LONG time! I am very excited, but I bought a used machine, and I think I might be having an issue that I hope is out of the ordinary (meaning it should be & can be fixed). If you have to ask me questions to help me find the solution, please understand that I am having a hard time finding much of anything on this machine right now, so you might have to give me some directions.

Here is the issue: When I open Safari to check email, open Pandora or other things, the fan gets pretty loud! Then when it is not streaming music or downloading something, it will quiet down again. I plan to vacuum out (and/or used the compressed cans of air) the fans on the back of the tower, but I don't know if there is a setting or something that can be changed that will stop it. The machine is 6-7 years old, so I don't know if something needs to be replaced. The guy I bought it from wiped the drives and got the system back to the original configuration out-of-the-box, so I had to create an account before I could open anything. As a result, I expected that I was going to get a pretty pain-free machine, but this fan issue is already getting annoying.

If I have to take it in to someone I will, but I am hoping that this is something that I can fix myself.

Although my system specs are in my profile, I expect that I haven't given you enough information to pin-point a possible cause/solution, so let me know what other info you may need. I appreciate any help I can get.

 

[pigoo3]

Here is the issue: When I open Safari to check email, open Pandora or other things, the fan gets pretty loud! Then when it is not streaming music or downloading something, it will quiet down again. I plan to vacuum out (and/or used the compressed cans of air) the fans on the back of the tower, but I don't know if there is a setting or something that can be changed that will stop it. The machine is 6-7 years old, so I don't know if something needs to be replaced.

The deal with any of the Macintosh computers with the G5 processor was that they ran VERY hot. In order to get rid of all this heat...you need a lot of cooling capacity. The Powermac G5 computers have something like 9 fans in them. When you move that much air...you're going to also pull a lot of dirt, dust, and fuzz into the computer...which can & will really coat & clog things up inside the computer.

So a great place to start is to carefully clean the inside (the processor heat sinks & the fans). Some of these areas are not very easy to access...so be very careful. I prefer to use an air compressor (on a low psi setting)...or using a compressed can of air.

After you do a good cleaning...try things again...and see if doing the same tasks cause the fans to run as fast or loud.

Just for the heck of it...download a program called "Temperature Monitor":

Temperature Monitor: Description

...install it before you clean to see what the temps were like. Then after you clean it...check the temps again...to see if the cleaning helped.

One word of warning. Even when new...the Powermac G5's could be very loud when they are "chugging" away at difficult tasks. For example...heavy duty gaming or watching You Tube videos will almost always kick the fans into high-gear.

Hope this helps...and good luck,

- Nick