PPC Dual G5 fans

rmartinez · Oct 28, 2007

So after installing Leopard the fans on my G5 are going kind of bananas on me. They turn on for no reason, and when I say no reason I mean while I,m reading something of the web without clicking anything. And they get really loud too. I would say about three times more loud than before when I was running Panther and the only time the fans would turn on to a point that I could hear it was during the summer.

Anybody has had this experience with their PPC G5 or has an answer with a solution?

desmoboy · Oct 28, 2007

Power it down, disconect from the mains for at least 20 secs then reconect and power up. If this doesn't work download OnyX and clear system cache.

rmartinez · Oct 30, 2007

Fan still working oddly

desmoboy said:
Power it down, disconect from the mains for at least 20 secs then reconect and power up. If this doesn't work download OnyX and clear system cache.

Did these two things and still the fans are behaving strange and loud.
Any other ideas?

Geeky1 · Oct 31, 2007

When was the last time the machine was cleaned out? There's this old saying... 'correlation does not imply causation'. In other words, the fact that you just installed Leopard does not necessarily mean that it's the cause of the problem. It very well COULD be, but it may not be.

I'd recommend resetting the SMU first, which is basically what desmoboy recommended. However, Apple specifies waiting longer than 20 seconds. Here's the procedure for resetting the SMU:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300341

And if the machine has never been properly cleaned... that'd help too. May not be the cause of the problem, but it'd help keep it cooler (and given how hot the PMG5s run, cooler is good) and quieter in general. If you've never cleaned it out before, I can post instructions for you, if you like.

mac57 · Oct 31, 2007

Geeky1 said:
There's this old saying... 'correlation does not imply causation'. In other words, the fact that you just installed Leopard does not necessarily mean that it's the cause of the problem.

My thought exactly! It is highly unlikely that Leopard is the cause of the trouble. It has just appeared co-incidentally at about the time you installed Leopard. Physically cleaning the machine is a great idea.

Also, I would ask if you had experienced similar behavior at any time while running Tiger?

Finally, and in keeping with the above "correlation does not imply causation" theme, it is always possible that your machine has just experienced a hardware fault in a fan, a fan controller, or some other part. Don't rule this out as you look to resolve the issue.

The thing you likely should rule out is the idea that Leopard lies at the heart of the issue. This is the least likely explanation.

rmartinez · Oct 31, 2007

Geeky1 said:
When was the last time the machine was cleaned out? There's this old saying... 'correlation does not imply causation'. In other words, the fact that you just installed Leopard does not necessarily mean that it's the cause of the problem. It very well COULD be, but it may not be.

I'd recommend resetting the SMU first, which is basically what desmoboy recommended. However, Apple specifies waiting longer than 20 seconds. Here's the procedure for resetting the SMU:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300341

And if the machine has never been properly cleaned... that'd help too. May not be the cause of the problem, but it'd help keep it cooler (and given how hot the PMG5s run, cooler is good) and quieter in general. If you've never cleaned it out before, I can post instructions for you, if you like.

I disconnected the computer from the power cord for about 2 hours. I did not open the tower and press any buttons as the white paper says. I don't think that my G5 will have that button for resetting the SMU inside the tower since my Mac was bought on December 2004. So only the first set of instruction on the white paper apply to me. I'll open the computer and check still just in case.

I did clean the machine recently about two months ago, when installed an extra HD. And at that moment did took the time of cleaning the inside of the machine. I'm not sure if the word properly would apply to my cleaning technique since all I did was get as much dust out of the machine as possible with pressured air. So, yes I'd love to get some instruction if there is more to it.

Thanks

rmartinez · Oct 31, 2007

mac57 said:
My thought exactly! It is highly unlikely that Leopard is the cause of the trouble. It has just appeared co-incidentally at about the time you installed Leopard. Physically cleaning the machine is a great idea.

Also, I would ask if you had experienced similar behavior at any time while running Tiger?

Finally, and in keeping with the above "correlation does not imply causation" theme, it is always possible that your machine has just experienced a hardware fault in a fan, a fan controller, or some other part. Don't rule this out as you look to resolve the issue.

The thing you likely should rule out is the idea that Leopard lies at the heart of the issue. This is the least likely explanation.

I didn't get Tiger. I was running Panther up to now. With it I would hear the fan rarely and faintly. Now is constant and loud.

I'm with you on the fact that is unlikely that installing Leopard caused some malfunction. Still the machine wasn't behaving this way before and Leopard was the only variable at the moment.

Amen-Moses · Oct 31, 2007

rmartinez said:
I didn't get Tiger. I was running Panther up to now. With it I would hear the fan rarely and faintly. Now is constant and loud.

I'm with you on the fact that is unlikely that installing Leopard caused some malfunction. Still the machine wasn't behaving this way before and Leopard was the only variable at the moment.

Aha, I think maybe it is your Video card fan that is powering up, Tiger and Leopard both farm out processing to the GPU which Panther never did, this extra load is probably enough to warm up you Video card and cause the fans to come on, make sure that the video section airways are clear of dust and fluff.

My twin G5 fans are coming on more under Leopard than they did on Tiger but not dramatically so. Maybe just a 2 second whirr every minute or so. On Panther I don't think I ever heard the fans unless I was playing Medal of Honour.

Amen-Moses

rmartinez · Nov 1, 2007

Amen-Moses said:
Aha, I think maybe it is your Video card fan that is powering up, Tiger and Leopard both farm out processing to the GPU which Panther never did, this extra load is probably enough to warm up you Video card and cause the fans to come on, make sure that the video section airways are clear of dust and fluff.

My twin G5 fans are coming on more under Leopard than they did on Tiger but not dramatically so. Maybe just a 2 second whirr every minute or so. On Panther I don't think I ever heard the fans unless I was playing Medal of Honour.

Amen-Moses

That seems to be a good hypothesis. Is there anything else other than a clean machine and good ventilation to prevent this from happening?
It seems that you have come to terms with the situation and I'm still willing to fight it....Maybe a different video card?

Amen-Moses · Nov 1, 2007

rmartinez said:
That seems to be a good hypothesis. Is there anything else other than a clean machine and good ventilation to prevent this from happening?
It seems that you have come to terms with the situation and I'm still willing to fight it....Maybe a different video card?

Mine has the bog standard 9600 card and I seem to remember doing a firmware upgrade a few years ago but apart from that it is as I bought it.

Amen-Moses

Geeky1 · Nov 1, 2007

rmartinez said:
It seems that you have come to terms with the situation and I'm still willing to fight it....Maybe a different video card?

Cheaper to just upgrade the cooling on the card you have... and a faster card would likely be noisier (and you wouldn't want to downgrade...) What card is in it?

rmartinez · Nov 2, 2007

Geeky1 said:
Cheaper to just upgrade the cooling on the card you have... and a faster card would likely be noisier (and you wouldn't want to downgrade...) What card is in it?

GeForce FX 5200 is the one that came with the computer when bought.
Now my monitor is VGA but my Video display card is DVI so I'm using the converter that came with the computer to use the monitor.

Would this have something to do with it?

It hasn't been a problem at all as far as I can tell.