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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Powerbook Fan Always On, No Inactivity Sleep?
rebbi - Aug 22, 2005 - 11:46 am
Hi,
I own a new (two month old) Powerbook G4, 17". I've noticed two oddities:
1) The fan (soft "whooshing" sound from the left side of the PB) is always on, from the moment of startup until sleep or shutdown. I posted on Apple's discussion boards and have subsequently looked at two possible culprits: Some rogue process gobbling up lots of CPU time (not found) and (as per someone's suggestion in the forums) corrupted or duplicate fonts. (I did have a bunch of duplicate fonts which I resolved in Font Book, and a few corrupted fonts which I removed, but this hasn't fixed the issue.) I called Apple tech support and was walked through a Disk Utility Verify and the creation of a new test account to log into, but neither of these fixed the issue, either. The Apple Care tech suggested I bring the machine in to an Apple Store or get a tech to look at it, since the only other alternative he could offer was an Archive And Install, assuming I've got a software issue here.
2) The computer never goes fully to sleep after the period of inactivity specified in Energy Saver settings; the screen will go to sleep as specified, but the HD won't spin down and the fan won't shut off. It'll sleep if I close the PB lid or put it to sleep from the Apple Menu, however.
Help appreciated!
Steve
I own a new (two month old) Powerbook G4, 17". I've noticed two oddities:
1) The fan (soft "whooshing" sound from the left side of the PB) is always on, from the moment of startup until sleep or shutdown. I posted on Apple's discussion boards and have subsequently looked at two possible culprits: Some rogue process gobbling up lots of CPU time (not found) and (as per someone's suggestion in the forums) corrupted or duplicate fonts. (I did have a bunch of duplicate fonts which I resolved in Font Book, and a few corrupted fonts which I removed, but this hasn't fixed the issue.) I called Apple tech support and was walked through a Disk Utility Verify and the creation of a new test account to log into, but neither of these fixed the issue, either. The Apple Care tech suggested I bring the machine in to an Apple Store or get a tech to look at it, since the only other alternative he could offer was an Archive And Install, assuming I've got a software issue here.
2) The computer never goes fully to sleep after the period of inactivity specified in Energy Saver settings; the screen will go to sleep as specified, but the HD won't spin down and the fan won't shut off. It'll sleep if I close the PB lid or put it to sleep from the Apple Menu, however.
Help appreciated!
Steve
sighup9 - Aug 22, 2005 - 8:29 pm
It is possible that you may have a bad font... this causes systems to run hot on occasion. To see if you do:
Open Applications > Font Book
Font conflicts are denoted by a dot next to the font name. You can disable them, by CTRL-clicking on conflicting fonts and selecting disable. If you disable some, I suggest rebooting and seeing how your applications work for at least a week or so before removing any conflicting fonts.
If there are no conflicts then you may have a damaged font. Go to the finder, select your username (below Desktop), then >Library>Fonts; drag the fonts folder to your desktop and restart.
If you still have the problem, open Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor (click the Window menu item and select Activity Monitor if it does not appear automatically), click %CPU two times and see if an application is using 20% or more CPU. If so, click on that application and then click the Quit Process button.
Open Applications > Font Book
Font conflicts are denoted by a dot next to the font name. You can disable them, by CTRL-clicking on conflicting fonts and selecting disable. If you disable some, I suggest rebooting and seeing how your applications work for at least a week or so before removing any conflicting fonts.
If there are no conflicts then you may have a damaged font. Go to the finder, select your username (below Desktop), then >Library>Fonts; drag the fonts folder to your desktop and restart.
If you still have the problem, open Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor (click the Window menu item and select Activity Monitor if it does not appear automatically), click %CPU two times and see if an application is using 20% or more CPU. If so, click on that application and then click the Quit Process button.
rebbi - Aug 22, 2005 - 9:40 pm
Evan,
I very much appreciate your taking the time to make so many detailed suggestions. I tried the drag-the-user-font-folder-to-the-desktop-and-reboot strategy, but to no avail. The fan still runs all the time and the PB fails to go into inactivity Sleep, in terms of fan and HD power down — only the screen will go to sleep as set in Energy Saver prefs. I've also checked Activity Monitor and nothing is gobbling up CPU time; the busiest process is only eating up around 7.00%. So, I remain stumped. I also tried booting from an external firewire drive and again, same behavior. A Mac technician I know thinks I may have a bad logic board and is offering to swap it out. We'll see.
Thank you,
Steve
I very much appreciate your taking the time to make so many detailed suggestions. I tried the drag-the-user-font-folder-to-the-desktop-and-reboot strategy, but to no avail. The fan still runs all the time and the PB fails to go into inactivity Sleep, in terms of fan and HD power down — only the screen will go to sleep as set in Energy Saver prefs. I've also checked Activity Monitor and nothing is gobbling up CPU time; the busiest process is only eating up around 7.00%. So, I remain stumped. I also tried booting from an external firewire drive and again, same behavior. A Mac technician I know thinks I may have a bad logic board and is offering to swap it out. We'll see.
Thank you,
Steve
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