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G5 Fans getting sensitive?

yojitani

yojitani

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 28, 2005
1,858
10
An octopus's garden
I'm used to a bit of fan noise when rendering a movie or something like that (with processors set to 'high'), but recently the fans start spinning (mainly when set on high, in fact) for any little thing. two quicktime windows open at the same time, for example, and the machine slows down, so I up the processors and the videos play normally, but the fan noise makes it hard to catch any audio glitches. This did not happen before.

Now, what I'm wondering is if this isn't a video card problem. I recently bought a Dell 2405 and am using the standard GEForce Fx 5200 (standard at time of purchase). I did have the problem, only much less pronounced, when I was using the previous monitor, a 17" Studio Display. But now it is much worse. In fact, if the processors are on high, the fans often start spinning even with basic apps open (mail and firefox or safari).I should add that in addition to the fan noise, the computer seems to be slowing down. I rarely got a beachball until recently.

Any thoughts? Is there a way to test where the strain is coming from?


I have done a permissions repair and all that typical tidying up stuff, BTW.

Thanks for any help!

yoji
 
It sounds like it, If the issue is indeed GPU related. Keep in mind that this card will also need to be cooled. An upgraded card will help the beach ball, but you might crash if there is too much heat. Could it be the environment that is causing it to need extra cooling?

Check your cpu temp with a something from macupdate (www.macupdate.com), if it seems normal it may be the hard drive.
 
Thanks! I'll check out the cpu temp checker. The room I'm in is especially cool, so I doubt that is an issue...
Sounding like I need a new VC...

yt
 
Fans wouldn't have anything to do with your monitor or your video card.

Most likely the issue is either in your firmware, or one of the processors is starting to fail.

Restart while holding down the Command+Option+O+F keys until you get a text line.

Enter "reset-all" (less quotes) and start over again.

I would not put a vew video card in unless it tested bad on the hardware test...
 
iGary said:
Fans wouldn't have anything to do with your monitor or your video card.

Most likely the issue is either in your firmware, or one of the processors is starting to fail.

Restart while holding down the Command+Option+O+F keys until you get a text line.

Enter "reset-all" (less quotes) and start over again.

I would not put a vew video card in unless it tested bad on the hardware test...
Click to expand...


Thanks, iGary. With the VC, I was thinking that some of the fan noise might be the VC fans. I'll do a reset, as you suggest and perhaps a hardware test just to make sure everything's good.

yt
 
Don't forget of course, if you buy a new graphics card (such as the X800XT I'm currently running), the fact that the graphics card has a fan itself would add more noise to your system.

My Power Mac is definitely louder with the X800XT rather than the fanless Radeon 9600 it shipped with, its actually the loudest thing in the system (which is a credit to the design of the Power Mac itself for being so quiet in the first place!)

Also, where is your Mac positioned? If it's up on the desk alongside the monitor then the noise of the system is much more apparent than if its under your desk. I know from experience that my system is barely audible when under the desk compared with when I had it sitting on top. Perhaps moving it would help?
 
ok, I've done a reset as iGary suggested. While that seems to have improved responsiveness, especially airport (not sure how that happened), the fan issue persists. If you know G5's, there are 2 fan vents on the back. Checking those, it's from the top vent that air is gusting. It's not especially warm as it is when doing processor intensive stuff... not sure if this means anything at all!

I guess I'll do a hardware test (that really gets the fans going!).

Thanks once again!

yt
 
Every summer, my G5 gets loud, and then in the winter, it quiets down. With the way my room is set up, there's really no direct path between the cooling/heating vent, and the G5. So in the summer, the A/C doesn't get to the comp, so it's temps are higher and the fans kick in more often, and in the winter, the heat doesn't get to it, so it remains cooler and quieter. Keep that in mind, and it may just be the outside climate causing it, and not hardware problems.
 
NATO said:
Don't forget of course, if you buy a new graphics card (such as the X800XT I'm currently running), the fact that the graphics card has a fan itself would add more noise to your system.

My Power Mac is definitely louder with the X800XT rather than the fanless Radeon 9600 it shipped with, its actually the loudest thing in the system (which is a credit to the design of the Power Mac itself for being so quiet in the first place!)

Also, where is your Mac positioned? If it's up on the desk alongside the monitor then the noise of the system is much more apparent than if its under your desk. I know from experience that my system is barely audible when under the desk compared with when I had it sitting on top. Perhaps moving it would help?
Click to expand...

Cheers, NATO. The Mac is on the floor, below the desk. It was usually quiet. What's prompted me to start the thread is that it sounds like it is doing processor intensive work when I'm doing the most basic of tasks (like typing this on MR!). It's been doing this for a while now, hence the worry. It only happens when I have the processor performance set to 'highest.' If it had been like this from the beginning, I wouldn't worry, but it used to take a fair bit of work for the fans to even be audible.

(But new development as I typed this response to NATO! the fans have stopped!)

yt
 
Just an update and thanks.

I did a hardware test and all was clear. In fact, after resetting the computer (thanks for the suggestion iGary!) kind of teethed and is now fairly steady. The fans do seem a tad temperamental, but are better than before.

I do still want some additional info on Video Cards. I'm not a gamer but recently a lot of graphics and video work has been coming my way. I'm curious about how much a new VC is going improve (i.e. speed up) the process. (different thread?)

anyway, thanks for the help!

yt
 
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