iMac overheating issue?

[kayle12]

Hello,

I was playing Portal in Bootcamp last night and my iMac just shut off. Unfortunately I had the music on...so I couldn't tell if the fans were working correctly.

What do you recommend I do? I am worried that something might have got damaged? Should I turn the fans up using SMC Fan Control in OS X before I play games in Bootcamp?

Any suggestions?

Kayle

 

[scuzy]

i think smcfancontol only works when it's running in OSx. If you're in bootcamp you're relying on windows control of the fans.

 

[imac123]

i would try this:

- boot up in OS X and using smcfancontrol, set your fan speeds to a level where you can clearly hear them spinning (usually about 1/2 way on the "line/dial").
- then try restarting (don't shutdown fully) and hold the option key and boot into windows
- listen for the fans and try to determine if they are still at the smcfancontrol high settings or if they spun down to normal (almost inaudible) settings.

thats probably the quickest way to test things. otherwise you can look for a windows program that monitors fan speeds

 

[matt321]

Have you upgraded your graphics card drivers in Windows lately?

I heard that the catalyst drivers have been improved to help regulate the GPU heat.

 

[aki]

imac123 is right

for games in bootcamp run smcfancontrol in osx and set all fans med/med-hi my win gaming settings r maybe 65% or something of max

then reboot not shutdown just reboot into windows and game

if u want to check u can game for a few hours and reboot to osx and run istat or whatever right away and get some idea how heat is going and turn up your windows gaming fan setting in smcfancontrol if u need too

from my experience my cpu and gpu r always ok BUT the hd gets too hot if i game for some time

 

[gehrbox]

Hello,

I was playing Portal in Bootcamp last night and my iMac just shut off. Unfortunately I had the music on...so I couldn't tell if the fans were working correctly.

What do you recommend I do? I am worried that something might have got damaged? Should I turn the fans up using SMC Fan Control in OS X before I play games in Bootcamp?

Any suggestions?

Kayle

Does your iMac have the NVidia 8800 video option? Is it the 3.06GHz model?

 

[iNotion]

i was quite worried about the overheating issue, and the long term damage to the set. It is terribly hot on the top. Mine is a 24”iMac 2.8Ghz, 4GB RAM

 

[gehrbox]

i was quite worried about the overheating issue, and the long term damage to the set. It is terribly hot on the top. Mine is a 24”iMac 2.8Ghz, 4GB RAM

Install iStat Pro ( http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/status/istatpro.html )

Monitor your temps/fan speeds. During normal web surfing CPU temps should be around 45-55c. CPU/HDD fan speeds of 1200 and Optical fan around 700 RPM are normal during browsing work loads.

 

[youtube]

Good information to know. I was also looking to get an iMac and had no idea you can control the fan speed. Thx!

 

[aki]

i was quite worried about the overheating issue, and the long term damage to the set. It is terribly hot on the top. Mine is a 24”iMac 2.8Ghz, 4GB RAM

...use istat pro ignore the hot top!! basically the metal case of yr imac gives out lots of the heat from inside so it is always hot and this is no problem its the temp inside that is what u must think about

again i dont think its much to think about for normal osx use only maaaaaybe if u do say a lot of video or rendering and want your imac to last many years

i just think for people who use the bootcamp to game it is important 2 think of

 

[minicoop503]

There is a program for windows called "smartfan" that you can download and monitor and change fan speeds.