It's official ... I am stupid ...

[gwerhart0800]

I have been wondering way the average fan speed on my mac mini had increased from the ~1700 RPM that it was running when I bought it in the spring of 2008, to ~2600 RPM lately. Yesterday, I decided to both upgrade to SL and to swap the HD from a 200GB to a 500GB. As soon as i picked up the mini off my desk once it had shut down, I know the answer!!! There was a string of dust bunnies the shape of a "U" matching the air slots on the bottom of the mini. Duh!!! Okay, from now on, when the fan speeds start increasing, clean the air intake slots at the bottom.

BTW, I used a can of compressed air to clean out all the dust inside the mini and it is now happily humming at ~1700 RPM again.

 

[AAPLaday]

Haha so this snow leopard upgrade really did improve your machine

 

[chrono1081]

Dolp! It happens

I just had a user complain about her laptop shutting down all the time so I drove to her worksite only to find she sat it on this blanket thing on her desk completely blocking the air vent.

 

[charlesbronsen]

My friend dropped off his computer this weekend because it would always restart under any load. Well it was so caked with dust I actually brought it outside opened up the case a hit it with a leaf blower It worked great and the machine looks brand new and doesn't crash anymore. Them dust bunnies love warm electronics to keep them company.

 

[mr_matalino]

At least it wasn't something really dumb like taking an hour to troubleshoot why the computer wasn't turning on and not checking to see if it was plugged in. I had a friend that did that once...