Temperature in Imac G5

How to measure internal temperature?

[travelin cat]

I have seen mention of people measuring the internal temperature of their Imac G5... how can this be done?

My G5 is constantly starting up its fan under no work load whatsoever, like typing this thread. I was wondering if it was an internal heat build up or a software glitch so I wanted to find out the internal temp if at all possible.

thanks....

[lZakl]

ThermographX should be able to utilize the built in drive temp sensor on the iMac G5. If it's anything like the powermac, this sensor tells the fan how fast to move, based on teperature input. I know on the older Powermacs you could simply move the sensor to increase the accuracy of the fan's cooling. I havent heard of this problem for the iMac, so ThermographX should give you an idea. Does the air coming out the vents seem excessivly hot?

-- Zak

[travelin cat]

Zak,

Thanks for the reply.... the air is not hot at all. There seems to be no reason at all for the fan to kick in, the room is cool and I am not doing any processor intensive ops.... but when the fan kicks in, it is very very loud, enough to be heard through my headset by my clients on the phone.

[travelin cat]

Just downloaded ThermographX , great product worth the $7.00. I will keep an eye on the temps, thanks again Zak for the info.

Marc

[lZakl]

No problem ... I am curious to know whether the fan is kicking on even though the temp is ok... Keep us updated!

-- Zak

[travelin cat]

I have some data... yesterday while reading email, the fan kicked in. I checked ThemographX and saw that the CPU temp had spiked at 176 degrees within minutes the temp dropped to 71...

It's nice to know that the fans work, but I still have no idea what caused the temp to jump from the average of about 140 so quickly with really no cpu useage....

[whoisgregg]

If you are in a reasonably air conditioned environment and experiencing spurious heat spikes, you should take advantage of the warranty that came with your computer and get it replaced. That is *not* normal behavior for an iMac G5.

[GlassEye]

wow, if so, great but do you think you can actually get a warranty replacement for 'spurious heat spike' - I sort of have my doubts but I'd love it to be true.

[travelin cat]

Update....

After updating to 10.4.2 the heat spikes stopped, funny since they started after upgrading to 10.4.

Guess that Apple saw a problem and corrected it....

[whoisgregg]

If you go in to an Apple store and tell them your fans turn into turbine engines randomly for no good reason, and you have a warranty, they'll do something to fix it. I've had nothing but good experiences on the rare occasions I have brought a machine in for service.

Added: Happy to hear the update fixed your issue! :)