10.6.5 Causing Overheating on Mac Mini?

I have been experiencing many panics on my older mac mini 1.66 GHz processor. I have taken my mac to the Apple store and they have replaced the logic board twice with no luck.
After I started getting panic reports again, I noticed that my mini would work fine after boot up (cold), but as it got warmer I would start getting panic reports.
I started to monitor the CPU temperature sensors using TemperatureMonitor (freeware) and noticed a panic would occur when the CPU temps got to around 60 C for a prolonged period of time (5-10 minutes). I also noticed when this happened that the fan wasn't making any noise, so I suspected the fan had failed.
I downloaded smcFanControl (freeware) which reports CPU temps and fan speed to check if a fan speed signal was being sensed. I discovered the fan was working, but not changing speed as the CPU temp was increasing. I used smcFanControl to set the min speed to 3500 rpm, and that seems to keep the CPU temps down low enough where I don't have a problem. However, I must continue to monitor the CPU temp manually and increase the fan speed using smcFanControl to keep the temps below 60 C. This is annoying, because I am manually doing what the SMC should be doing for me.
I am still trying to figure out why this started happening, because I have been running the same hardware configuration for 2 years with no issues. After digging through my console logs, it seems I started getting these panics after updating my software to 10.6.5. Since there is no way to roll-back an update, I am going to try re-installing 10.6.1 from the DVD and see if the problem goes away.
Has anyone else correlated their kernel panic problems with the installation of 10.6.5?

I installed the original 512MB RAM (2x256MB) and things seem much happier now. I reran the hardware test and found everything was A-OK.
In an attempt to identify which RAM chip was bad so I could submit a warranty claim to the RAM manufacturer (Corsair, not Apple) I re-installed each of my 1GB RAM chips individually and performed the hardware test. Both chips passed without any problems.
Just for giggles, I re-installed both 1GB RAM chips to put the computer back into the faulty configuration, and performed a PRAM reset. Then I reran the hardware check, and it finished with no errors. I then booted up and ran a BUNCH of tests loading up the CPU and playing videos. Again, no errors or panic reports. The CPU temps got to 82 C and the fan was only at 1500 rpm and I had no problems. I am going to let it stay like this for a few days to see if the problem comes back hoping that the PRAM reset fixed everything.
I never performed a PRAM reset by itself, only the PMU and SMC resets. It was my understanding the PMU reset automatically did a PRAM reset at the same time so I never bothered to do it by itself.
This will be really frustrating if a PRAM reset would have fixed this problem from the beginning... Odd that the "genius" folks would not have tried that first when I brought it in.

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Mac Mini Overheating Problem

Hello everyone!
I have a Mac Mini that I bought in October 2009 and it's suffering from overheating. I am using Temperature Monitor to see the temperatures reached by different components. For example, the temperatures that the Mac reaches under normal load (browser, messaging and mail) are:
CPU A heatsink: 51 C
CPU A Temperature Diode: 53 C
CPU Core 1: 38 - 40 C
CPU Core 2: 38 - 40 C
HDD Bay 1: 45 C
Northbridge Position One: 54 C
Smart HDD Hitachi (Fujitsu at work): 48 - 56 C
Wireless module: 54 - 60 C
Now my biggest concern is the temperature of the HDD which is way too big (even when using the Mac on normal load doing nothing fancy)!!! I've tested today the Mac Mini that I have at work and it's the same story. Running the HDD at this temperature will cause it to fail very quickly. I've tested the temperature that the HDD from my laptop gets and it is 38 - 40 C.
What to do about this? What temperature readings do you guys get? How to cool down the HDD?
Thank you for your help.
Cocan Lucian.

You shouldn't worry about these temps.
Keeping the CPU cool isn't necessary. If the CPU is operated within the temperature spec it will generally last longer than other parts in the system. If you manually increase the fan speed to keep the CPU cooler then the the fan will probably fail first. Do you hear a lot about Apple computers with dead CPUs? I don't. We generally discard systems before the CPU fails.
As for the disk, it seems to be a myth that operating modern disks at higher temperatures is bad for them. A case study done at Google, and they have a LOT of disks, says that high temps are not a problem:
labs.google.com/papers/disk_failures.pdf
A friend in the disk drive industry says that manufacturers agree.
But, if it makes you feel better to keep your stuff cooler -- then by all means do it.
Keeping it cool won't hurt it.
So what are the temperature limits?
First if you are using smcFanControl, the temp it reports is not good for deciding if you are in trouble. It reports an on-CPU diode which is always a LOT higher than the actual CPU core temp. At the moment my Mini is cranking and the diode temp is 15 C. higher than the core temp.
To get a better picture of your temps you can download:
http://www.bresink.com/osx/TemperatureMonitor.html
The CPU in my early-2009 Mini, a P7350, has a Tcase spec of 90 degrees C. That is the maximum operating temperature of the CPU case at the geometric center. The core temp limit will generally be a fair bit higher than that, I hear at least 5 C, but I can't find that a core temp (which is probably Tjunction Max) in the Intel specs. The default fan control algorithm for my Mini seems to try to keep the CPU core temperatures at or below 80 C. It doesn't speed the fan up from the default 1500 RPM until the temp gets nearly that high.
The late-2009 2.53 GHz CPU is supposedly a P8700 which has a Tcase spec of 105.
The disk in my Mini, a 320 GB WD Caviar Black , has an operating temp range of 0° C to 60° C.

Mac Mini Connected to TV Causes Blank Pauses every ten minutes

I hope someone can help with a small but frustrating issue I'm having.
I have a Mac Mini (2011) hooked up to a new 1080p television. The mini goes via HDMI straight to the TV, no adapters. The mini is also connected to a regular computer monitor simultaneously, set to mirror.
Until this week, I had an identical setup with an older, smaller hd television, where the mini was connected to the TV with an HDMI -> DVI adapter and also to the same second monitor. The TV was off most of the time, I only turned it on to watch a movie off my hard drive or whatever.
Here's the problem: When the new TV is OFF, every ten minutes or so with the monitor goes blank and resets, as if someone unplugged the HDMI connection and then plugged it back in the quickly. While this happens the Mac is frozen for about 5 seconds. I can reproduce the same effect by actually unplugging the HDMI wire. It is also the same pause that happens when I change the monitor and TV displays from mirroring to non-mirroring (side-by-side).
This only happens when the TV is off. If the TV is on, there is no issue.
I'd like to be able to sit at my desk using the monitor without the TV screen on, as I was able to do with my older television. I never had this problem with that TV over many months.
Is there any kind of setting change that might help?
I'm guessing the TV being off causes the HDMI connection to be occasionally lost and then the MAC resumes/redetects the TV, triggering the display to reset, but I think it is odd that this only happens after the thing has been off for ten minutes (and then repeats regularly). I've fiddled with the power options and energy saving settings on the TV, none of them seem to have any effect. Is there anything I can do on the Mac side? The only other option I can think of is to actually unplug the TV when I'm not using it, but that would get old fast.
Any advice would be appreciated. I've tried turning off mirroring, turning the TV off while not having the HDMI input active at that moment, and turning off all power saving options on the TV. I expect this is more a "tv problem" than a Mac problem, but it can't hurt to ask.
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Hello again,
I have subsequently discovered that it is any external media that i plug in causes this fault. (my other external HDD, my 2.0 GB usb stick!)
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Hi, I had the RAM and hard drive in my mac mini (PowerPC) upgraded to 1GB DDR (PC2700), and a 100GB, 7200 RPM ATA6 Hitachi Hard drive. I reinstalled Mac OS 10.4 on the new drive. The machine runs, but it continually (at random intervals) freezes and displays the "Your computer muster be restared" window ... you know, the one with multiple languages. I ran the Apple Hardware test that came w/ the machine, and it passed .... so any ideas what's causing it to freeze?

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Other reasons that can cause kernal panics are discussed in http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/kernelpanics.htmld

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10.6.5 Causing Overheating on Mac Mini?

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