G5 Quad – fans run full power, even when machine idles

Hey all.
I recently have picked up an old G5 Quad Power Mac. A system is installed (10.5.8) and the system boots and runs fine...
Only about 2 minutes after startup the fans start to run like crazy (I there is nothing running in the background which uses much CPU power).
Plus - the G5 Quad has liquid cooling so the fans shouldn't work too hard either...
Does anyone have any ideas what to look after? I already replaced the Li-Battery as my machine thought it's 1970 or so...
Or am I facing a mainboard problem? (I am seeing a little red LED in the inside...)
Thanks for any advice.
Dikkker

I have refurbished two G5s with LCS and screaming fans (this was avery common problem with G5 LCS macs), the red light on the motherboard could mean the CPUs need to be re-seated. This red LED light appeared on my mac after I had removed the CPUs to add new thermal paste.
If you have done all the necessary basics with no sucess here are a few things to try next.
1 - Coolant
As BDAqua mentioned above, coolant evaporates and often leaks at the 'O' rings, to check this you will need to remove the CPUs from the LCS and check for crystalisation (white rice). If you have leakage, it will be time to drain the block, add new coolant and 'O' rings. This is tricky to do but there is lots of info here and on other sites to help you.
2 - Thermal paste
Replace the thermal paste with Artic MX4.
Try the above and let is know how ou get on.

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I have refurbished two G5s with LCS and screaming fans (this was avery common problem with G5 LCS macs), the red light on the motherboard could mean the CPUs need to be re-seated. This red LED light appeared on my mac after I had removed the CPUs to add new thermal paste.
If you have done all the necessary basics with no sucess here are a few things to try next.
1 - Coolant
As BDAqua mentioned above, coolant evaporates and often leaks at the 'O' rings, to check this you will need to remove the CPUs from the LCS and check for crystalisation (white rice). If you have leakage, it will be time to drain the block, add new coolant and 'O' rings. This is tricky to do but there is lots of info here and on other sites to help you.
2 - Thermal paste
Replace the thermal paste with Artic MX4.
Try the above and let is know how ou get on.

Fan on full speed even when shutdown, cable at front okay.

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Thanks A Brody,
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Hey,
I brought my brand new intel imac 20 inch to apple because it wouldn't start up anymore after installing XP.
Apple removed and manually reinstalled Leopard and XP. Since then when I start it up the fans are instantly running full power all the time.
I triend to rebooth with shift and R+P but nothing chances. In istats the cpu is on 1 or 2 % and still one fan ( the cpu fan ) is making lots of RPM.
I ran the hardware test and it showed:
4sns/1/40000000: TLOP-130.000
Is it possible that something has damaged after the HD removal?

Pappot wrote:
Apple removed and manually reinstalled Leopard and XP. Since then
when I start it up the fans are instantly running full power all the time.
... Is it possible that something has damaged after the HD removal?
Anything's possible if they opened the case to replace the HD -- the tech
might have damaged, dislocated, or disconnected a temperature sensor.
OTOH, "manually reinstalled Leopard and XP" wouldn't normally require
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Looby

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I think that it's normal that the fans run full speed when you use Parallels. It also means that your MacBook's thermal paste was applied well.
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Fans running full speed after hard drive replacement

I have a 24" aluminum iMac (iMac7,1) which had a hard drive failure. I replaced the hard drive myself and all went well. However, now my fans are running full speed. This appears to be because of a problem with detecting my temperature sensors now. During the install I only touched two temp. sensors, the hard drive sensor and the LCD sensor. I made special care to make sure I got the sensors back in place.
Using iStat Pro the only temp. sensors I have readings for are the Hard Drive and Power Supply. I am missing ambient, optical drive, CPU, and display. Out of those the only one out of the missing ones I touched are the display one. I have since gone back into the machine to ensure the LCD temp. sensor was fully connected and to ensure the HD one was connected (although that one is working).
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went back into the box to make sure all temp sensors where in place.
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Mechanic man thanks for the response.
Besides for the fan noise the machine is running like a champ. The new hard drive seems to be fine, actually my machine boots up faster now than it ever did (faster drive I suppose). I ran disk utility and did a verify on the new disk and it didn't detect any problems.
The fans run at full speed immediately at power-on (maybe a one second pause). I first noticed it when I booted up from the startup disk to do a time machine restore. So yes, it occurs when booting from a system disk.
I have been unable to run Apple Hardware Test, I saw this step in some google searching and Apple docs but I don't seem to have AHT on any disk. I have tried putting the Snow Leopard disk in and holding "d" at boot time to no affect. I did some further reading and found that AHT may only be included on disks that come with the machine. I am going to try to dig up my Tiger disks and see if I can get AHT to run from there (10.4 was the factory installed OS when I bought my iMac).
I am also considering trying to re-install SMC firmware (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2368). Even though it will be the same version at least I know the SMC reset has taken place.
Since the fans run full speed right at start up that suggests to me that it is a physical hardware problem (i.e. something wrong with the sensors) or a firmware issue. I am leaning toward firmware.

Classic makes fans run full speed

I think this is new. When I run Classic my fans run full speed (10.4.8 G5 iMac 20") with any of the kid's games. I've done the SMU reset, blown dust from vents, tried different power settings. I think blowing out the dust reduced fan use in OS X, but not in classic.
Thermograph data suggests the fans are behaving appropriately, so I think the system is running hotter than in the past. Anyone have other ideas? Anyone else seeing this classic behavior?

Have a look at one post I made some months ago :
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1621311#1621311
I discovered that going back to Classic from one user to the other make a large use of CPU (80 to 90%) thus rising the temperature and conversly the fan...
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JfS

CPU fan running full speed after 15 minutes

My 3 month old iMac 24" has just started having fan problems.
Before I went away on a training course, it was working fine. Left it switched off at the outlet for 3 days, now the CPU fan runs full speed after the iMac has been switched on for 15 to 20 minutes.
CPU temp is 24C, CPU heatsink is 28C. Ambient is 17C. CPU fan is 3600rpm. Other fans are normal.
CPU usage is less that 10%. Only Safari is running.
I've tried resetting the SMC - left all plugs disconnected for 15 minutes, reconnected mains power for 15 minutes, reconnected USB, then switched on.
Still the same - OK for 15 minutes, then CPU fan runs full speed.
Anything else that I can try?

I tried again, following your instructions exactly. It seemed to work, running normally for about an hour.
I left all the USB devices unplugged, except for the keyboard and mouse.
I then shut the iMac down, but left the mains power turned on at the wall. When I switched it on again 2 hours later, all was OK for 15 minutes, then the CPU fan ran at full speed.
Shutting down for a few seconds fixes it for another 15 minutes.
I'm wondering if it's a software problem, although I haven't loaded any apps recently, apart from a few monitoring programs since this problem appeared.
Last night I left it running the extended hardware test for a couple of hours, and the fans were fine.
One thing that I noticed yesterday was that the "GPU" temperature readings in iStat were all missing (just "-" displayed) for a couple of seconds when I clicked on Dashboard. Is there a way to keep iStat open while I'm using the iMac?
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Does anybody have problems with the Macbook Pro Retina 15' fans being really loud even when playing flash games like candy crush or tetris?

Hey guys,
So after a few months of using the MBP 15' Retina, I've discovered that the fans are incredibly loud even when playing flash games like candy crush or tetris.. are any of you guys having the same problem? Like all of a sudden from be quiet to unbelievably loud just as the games load. So yeah, hopefully someone has the same problem as I am having.
What I was thinking was that the MBP Retina 15' is such a beefed up laptop, it shouldn't require that much CPU to run flash games that are not even THAT graphically intensive to which making the fans that loud..
Thanks!

Believe it or not, Flash REALLY isn't the issue.
It's hardware makers making devices with less processor performance and requiring software makers to fit into a certain requirements of such. Namely iPhone, iPods and iPads.
Flash is designed to give a lot of features and work across many operating systems, browsers and platforms as a write once solution.
Flash has a certain level of processor performance requirement, which hardware makers like Apple want to build less powerful machines using less expensive processors.
Apple has removed Coverflow 3D effects from iTunes and discontinued the 17" MacBook Pro, leaving only the 15" as having a more powerful 3D capable graphics capability.
So Apple is obviously on a anti-heat/performance quest as they further thin up their hardware, trying to kill Flash by punishing Mac users who want to run it.
Flash runs without a fan sound on my older Mac with dedicated GPU and older OS X verison, no sweat.
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Another option is to use SMC fan control and set the fan default speed slightly faster, this will keep the machine slightly cooler and not trigger the higher fan speed as often.
If your running 10.8, you will need to System Preferences > Security > downloads to "Anywhere"
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I keep getting "startup disk full" message even when I already moved all my files/documents to an external hard disk

Dear all,
What should I do? I keep getting the "startup disk full" message even when I already moved all my files and documents to an external hard disk.
Thanks a heap.

For information about the Other category in the Storage display, see this support article.
Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:
iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash
Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then reboot. That will temporarily free up some space.
According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of your data. There is little or no performance advantage to having more available space than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.
If you're using Time Machine to back up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of files you've recently deleted. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as Backups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself.
See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.
You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) to explore your volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one.
Deleting files inside an iPhoto or Aperture library will corrupt the library. Any changes to a photo library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.
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ODS can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.
Back up all data now.
If you have more than one user account, make sure you're logged in as an administrator. The administrator account is the one that was created automatically when you first set up the computer.
Install ODS in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.
Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C:
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Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
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When you're done with ODS, quit it and also quit Terminal.

Fan runs full speed at start up

HP Pavilion p6-2037cb purchased 1/19/12. Windows 7. There is no error message.
When I turn the computer on after it has been off all night the fan runs full speed. This happened a few times in the first month. The first time it stopped itself after a few minutes. Then I learned to stop it by simply restarting the computer. This still works, but what used to happen a couple times a month, has happened twice in two days so I worry the problem is getting worse.
It never happens when I am using the computer because I do nothing that requires a lot of cpu's or causes heating. I just surf the web and do email. No games or videos or TV.
If it is a fan connection problem I would like to know the nearest repair service. I would rather bring it in than ship it. But I can't find a list of authorized warranty repair service centers. I followed links on HP Support Assistant but got sent to a site that does not list Pavilions.
I need to know why the fan runs full speed at start up and where to get it fixed near where I live.
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Hello mpw101,
Seems like there was some confusion on the products your received and how it was explained. I have forwarded your thread to the appropriate team for review. Someone should be in contact with you shortly so you can discuss your HP customer care experience.
If I have helped you in any way click the Kudos button to say Thanks.
The community works together, click Accept as Solution on the post that solves your issue for other members of the community to benefit from the solution.
- Friendship is magical.

G5 start up problem: stuck at grey screen with fans running full strength

hi, i'm new to discussions, so i hope this question and my technical knowledge and descriptions will be OK: problem: G5 20" stuck at grey screen with fans running full strength..
so far i've tried but did not work:
- power off by pressing the button for 5 secs,
- checked all cables connections etc, take out the power cable try again, etc.
- removed all USB connections, re-did
- tried to use it as 'target drive' connected to my macbook by firewire
- tried to start up and keeping C key pressed
- tried to start up with 'shift' key pressed
- tried to start up with command, options, P and R keys pressed,
- i had an additional RAM, i've taken it out and tried again, no luck
- i've put in Mac OS X install disc1, no luck, and now disc is inside my iMac, can't take it out
any recommendations? thank you!

Scroto,
You may not actually have a bad processor. On the Dual G5's it's not uncommon after a few years for dust and corrosion to build up between the processors and their sockets. You can fairly easily remove the processors and clean the connections yourself if you're at all handy. Basically, snap off the heatsink covers, loosen a few screws and the processor and heatsink come out as a unit.
Clean the contacts on the processors (carefully). And clean the sockets. Be sure to put the same processor in the same place or you'll have issues.
I used 90% isopropol alcohol to clean mine last year. Let it air dry and blew both the socket and the cpu off after with canned air. That done, I reinstalled the processors, buckled everything up and no more "bad" processor... The machine worked perfectly from then on and I assume it still does today. Don't know, someone stole it last month:(...

Nokia messaging running in background even when tu...

So, Nokia messaging runs in backgorund even when turned off.
I noticed that the phone (E63) searches wlan with no reason and connectes with known ones, untillI discovered that default acces point in Nokia messaging was WLAN. When I changed the APN to other, the phone stops searching for wlan. The logical conclusion is that Nokia messaging can never be trully turned off, at least on my phone.
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Thanks guys, problem solved.
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If I exit the application I really mean that I don't want to use it, otherwise I choose "hide".
*moderators note: Removed potentially offensive phrase
Message Edited by shehanj on 28-Apr-2009 04:19 PM

I downloaded the new 7 update and now my iPad won't charge to 100% and loses power even when not in use ?

i downloaded the new 7 update on my ipad. it now will not charge to 100% and loses power even when not in use. any solutions ??

Try a reset: Simultaneously hold down the Home and On buttons until the device shuts down. Ignore the off slider if it appears. Once shut down is complete, if it doesn't restart on it own, turn the device back on using the On button. In some cases it also helps to double click the Home button and close all apps BEFORE doing the reset.
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G5 Quad – fans run full power, even when machine idles

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