Understanding Fan, Fan Control, and Heating Intel iMac

Greetings all, I'm a recent convert from the world of Windows to Mac and I've enjoyed it more than you can imagine. I'm a network admin at a major airport and have come to hate working on Windows during the day to working on Windows at home. Although, I wish no harm to Windows... they keep me with a job. >:)
I'm going to show my age here so don't laugh too much...
I have trouble understanding the heat fans inside my iMac.
I do play video games, namely WoW (Yes still a young'n).
When I first got my iMac (3 months ago) and started playing, I noticed the back panel would get extremely hot to the touch. I was worried because I never heard the fans kick up past their default speed.
I read the iMac handles heat by passing it to the back panel to allow for ambient air cooling. (Love the concept). But being a Windows user for years taught me to check my temps. I downloaded iStat Pro and my CPU while playing was at an alarming 60deg Centigrade.
I checked for blockages in airflow and checked to make sure my fans were running, which iStat also showed at 1200 RPMs @ 60deg. The machine idles at about 38-39deg. also 1200 RPMs
I did get this iMac used to cut costs, wiped it clean and put a fresh install of OSX.
My question is: **Are the speeds factory fixed and if not, at what temp do the Fans kick into overdrive and start pushing some air?** 60deg is dangerously hot in such a compact unit in my opinion.
note I did install and currently use smcFanControl to max out my fans when playing games to keep the temps down so I know the fan speeds can change manually, but shouldn't the firmware inside the computer auto adjust fan speeds based on their temp?
Message was edited by: SPuppy

Things have really changed... or the quality of the system is that much better than my old Shuttle Fragboxes. 60deg on my AthlonXP was within the limits but would spell premature age failure running it that hot. Its been a while since I had a true Intel product. When I was building PCs I couldn't afford them.
Its good to know that the fans will auto increase by the firmware. I suspected as much but just didn't know 100% so thanks for the response.
Ideally from a personal prespective I would like to keep my heat down below 59deg only because if the CPU is that hot, the ambient air inside the case is warm and I do not want premature failure of the bridges, HDD controller or any other component prone to heat failure. I'll take the smcFanControl off the startup processes and just manually switch it on and off when playing games. I can replace a fan cheaper than replacing the whole unit.
Thanks for your responses.

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Hello Mike,
The first thing you need to do is determine if the iR C3220 is using the Canon printer board or the imagePASS-C1/C2 print server option. If you look at the back of the iR C3220, and there is a rectangular box with an Ethernet cable connecting to the copier, and what looks something like a SCSI-2 cable also connected between the white box and the copiers interface board, then you have the imagePASS controller. This device requires a different driver to the PS v1.70 and PPD v2.x you are currently using. It also requires a queue name of 'print' or 'direct' (or 'hold' if you don't want the job to print) and it must be entered in lower case.
Since it sounds like there are PC's on the network, have a look at their printer setup and see which driver they are using. You can also check their port config to see how they are connecting.
If the iR C3220 doesn't have the imagePASS print controller and the PC users have the PCL5c driver installed, then you may find that the iR C3220 doesn't have the PS option - it may be PCL5c only. The easiest way to tell is to open the printers web page (called RUI) by entering the printers IP address in your browser of choice. With the default page open, select Additional Functions and then Custom Settings (you may be prompted for a system ID & password). If you get past this the new view will show if you have PS as well as PCL. If there is no PS, then you will have to look at installing the latest version of Gutenprint and selecting Generic PCL5c as your 'ppd'.
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A post from another threat that might help.
From Payson
Solution!!!
Just spent 90 minutes with some nice folks in level 1 and level 2 support.
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"D"

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Hello gang
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Yes , I understand that, thanks for your answer. But I said it wrong, I meant will it make a good difference, for the best , to buy the new airport, the n one?
Sorry, english is not my first language.....

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Hi folks,
I have a small problem and I don't know how to solve it.
Let me preface by saying that I have done nothing yet, only read and not really found what I'm looking for - I hope someone can help.
I have a new imac. I also have 2 old ipods (a mini, and a nano). Both pods have music on them that I would like to keep, but the computers and so the itunes which they used are no longer available.
I would like to have the music on both pods transfered to the new imac's itunes (without losing the music on the new itunes) and then use both the pods in conjunction with the new imac and its itunes.
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Ronald
Try searching this forum using the search term "Appleworks intel mac" .
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Can you ethernet and transfer files between a iMac G3 and a intel iMac

Looking for a little assistance and suggestions.
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is very helpful. I actually had most of it in place with what's shown but missed a couple of things with the IP address. But I was close. I won't be able to try it again for a few more days but if it works I'll post back to this discussion and let you know how it went.
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Message was edited by: homeden

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Hi-
The Ice Cube uses an Oxford chipset, (part of the external housings onboard controller) so it should be fine. The Oxford chipset has been shown to give the best compatibility and performance, thus being an desirable feature.
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null

Well, for what its worth, I'll give you the update to my problem. The Apple technician said during all their testing, my Intel iMac never dropped the Airport connection once - and the problem might be some interference between the iMac and the Airport Express unit. That didn't quite make sense because my white G5 iMac seems fine; the occasional variable signal but not a full drop out. Anyway, the technician said he applied a 'few software updates' - although I don't know what these updates were, especially since I always apply Apple public updates as they are released.
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Would anyone know what updates Apple might have applied - and I assume its something that is not readily available to the public, since I always keep an eye on public software updates.
Fox

Spontaneous Intel iMac Reboot under Leopard

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Nov 25 21:47:21 iLife bootlog[46]: BOOT_TIME: 1196045228 0
Nov 26 04:23:47 iLife bootlog[46]: BOOT_TIME: 1196069015 0
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Sudden HD, CD and FAN isues with late 2007 24" iMac

When I play audio cd's with iTunes, the sound sometimes stutters. At least once during each song! I just zapped the PRAM and updated to the latest iTunes version but it makes no difference. Since I installed XP in Bootcamp and updated to 10.5.3 and installed SMCfancontrol, I have lots of audio glitches in Ableton Live and Logic Pro 8 and occasional slow disk behavior. Also, one or all of my fans are spinning faster than before. They spin fast from the moment I switch on the iMac (the audio just stuttered again) and they cool down the HD Bay 1 to around 51 degrees celcius, coming from around 60. Is there any OSX/Apple guru who can help me out with this weird behavior?
thx

+You should un-install SMCFC and reset the SMC immediately afterwards.+
-> This is what I did! But nothing. Same fan noise. I also cleared plists of smcfancontrol, brightness control and Shades, right before I once again cleared the SMC.
According to iStat pro my temps are cooler but my fans are spinning at their default speeds. The HD Bay 1 is about 8 degrees celcius cooler. The fans are making noise from the moment I switch on the iMac.
yesterday, I erased all the free disk space. I did a repair disk permission from the boot up disc. I zapped the PRAM and the MB battery. But nothing.... Same story..... The fan(s) goes on from the moment I switch on the iMac. and Ableton Live loads up in 30 seconds!! Coming from just 3 seconds.
My iMac feels and sounds like a cheap PC computer.
Oh yes, my mouse broke down too. It now clicks when it's just laying there, doing nothing. Way to go, Apple!
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Message was edited by: Komkommer

HT201295 Late 2009 Intel iMac Needs Frequent SMC reset - constant high speed running fan

Late 2009 Intel iMac is having reoccurring episodes of high speed fan running, especially after waking it up. The SMC reset by unplug and reboot works, but I worry that this is a serious sign and that the machine is slowly dying. Any thoughts? Works fine otherwise.

wolfgang272 wrote:
Do you have any ideas?
Yes, you just need to reset the SMC and you should be fine
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Whoops you already did that.
Hardware Test then
https://support.apple.com/kb/ht1509
Read more info here
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16276201#16276201

Understanding Fan, Fan Control, and Heating Intel iMac

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