Overheating PowerMac G5 - 160F normal?

The other two machines sensors report CPU temperatures of over 70 degrees Centigrade (160F plus)
Fraser Rolfe wrote on :

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Greetings, all

I work for a small design shop, where we have four PowerMac G5 machines, each running dual 2GHz CPUs. Two of machines run at what we consider to be ånormalĄ temperatures - the low 40s Centigrade (about 100F). The other two machinesĄ sensors report CPU temperatures of over 70 degrees Centigrade (160F plus), after about 60 minutes of use. While it does not appear to cause any system instability, I am worried that this high operating temperature will shorten the lives of these two machines.

We have had one machine taken away to have its motherboard replaced, but this has had no effect on its operating temperature. As an interim measure, we have desk fans blowing into the front grilles of these two machines ` this keeps the temps down around 40C/100F.

Is there any way of ramping up the speed of the CPU fans or lowering the temperature at which they ramp up? They are turning (slowly) but not pushing much air. Oddly, the fans in the two cooler machines run very slowly too. Could it be that the hot machinesĄ chips are not up to scratch, or maybe their heat-sinks are not properly seated?

I would really appreciate any thoughts.

Cheers Fraser

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Elijah Baley replied on :

In article BF699446.F46E%F.G.Rolfe@redacted.invalid, Fraser Rolfe F.G.Rolfe@redacted.invalid wrote:

Greetings, all

I work for a small design shop, where we have four PowerMac G5 machines, each running dual 2GHz CPUs. Two of machines run at what we consider to be ånormalĄ temperatures - the low 40s Centigrade (about 100F). The other two machinesĄ sensors report CPU temperatures of over 70 degrees Centigrade (160F plus), after about 60 minutes of use. While it does not appear to cause any system instability, I am worried that this high operating temperature will shorten the lives of these two machines.

We have had one machine taken away to have its motherboard replaced, but this has had no effect on its operating temperature. As an interim measure, we have desk fans blowing into the front grilles of these two machines ` this keeps the temps down around 40C/100F.

Is there any way of ramping up the speed of the CPU fans or lowering the temperature at which they ramp up? They are turning (slowly) but not pushing much air. Oddly, the fans in the two cooler machines run very slowly too. Could it be that the hot machinesĄ chips are not up to scratch, or maybe their heat-sinks are not properly seated?

I would really appreciate any thoughts.

Cheers Fraser

The latest version of Hardware Monitor (v 3.01) specifies an upper limit for the CPU die temperatures of 88C/190.4F. A temperature of 70C would fall well within the acceptable range.

http://www.bresink.de/osx/HardwareMonitor.html

My personal opinion is that you are fretting over nothing. The design of the G5 towers includes routines that will protect the machine in the event of real overheating.