[G4] Noise issue

[Joseph B. Gurman]

     Don Fuller wrote:

>All indications point to Apple having fixed the noise problem in the
>new 2003 Power Macs. They've replaced the 2-60mm Delta fans in the
>power supply  with 2-60mm Nidec fans  and also changed the Heatsink fan
>to a different type. Overall the 2003s are quieter, BUT, still make a
>little hum.

     I happened to be in the Apple Store in Clarendon (Arlington), 
Virginia, yesterday, and saw why the heatsink fan has been changed: 
the heatsink is completely different from that in the original 
dual-mirrored-doors models. Instead of thick, aluminum heat fins (~ 2 
mm thick), the new heatsink is composed of far more (~ 50 - 60), very 
thin fins of what looks like some alloy with a coppery/bronzey color. 
The fins are as thin as those in some of the new, butterfly-wing-like 
heatsinks I've seen in high-performance, do-it-yourself PC's; in 
fact, they have bracing along the top edges, presumably to keep them 
from being deformed by accidental contact.

     FWIW, I was in the store to bring my dual-1 GHz dual-mirrored Mk. 
1 in because the ADC video from the Radeon card had died, and the 
power button/power manager was acting strange: press the power button 
and its LED only glowed momentarily, though the fans came on, the 
system booted, and DVI video worked just fine. Even USB through the 
ADC connector worked OK, but no video and no power LED on a connected 
ADC monitor (tried several, so I know it wasn't the monitor). I was 
on the phone to AppleCare before bringing the machine in; they had me 
trying to reset the PMU, but that didn't help, nor did multiple PRAM 
resets. Anybody seen this behavior? Is it a power problem or a Radeon 
one? (I asked if by some miracle if it were the power supply, they 
could see their way clear to replacing the unit with one of the new 
ones with the quieter fans, but alas, they claimed they had to 
replace parts with the identical part number.)

     Score one for OS X, though: even without the video, the system 
booted normally, and continued working as an IP gateway for our home 
network.

						Joe Gurman
-- 
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they go by."
                                                          - Douglas 
Adams, 1952 - 2001

Joseph B. Gurman, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Solar Physics
Branch, Greenbelt MD 20771 USA