PowerMac G5 fans going crazy

[Jason Bacon]

It's a known issue - search the archives of this list.  I think someone 
mentioned that it's been fixed in 13-BETA2, but my PowerMac has problems 
with the DVD drive and thumbs its nose at all my current USB sticks ( 
had an old LG 2GB that worked, but it died ), so I can't verify right now.

Also, I suggest to anyone with a liquid-cooled PowerMac to put some sort 
of deflector over the power supply, assuming the PS is at the bottom of 
the case like the models I managed in the past. The CPU cooler is likely 
to leak at some point and drip antifreeze into the PS.  Loud noise, lots 
of yellow smoke.  It's exciting...

Best,

     JB

On 2/16/21 8:49 PM, Julio Merino wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have this liquid-cooled dual G5 PowerMac sitting in my cold garage. The
> machine runs fine for a while and can even do a buildworld in silence...
> but sometimes, pretty much at random, decides to spin up its fans to the
> maximum. The machine is pretty much idle when this happens so usage doesn't
> explain this.
>
> I haven't correlated this fully, but when the machine does this, it seems
> to also become unresponsive. Moving the mouse on the console shows the
> pointer moving but it eventually freezes. Except... the machine responds to
> pings, and even to SSH. *However*, it is sluggish. SSH takes forever to
> respond, but eventually does. Similarly, the console eventually recovers
> too and allows input... until things become slow again. And while it's
> responding, running "top" doesn't show anything strange, not in user CPU
> consumption nor in sys.
>
> Interestingly, running a "sysctl -a" makes the fans quiet down, maybe for a
> long time, maybe for a couple of minutes only. See the diff below of
> "sysctl -a" from while the fans are full-speed to right after, and notice
> that the temperatures look just fine.
>
> Any ideas about what might be happening here?
>
> Thanks!
>
>
> @@ -1,7 +1,9 @@
> -dev.smusat.0.cpu_a1_core_current: 10
> +device smu
> +kern.consmute: 0
> +dev.smusat.0.cpu_a1_core_current: 11
>   dev.smusat.0.cpu_a0_core_current: 10
> -dev.smusat.0.cpu_a1_diode_temp: 27.7C
> -dev.smusat.0.cpu_a0_diode_temp: 26.5C
> +dev.smusat.0.cpu_a1_diode_temp: 28.1C
> +dev.smusat.0.cpu_a0_diode_temp: 26.7C
>   dev.smusat.0.cpu_a1_vcore: 1
>   dev.smusat.0.cpu_a0_vcore: 1
>   dev.smusat.0.%parent: iicbus2
> @@ -12,25 +14,25 @@
>   dev.smusat.%parent:
>   dev.smu.0.server_mode: 0
>   dev.smu.0.sensors.slots_power: 16816
> -dev.smu.0.fans.expansion_slots_intake.rpm: 4487
> +dev.smu.0.fans.expansion_slots_intake.rpm: 1572
>   dev.smu.0.fans.expansion_slots_intake.maxrpm: 4500
>   dev.smu.0.fans.expansion_slots_intake.minrpm: 1560
> -dev.smu.0.fans.cpu_b_exhaust.rpm: 3168
> +dev.smu.0.fans.cpu_b_exhaust.rpm: 551
>   dev.smu.0.fans.cpu_b_exhaust.maxrpm: 3200
>   dev.smu.0.fans.cpu_b_exhaust.minrpm: 500
> -dev.smu.0.fans.cpu_a_exhaust.rpm: 3031
> +dev.smu.0.fans.cpu_a_exhaust.rpm: 548
>   dev.smu.0.fans.cpu_a_exhaust.maxrpm: 3200
>   dev.smu.0.fans.cpu_a_exhaust.minrpm: 500
> -dev.smu.0.fans.cpu_b_intake.rpm: 3045
> +dev.smu.0.fans.cpu_b_intake.rpm: 534
>   dev.smu.0.fans.cpu_b_intake.maxrpm: 3200
>   dev.smu.0.fans.cpu_b_intake.minrpm: 485
> -dev.smu.0.fans.cpu_a_intake.rpm: 3173
> +dev.smu.0.fans.cpu_a_intake.rpm: 538
>   dev.smu.0.fans.cpu_a_intake.maxrpm: 3200
>   dev.smu.0.fans.cpu_a_intake.minrpm: 485
> -dev.smu.0.fans.backside.rpm: 2851
> +dev.smu.0.fans.backside.rpm: 1174
>   dev.smu.0.fans.backside.maxrpm: 3000
>   dev.smu.0.fans.backside.minrpm: 1100
> -dev.smu.0.fans.drive_bay_a_intake.rpm: 3792
> +dev.smu.0.fans.drive_bay_a_intake.rpm: 1011
>   dev.smu.0.fans.drive_bay_a_intake.maxrpm: 4000
>   dev.smu.0.fans.drive_bay_a_intake.minrpm: 1000
>   dev.smu.0.%parent: ofwbus0
>


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