Hard Labour

[Steve1960]

Mac Pro has been running for almost 48 hours continuously with the fans maxing out at 6,200rpm and temperature of the core processor at a constant 83 deg C

Just to copy iTunes purchases to standard MP4 format. during the last 48 hours the Mac has converted 21 of 31 movies and it is seriously hot!

Think I might give it a break to cool down soon!

[bgd]

It's built for that sort of thing. Let it keep running.

The only time I ever had trouble with mine was when it got turned. It never gets shutdown now.

[JR8]

The other risk is the fan bearing gets clogged with dust and the machine 'blows up'. I witnessed that happening with a desktop. Best not to leave it unattended, or else have a smoke alarm by the fan vent exit.

[x9200]

What model is it? CPU? I believe 83 deg C for Xeons is much above the limit (typically max below 75 deg C, most 65 deg). Or you meant MacBOOK Pro?

[Steve1960]

Macbook Pro

Smoke alarm happens to be right above my desk and the computer although a few months ago when I upgraded the memory I gave the fans a clean so should be fine

Yes built to stand it, left it running and it's still going strong will probably leave it until all movies are done copying.

[x9200]

For macbook pros I believe this temperature is ok (~105 deg C limit for i5/i7 cpus). Besides, most of the systems will just shut down if the safe temperature is exceeded and this is both on software and hardware level.

Not sure what JR8 has witnessed but I have never seen any pc blown up (if understood literarily = smoking etc) for the reason of overheated CPU. Perhaps for older cpus that had no temperature sensors integrated within the chip, but not for any modern (within last 10 years?). Modern hardware is usually quick enough to prevent cpu damage even if you switch it all on without any heatsink or a fan.

[zzm9980]

It's only doing this during video conversion, right? Then don't worry. If it happens at unexpected times run Activity Monitor to see what's going on. My parents had a crappy printer where the driver would cause this if the printer wasn't turned on. (The driver was essentially looking for it in an endless loop)

[x9200]

Unfortunately firefox alone can get the system busy enough with few plugins doing stuff like the dating sliding window on this forum.

[JR8]

For macbook pros I believe this temperature is ok (~105 deg C limit for i5/i7 cpus). Besides, most of the systems will just shut down if the safe temperature is exceeded and this is both on software and hardware level.

Not sure what JR8 has witnessed but I have never seen any pc blown up (if understood literarily = smoking etc) for the reason of overheated CPU. Perhaps for older cpus that had no temperature sensors integrated within the chip, but not for any modern (within last 10 years?). Modern hardware is usually quick enough to prevent cpu damage even if you switch it all on without any heatsink or a fan.

Hi X9,
Please my post of 3 Feb 2013 here that recounts the experience...
http://forum.singaporeexpats.com/viewto ... ust+carpet

I'm imagining that what I described was the components on the PCBs 'blowing up'... don't know. The PC in question was 2-3M from me and under a colleagues desk, that probably maximised the noise. Our group were sited in a pretty quiet corner of the floor, and as mentioned it was like someone emptying a hand-gun on auto into the floor in front of you. I can laugh now... But at that moment it felt more like Armageddon had descended...

p.s. That was c'90/91. Hopefully technology has progressed to auto shut-down overheating CPUs and associated boards etc.

[x9200]

Maybe it was the fan alone? If it was still working esp. on a higher speed and the shaft/blade got detached I could imagine it would be a nice mess and might sound like Chinese firecrackers.
Almost anything made of "plastic" used in the components if used at constantly elevated temperatures will get brittle over time.

[Steve1960]

It's only doing this during video conversion, right? Then don't worry. If it happens at unexpected times run Activity Monitor to see what's going on. My parents had a crappy printer where the driver would cause this if the printer wasn't turned on. (The driver was essentially looking for it in an endless loop)

Yes it's only while doing video conversion the rest of time it's fine. Still running now, I think the conversions will be complete by the time I get home after work today.

[bgd]

Macbook Pro

That' s quite a different machine. I've had much better reliability from Apple laptops than the Mac Pro. As I understand it, if the machine gets too hot it will shut down of it's own accord. Basically you don't need to worry.