I purchased my Mac Titanium Powerbook G4 (500mhz), used, about 3 months ago and have used it almost daily since then. This is my first laptop and I'm still adjusting to OS X after a year on a PC.
The mac has been sitting flat on a tabletop, with the power cord plugged in; the battery is in the computer. Three days ago, for the first time ever, the fan kicked on. Scared me to death, as it was accompanied by a slight burning smell. I quickly shut down and the sound stopped.
I felt the bottom of the machine and it was hot to the touch, especially the right side (the battery is on the left). I have since raised the edges of the computer on books, for better ventilation and was told (by the previous owner, who I called in a panic) that Apple sells something for this purpose.
My concern is: the ventilation fan has kicked in several times since the original occurance. And the machine is always awfully warm. Is this normal? I find it odd that the fan never kicked in before this and now has done so several times in a few days.
Twice the fan came on when I was online and my browser froze; I was using Netscape 7. The other time I was running Norton Antivirus scan. I suspect the freezing was due to a pop-up, cookie, or some other animated micro that was trying (without success) to download because the colored wheel kept spinning and I was able to use other applications, only Netscape remained "busy/frozen" and required a "force quit" to exit. Is there a connection?
Any help would be very much appreciated.
Arlyn
PS: first response was helpful and i've added additional info, but remain fearful of my fan and its sudden appearance after so much quiet. And yes, it does sound like a hairdryer!
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