Well, we got what we asked for.
All those complaints about how “cold” the weather was this summer, how overcast and damp, finally paid off. I think Monday was one of the hottest days I can recall in over 30 years of living in our fair town.
2 weeks prior, my wife had given up on any notion of Summer (Indian or otherwise), and had the Gas Company come out to check and light the furnace. In doing so, they discovered our 52 year old classic was beyond repair. So on Monday, like buying a snow plow in June, I was calling heating companies to replace our furnace. A couple places laughed at me. They thought it was a prank.
This week we’ve also had a lot of calls about Macs performing oddly. Folks have described sluggish behaviors, lines on the screen, graphic distortions, freezing, crashing, and generally misbehaving. Not to dismiss the richness of possibility for other problems, but we’re finding a lot of these issues are related to the heat. Computers, like penguins, don’t like getting too hot. That’s why they have so many fans, vents and cooling systems built in. Laptops are more susceptible than desktops because of the tightly packed components in a small space.
So how do you avoid baking your Apple?
First, find out how hot things are. Go to our website and download the application called iStat Menus. Install it (turn off the auto update features) and check the readings. We’re in the process of creating a better looking page just for downloads, but for now, you’ll find it on the left hand column on our site-map page here:
Once that's installed, you can get an accurate sense of how hot your computer is. Each Apple computer will have a slightly different range, but generally speaking, when you see temps rising beyond 160F, you’ll be hearing fans and feeling some performance drag.
So what to do? Here are 7 ways to "play it cool, boy."
1) If the room is really, really hot and you’re not using your computer, shut it down, give it a break, give yourself a break. Pour yourself, not the computer, a cold one.
2) Find a cooler place to compute. Canada is nice.
3) If you have a notebook computer (they used to be called “laptops”) consider using it on a desk and not in your lap where the exhaust vents can get blocked. With the advent of faster processors comes greater heat. As with most legally savvy corporations, Apple decided changing the name to “notebook” computer was enough to avoid the scalded thigh lawsuits. In the winter, however, laptops can be quite cozy on cold nights.
4) Consider getting a laptop cooler. No, they’re not ice chests, but rather platforms with cooling fans built in.
5) If you can’t take a break and the room is a few degrees shy of Hades, RESTART the computer. Often programs get stuck and, like an engine racing in the driveway, they will overheat the processor.
6) Stream video at night. You can see video at night better anyway. And if there is a choice, stream video that is not Flash based. Flash is a huge processor hog that can heat up your computer. Steve Jobs doesn’t like Flash and keeps wishing it would go away. However, it’s a big part of video on the web these days, so you’ll likely need to use it to watch YouTube animal videos.
7) Get more RAM, even if you’re a Sagittarius. RAM has no moving parts and when you have enough it takes the stress off your hard drive and other parts that generate heat.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a heating system to purchase.
Stay cool!
Mick
P.S. TiVo upgrades are hot! We do ‘em! Call us about putting a larger HD (for storing more shows) in your TiVo!
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