I bought a 12' G4 powerbook last september for school use. Since then,
its relatively weak build has received several dents all around the
side strip due to bumps and such. Not sure if that's related to the
problem. Now, many months later, unless I set the CPU on reduced
power, rather than the standard of highest, it's constantly blowing
the fan at full speed, noisier than my desktop, and hot enough that I
almost burned myself. In addition, when I insert a CD, it takes much
longer for the drive to recognize that a disk has been inserted and
spin up, and many times, while using the CD, it will unexpectedly spin
down and shut the drive down, usually during burning.

I hate going through the messy and rarely useful Apple tech archives,
and when I went to the GeniusBar, they pretty much dismissed it with
"Your warranty doesn't cover dropping the computer"

---

Clarification of Question by reonak-ga on 01 Jun 2004 22:13 PDT

Just realized I didn't actually ask a question. Basically, why are
these two things happening, and what can I do about them?

I don't know the cooling layout of a G4 but it sounds like the bumping
in some form or fashion dislocated the cooling fan assembly ontop of
the cpu

you can either open the laptop and see what is wrong or buy a seperate
external assembly that improves cooling while the laptop is on a desk
for example , it is called I-perch Plus or I breeze

http://www.macmice.com/ibreeze.html