Have you ever heard your fans kick up to their highest RPM, so you feel the bottom of your computer to see why and shout “Goddam, this computer is running HOT!!!” I definitely have before and its not good for you or your system. Not only have people actually been severely burned by overheated laptops, but any computer guru knows that heat and computer components do not get along. Thankfully, Dell decided to spend an extra couple of dollars and add some heat sensors to the computer so you can monitor the temperature of your Hard Drive and all your computer cores (2 if you have a Dual Core or Core 2 Duo processor).
To monitor the temperature in OS X, download temperature monitor. When you launch it for the first time, a window will pop up telling you that it needs to install special drivers for Intel processors or something to that extreme. Hit ok and then restart the program. When it relaunches it should tell you the correct temperature of your computer’s processor and and Hard Drive. A normal/safe temperature is around 40 – 55 degrees Celsius although even going up to 60 isn’t gonna fry your computer. Once it starts hitting 65 and above is when you close the lid, turn the computer upside down, and walk away for a couple minutes so it can cool off.
For Windows, i8kfangui is a great program that will read even more sensors and also allow you to control the speed of the fans.
While these program read the temperature of your computer, certain kexts within OS X will not allow the BIOS to properly control the fans, thus making the fans start when the computer is much hotter than the BIOS wants it to be. First step, Backup. Backup, backup, backup!!! And once more, backup. I cant stress this idea enough. So once you have backed up your data, go ahead and remove AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext and any other kext that comes up in a quick search in spotlight for “thermal” (there should anywhere from 0-2 of them). Then restart your computer and your computer should run a little cooler.
If you found this guide useful then feel free to make a donation by clicking the link at the end of the Author’s Mini-Biography. Any amount truly does help.
April 4th, 2010 at 3:08 AM
I’m still running 10.5.5, so I still can’t get the preference pane working, but I’m planning on updating 10.5.6, I’ve just been backing up all my files and setting for the past few days. Also, my machine runs at around 45C while idling in Vista and Ubuntu. So, it’s not dust in my fan. By the way, I should be thank YOU for running such a wonderful site. You have no idea how happy I was when I found it last year while trying to get my hackbook up and running.
April 5th, 2010 at 5:02 PM
Try updating to 10.5.6 as I have a feeling it will remedy your heat issue.
April 3rd, 2010 at 9:57 PM
I deleted AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext and Applethermal.kext, but still my computer is running at around 70C while idling. Is there anything else I can do to lower it some more. By the way, my fan is always running, but it’s very low.
April 3rd, 2010 at 11:24 PM
Before I saw anything, I’d just like to thank you for being one of the only people to actually use the guides and be a little independent! You can’t even imagine how many of my responses are merely links as the question has already been answered in one of my many guides. Getting back to your issue, it’s possible that the fan is clogged with dust, thus raising the temperatures and causing it to always rise. There are Inspiron 1525 take apart guides here. And is this under Leopard or Snow Leopard? Also, were you ever able to resolve your other issue?
June 16th, 2009 at 2:19 AM
Usually I hate this it sets my leg on fire
But in winter its really good sometimes keeps me warm lol.
May 14th, 2009 at 11:59 AM
Very nice :) That’ll save you some leg hair and probably also add additional life to your laptop by running cooler. Electronics, plastic, and heat don’t mix.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:45 AM
Wow I am actually shocked. No sooner than installing the voodoo power management and following this guide my temputure has droped below 50 idling around 48/49 for my CPU. Feel great when my leg doesnt feel like its on fire.
April 3rd, 2009 at 9:35 PM
Oooh, i didnt know you could do that lol. Thanks so much for the tip. I think I’m going to do that too. Thanks!
April 3rd, 2009 at 9:23 PM
I set temperature Monitor to start at login and notify me when the temperature goes over 65 degrees.
April 2nd, 2009 at 5:30 AM
Call me crazy but I would sacrifice battery life for performance. And, because Richard brought it up, OS X gives you better performance with better battery life. Also, less time loading means more time being productive.
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:40 AM
That sounds snazzy, but if I wanted programs to load slow I’d install Vista! Sorry, Bill. I’m not a PC.
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:39 AM
From what I understand intelenhancedspeedstep and voodoo are very similar in their stepping but Voodoo is customizable therefore you can make it so that rather than stepping too high your processor will just take longer to open a program. This can be beneficial if you like to have total control.
April 1st, 2009 at 6:36 PM
I am also using the intel enhanced speedstep kext and it works great. Even as I have Mail, Adium, transmission, itunes(paused though), and MSR tools open, I go no higher than 1.06 GHz (61.5%) of my total processor as opposed to 100% without the speedstep kexts. I’m sure the voodoo stuff works great too but as Richard said, If it ain’t broke, dont fix it!
April 1st, 2009 at 6:15 PM
I’ve been doing good with the enhanced speedstep kexts, clocking my 1.87GHz Pentium Dual Core to a cool 800MHZ when I’m idle or around 1GHz when surfing the web. It keeps the heat down and saves on battery life when I’m on the go. I’ve heard good things about the voodoo power kext too but hey, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
March 31st, 2009 at 2:59 PM
Thomas,
Thanks for your post. What I have actually seen is that keeping this program running will eat up your battery. Installing voodoo power kext will keep the computer cooler and save your battery life as well. I am on iPC 10.5.6, never found in spotlight ‘thermal’ to return some kexts.