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I have an aging, but still functional mid-2006 iMac at home. Last night, my wife was in the basement and said she smelled a faint odor of something burning, she said it smelled like it might be plastic. Earlier in the night, I had noticed a high-pitched whine coming from the computer.

I'd like to eke as much life out the computer, which we use for balancing the checkbook and my wife uses to check her email and do some light writing now and again, as we can get.

I had an old copy of iStat nano on the computer and saw that all three fans were spinning and none of the temps seemed too high.

Could someone tell me what the normal CPU, hard drive, and optical drive temps and fan speeds are?

Thanks.

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  • Is the housing to hot to touch ?
    – Ruskes
    Commented Apr 2, 2014 at 18:21
  • No, it felt warm but not hot.
    – aszekely
    Commented Apr 2, 2014 at 19:34
  • Than you are fine, nothing to worry about :)
    – Ruskes
    Commented Apr 2, 2014 at 19:37
  • Thanks. We're not leaving it running while we are out of the house or asleep all the same!
    – aszekely
    Commented Apr 3, 2014 at 19:25

1 Answer 1

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With a machine that old, dust covering the internal components will make it difficult for the computer fans to dissipate heat.

I would suggest turning the iMac over, opening the RAM cover and blowing out as much dust as you can through the vents.

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  • I followed your advice. The whine is gone and the operating temps dropped by about 30 degrees.
    – aszekely
    Commented Apr 3, 2014 at 19:26
  • Excellent. Glad it worked for you.
    – Pixelwiz
    Commented Apr 7, 2014 at 13:28

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