the airport extreme card in my intel iMac is generating much heat: 63-67°C
1. Is there any solution to decrease the output power to reduce the heat generation?
2. change the radio frequency to 5GHz?
because in this case -I think- less output power is enough for airport communication.
I think there is no express card power management utility maybe direct terminal commands can solve the problem regarding that the aluminum housing affects the signal broadcast

How are you measuring the heat?

with the iStatPro widget which collects and displays the iMac's built in heat sensor data

huh, ok.

How are you sure this is too much heat? I would think that Apple would have set this to the right settings.

the 3 cooling fans are working permanently also displayed by the widget+I've reduced the radio output power on my airport express base station to 10% and it is generating less heat than earlier with full power

just curious, perhaps it's something else causing the fans to run continuously? Like this iStatPro widget you got?

Or some other program?

How old is the iMac?

I just downloaded and installed that widget and don't see where it records the Airport card temperature. It reports the CPU and HD temps as well as the backside and drivebay temps. Where is the Airport card temp reported??

perhaps the ambient temp is higher than optimal, but if it is the situation summer heat would be a potential danger for my Mac.
very useful widget.

Where are you located?

I'm not saying the widget is not useful, but I'm wondering what else could possibly causing the fans to run fulltime. Sometimes software can do that to the fans.

Can you take it to an Apple store?

you can configure all parameters

Hungary, Europe- with a continental climate.unfortunately run out of the 1 year applecare period

I checked the preferences options. The widget reports my Airport's MAC address, but that's it--no temperature.

what I can see is (left to right direction)
cpu memory disk airport(ip, data transfer etc.) temps: fans: uptime processes
hd cpu
cpu a hd
airportcard optical
ambient
gpu
gpudiode
gpuheatsink
hd bay

Here's what I see:



edit: if you open the image in a new window you can see it full size.

What machine are you running that on, YoYo?

It's a G5 PM dual 2 Gig.

oh that's right, the same one I had.

The Airport Card doesn't generate heat. The processors, video card, hard drive, and other chips on the motherboard are the things generating heat.

One question: Do all of those components have actual temperature sensors?

The processors and hard drives/bays do.

What Giz said. The CPU's and HD's have built in sensors, even my G4 can read the HD and CPU temps. There is also an ambient temp sensor board Apple put into the G5 towers and later to read incoming air temp.

So, the AP card does not have a temp sensor. Then, how do you get a reliable temp reading from it, or is the widget delivering a bogus figure?

I figure you were replying to the original poster. I'd say the poster misread something. It would be nice if they posted a screen shot to confirm. The card has no sensor I believe, and according to the stuff on the developer's site I see no setting for Airport temps.

Hey, I posted a screen shot, and my version, at least, does not report any temp for the AP card.

I saw that, I read your posts man.

But you have a G5, not Intel. Totally different logic board. I was wondering if the Intel showed different.

Just joking, Reboot--the more info the better.

This is my Mini:

Well, I can now confirm that yes, the intel iMac does show the airport card temp:

We have a final answer.

And if that's after the machine was running for a while the original poster's card does seem a bit hot. I wonder what a long download would do to the temp.

hi. after all these discussions do you have any suggestions?should I open the housing and clean the iMac inside, maybe it is dusty. or replace the fans with miniature wind tunnel turbines:) the exterme card is the hottest part of my Mac, and after reconfiguring my express basestation it has became cooler, the only conclusion is that the card needs some settings, no repair, because it is working properly. the Xflight download took hours, and caused no problems the heat remained at constant 63-67°C

It could be the normal operating temp of the card. Is there anything on the Apple discussion boards? As long as it is not causing a problem, I'd be inclined not to mess with it.