So, this "blue cooler block" solution seems to work.

[randomness]

The heat fan on my PowerBook G4 is making a whining "my spindle is broken" noise. At some point, I imagine bringing it in to Apple might be a bright idea.

On the other hand, one way to deal with that is to keep the machine cool enough so that the fan never comes on.

Right now, I'm using some blue cooler blocks, the kind you freeze and then stick in a portable cooler. I have three. One of them sits under the PowerBook, and the other two I leave in the freezer.

When Temperature Monitor starts to report that the machine is running too hot, I swap the warm block out for a cold one.

Low-tech, and very cheap, as long as you have a freezer handy. Seems to be working okay.

Comments

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

Those are gorgeous. I would drop them and break them very quickly, however.

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

Well, then, how about a set of copper placemats?

(Currently sold out, don't know if they're available anywhere else, I've not looked yet.)

[madbodger.livejournal.com]

Or use one of those
Quick thaw plates
that's basically just a hunk of thermally conductive metal. You'd be using it backwards, to take heat
away, instead of bring heat in, but it should work fine. There are also those laptop cooling plates
(Targus, etc.) with grooves and fans to air cool the bottom of laptops. My G4 Powerbook almost
never runs its fan when used with one.