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I’ve been using this iMac for a few weeks, and I’ve noticed an odd melty-plastic smell from time to time. I didn’t associate it with the iMac, though; the top of the iMac was hot, but not unbearably so.

After the weekend, though, the smell was more intense. Bruce found a particular spot on the back panel of it that was uncomfortably hot. Time to investigate.

I downloaded Temperature Monitor and found the power supply was at 81° Celsius (about 178° Fahrenheit). That’s far too hot! I found smcFanControl and turned up the fan speeds, and my iMac’s power supply is runs between 55-58° Celsius (131-136° Fahrenheit). That’s much healthier, and the plasticy smell has almost (but not completely) disappeared. The downside is that the iMac is no longer silent, though I’m pretty sure I can turn the fans down slightly over the next few weeks.

I appreciate that Apple was trying to make my workspace more enjoyable by keeping the volume down, but it turns out the smell of burning plastic is more distracting than the fan noise. I can only imagine being without a computer while the power supply and back panel were replaced would have been even more distracting.

AppleInsider is reporting that Apple is ignoring two Mac data loss issues. One is an old bug (that really should be fixed). The other is an apparent abundance of failing hard drives:

Meanwhile, U.K.-based data-recovery firm Retrodata is warning Apple customers that they risk potential data loss due to a design flaw on certain 2.5-inch Seagate SATA drives, commonly found in notebooks such as the MacBook or MacBook Pro.

“The read/write heads are detaching from the arm and plowing deep gouges into the magnetic platter,” says Retrodata Managing Director Duncan Clarke. “The damage is mostly on the inner tracks, but some scratches are on the outer track — Track 0 — and once that happens, the drive is normally beyond repair.”

The problem is reportedly prevalent with Seagate 2.5-inch SATA drives that are manufactured in China and loaded with firmware Version 7.01. Model numbers affected include ST96812AS and ST98823AS.

Um, yeah. My first generation Intel Mac mini has a ST96812AS with firmware 7.01. I’d be a lot more worried if I wasn’t using Leopard and Time Machine.

Although my wife uses my old Titanium PowerBook G4, she’s using the adapter for my Aluminum 12″ PowerBook G4. Although they look different, they’re compatible. The Aluminum one is higher wattage, and has a safety ground and a LED at the PowerBook end of the cable to indicate the charging status. Plus it works; her old power adapter is long since toast.

My wife has recently taped the end of her PowerBook’s power adapter. She also added toothpicks, more tape, and so on. The plug just kept growing. On the weekend, I decided to peel off all the junk to see what she was hiding.

I am not joking: The thing sparks almost continuously. Snap, snap, snap, snap. I unplugged it and hid it away, and went to the local Apple dealer (Simply Computing - highly recommended, even if their website is a bit lame). They’re out of stock on the adapter, and Apple’s apparently back-ordered. But they had a third party adapter, which brings us to the main topic of this post.

Newer’s 65 Watt Power Adapter was about $20 less than Apple’s power adapter at Simply Computing. It lacks a safety ground and a recharge ring light, but has heavier-duty cabling between the adapter and the laptop. And not only does it have sturdier cabling, it has a sturdier PowerBook connector. I don’t think I’m ever going to have to bend the outer ring on the plug back into shape.

I have no serious regrets about this purchase. The only regret I have is that I’ve since found out I can probably get the Apple AC adapter replaced under warranty. But that’s mostly cool with me; it’s good to have spares.

Several attempts to re-install Ubuntu 6.06 later, I was forced to conclude that something was wrong with my power supply. Since it was an integrated power supply from Antec and I don’t feel like giving them any more business, it was time for a new case.

I picked an X-QPack, which is a microATX case. It’s available in several colors, but the Langley NCIX had only black and blue in stock, so blue it was. (I have something of a hatred for black PCs. It has always struck me as the trendy way to avoid beige for the clueless.)

It’s slightly larger than my Antec Aria was, but this is both good and bad. Bad, because it’s slightly too large for my desk. Good, because it’s much easier to work inside and seems to do a better job of keeping components cool.

The X-QPack offers a 420watt power supply (compared to, I believe, 300watt). Oddly enough, there doesn’t seem to be a fan on the power supply.

The case is actually remarkably well thought-out; the motherboard mounts on a drawer that slides in and out. There’s an carrying handle integrated into the front panel, and has knock-out panels for two 5.25″ devices and a single 3.5″, plus space for two internal 3.5″ drives. Despite the small space, there’s room to screw everything in on all mounting points. If I was going to describe this case in just a few words, it would be “tabs into slots mounting hardware.”

It’s a good thing it was well designed, or I wouldn’t have figured it out. There was no documentation at all.

The downside to this case is that all the sides are clear plexiglass (or something), and the rear fan has an integrated and bright blue LED. Not a big deal until you combine it with how ugly the inside of my PC is. At least I’ll know if someone steals my hard drive.

I’m largely back up and running now, and trying the 6.10 upgrade again (but this time, through the GUI). I think this is the very last piece of adhoc hardware I will buy. My next purchase is going to be a Mac mini, even if it is to replace my PC.

Last night I tried to connect my Canoscan N656U to a computer.

First, I tried the Mac. Connecting the device did nothing. Pushing the button on the device did nothing. A search of Canon’s website revealed a driver, but the installer seems to have been written by rabid monkeys. Eventually, I discovered how to make the installer work (you need to already be running on an admin account, because it doesn’t know how to authenticate) and restarted, to find… still nothing.

So after a few minutes of that, I decided to try to install on my Windows desktop. This worked a little better right from the start, as Windows at least noticed there was something there. I had to download a driver from Canon’s website and use some trickery to install it, but a few minutes later the scan button is launching Picasa2.

Verdict: Canon’s installers suck. Completely on Mac, almost completely on Windows.