Powerlogix problems: overheating and kernel panics

If you have upgraded your Mac using my semi-crackyHow-To you may have also upgraded your Powerlogix CPU Directorsoftware as time went along. Recently I updated to CPU Director 2.3b2, and when the drop down menu in SystemPreferences > Energy Saver > Optio > Proce or Performance disa eared, I was worried. My CPU was no longerdynamically changing eed up and down from 1GHz to 2GHz and was staying solidly at 2GHz.

I eventually didwhat my father always told me: "When all else fails, dig the manual out of the garbage." I went to the Trashand gra ed the READ ME FIRST.rtf.

The readme for the newest CPU Director includes this pithy statement:

Note: DFS and Power Management functio require Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later, and require a PowerLogix 7447ACPU card. If you purchased a PowerLogix 7447A CPU card prior to July 27, 2005 your card requires CPU CompatibilityUpdater, which will be sent to existing customers. (If you have a PowerLogix 7447A CPU card and the thermal pane doesnot a ear in CPU Director, or Proce or Performance does not a ear in the Energy Saver System Preference, you needthe CPU Director Compatibility Updater.)

I dutifully emailed Powerlogix su ort to ask for the CPUDirector Compatibility Updater. They sent me the program, I ran it, and System Preferences > Energy Saver >Optio > Proce or Performance rea eared. The problem is, since this upgrade my machine systematically overheatswhen I tell it to choose Proce or Performance: Automatic. My G4 has not had problems this bad (and su equently causedkernel panics) since the update to10.4.3.

The ultimate solution to this problem would be dynamic CPU switching but also failsafetemperature monitoring that allowed CPU Director to force the computer down to the lower eed if overheating becomesimminent. A arently this exists for some of the Powerlogix CPUs but it sure doe 't show up in my CPU Directorsoftware (I have the Powerlogix 7447A).

There has been no word yet from Powerlogix about this i ue and I'm going to have to step back in CPU Director versio . Hopefully the CPU Director Compatibility Updaterwon't make my setup incompatible with previous version of CPU Director. If anyone else has had similar i ues and/or hasa solution, feel free to post in the comments.