Cold weather and laptops

Adcadet

Adcadet

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Jan 14, 2002
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hey all -
OK, so we all know about my nice newish laptop. I take it with me everywhere, so it ends up getting exposed to the Minnesota cold quiet a bit. It's always transported in my carrying case, but I'm afraid this doesn't offer enough protection against the -20 degree (F) days we're inevitably going to get in MN. How much risk is my laptop at because I haul it around outdoors? What can I do to minimize this risk? Currently, I make sure to give it ~10 to warm up to room temp before I boot. Is this sufficient?

Thanks,
Adcadet
 
The problem is the condensation that occurs when you go from a cold climate to a warm one, and if the laptop has indeed gotten down to -20° F then I would give it overnight to warm up before I booted it. The instructions for installing a hard drive, for example, always say to wait something like 12 hours when bringing one in from a temperature below 40° F. If you laptop is always on your person and not in the trunk of your car for hours, then you could probably get away with waiting an hour or so.

There should be no problem operating the machine outdoors in those kinds of temperatures(other than a severe degradation in LCD response times). In fact, it should actually be better in terms of CPU temperature. ;) The only real problem is going from a cold climate to a warm one. Water and electronics don't mix.
 
is there much risk of cracking the LCD? I thought that would be a major risk, and the reason I have been allowing my laptop to warm up a bit before booting it up. I haven't even thought about condensation.
 
Adcadet said:
is there much risk of cracking the LCD? I thought that would be a major risk, and the reason I have been allowing my laptop to warm up a bit before booting it up. I haven't even thought about condensation.
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There shouldn't be since it doesn't warm up very quickly. On the other hand, don't put a blow dryer to it the minute you bring it in since the sudden temperature change might make it crack. ;) There is a minimum temperature under which the LCD will actually sustain damage due to the liquid crystal material freezing, but this is usually around -40°F or less. I've had cheap LCD thermometers in a thermoelectric freezer that I made and they sustained -60° F with no problems, so I doubt -20° F will cause any long term damage to your display.

Yes, the major issue with bringing electronics in from the cold is condensation. If it's very dry inside and you don't see any condensation forming then it's probably OK to run it. On the other hand, the minute you see condesation of any kind, let it sit for a few hours.
 
I'd actually worry more about your battery than anything else. Cold will kill that battery very, very quickly. My rule of thumb is to not leave anything that has a battery in a car that you would wouldn't leave a pet in. Thinking of my laptop and cell phone that way makes it a bit easier to remember to bring them inside when it's cold.
 
Mercutio said:
I'd actually worry more about your battery than anything else. Cold will kill that battery very, very quickly. My rule of thumb is to not leave anything that has a battery in a car that you would wouldn't leave a pet in. Thinking of my laptop and cell phone that way makes it a bit easier to remember to bring them inside when it's cold.
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But what did you name them?

Stereodude
 
My IBM 540 is (host)named Atropus. I started naming my PCs after muses, but I ran out of those. Until my cell phone gets a static IP, I'm not giving it a hostname.
 
I started naming servers after Egyptian gods, and managed to run out of names long before I ran out of servers.

Naming themes for large server farms are a problem.
 
I can name lots of Egyptian gods:

Ra, Horus, Bast, Anubis, Thoth, Geb, Ptah, Isis, Astarte, Hathor, Maat

That's, umm... 11, anyway. I'd have to google to get more than that.

I think the only way to do server farms would be old-testament biblical names or something. That's kind of an inexhaustible supply. Besides, some of those names are kind of fun - "Abednego", "Obedientia", "Bashanhavothjair" (note to timwhite: Simpsons reference).

Actually, names from "The Simpsons" would be good, too.
 
the muppets are not bad... or do rivers/cities... in a lab at school we did monsters (werewolf, frankenstein, the blob, fang, Dracula, etc)...

At home I do characters from Anime (chibi-usa, usagi, mihoshi, papillion, tenchi, chibi-chibi, tinNyanko, ...)
 
As far as the laptop goes, the only device I would worry most about is the HDD. Since it is exposed to the outside air, when condensation builds, it usually occurs inside the drive, which is. . .well, bad. :D Moving the drive between drastic temperature changes is the leading cause of this problem. So, if you can, make those temperature changes minimal. For example, store the laptop in the passenger compartment of your car where it is heated or airconditioned. Thus the change from a climate controlled room to the climate controlled car will be minimal.
 
do laptop drives have the air hole? I would think there would be strict tolerances about the air mousture when manufacturing HDD's.

Whether this would help you or not I am not sure....
 
blakerwry said:
do laptop drives have the air hole? I would think there would be strict tolerances about the air mousture when manufacturing HDD's.

Whether this would help you or not I am not sure....
Click to expand...

All drives have ventilation, otherwise the air pressure created by heat expantion would overwhelm the rotation of the platters. Humidity levels are ISO defined during HDD assembly, but since they are exposed to external climate changes after manufacturing, they have little impact on the drive's condensation issues.
 
Use the name of elements for computers.

Gold, Oxygen, Platinum etc.

Of course, you could try naming them after ex-girlfriends as a friend of mine does, but I haven't had as much experience in that department as he has ;)
 
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