Insights and Rants

News and general opinion, often security or computer related, but could be about anything really, including religion, politics, the environment or podcasts. "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence." -- Napoleon Bonaparte

Friday, February 16, 2007

The Laptop is in the Refrigerator

Penny's IBM ThinkPad R31 laptop has had a cooling problem for some time now because the motherboard is defective. Yesterday the hard drive developed a fault and the machine couldn't boot. Most likely the fault is because the drive runs too hot because the motherboard is faulty.
I booted the machine up with Spinrite, and after a minute or so it warned me that the drive was too hot. The only way I could run Spinrite's diagnostics was to put the entire laptop in the fridge. See photo. So far Spinrite has identified a part of the drive that is faulty, but I should be able to get around 98% of the data off the drive. If it wasn't for Spirite we would have lost most of it long ago.

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2 Comments:

Anonymous cz said...

I wonder how long you can safely keep a laptop in the refrigerator without doing damage.

Sat Feb 06, 02:25:00 AM SAST  
Blogger Donn Edwards said...

Surprisingly a fridge is a dry place when the door is closed, but the condensation from opening the door to check on the laptop is probably not good. Of course it may only affect the outside of the laptop, since the inside is warm.

I would be interested to know from someone who lives in a cold country how well a laptop survives around 5 degrees C.

In any case, I have stopped using the R31 because it was too much of a hassle.

I have heard Steve Gibson saying that he stores a number of computers and hard drives in a fridge so they last longer, but I suspect they are wrapped in plastic.

Sat Feb 06, 01:28:00 PM SAST  

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