Putting a laptop in the freezer

Cas

Well-known Member
I was using my laptop a couple weeks ago and the screen turned into a multicolored little checkered boxes on the whole screen. Shut it off and it would not turn on. I read on here to put it in the freezer for 24 hours I think.
Well, it went into the freezer for 24 hours. when I took it out it would not do anything. Tried it 4 hours later and the back up battery was really hot. But, I tried turning it on and it booted up. Logged on and it is working as good or better than ever.
Probably this would not work all the time, but is worth a try.
Could anyone explain what might have happened in the freezer?
 
I have left mine in the truck over the weekend, without the espar keeping the cab warm. It gets unhappy if I try and use it when it's cold like that. Letting it freeze hasn't seemed to hurt it, it's 3 yrs old now.
 
CAS,
Thats what JDE Maris told us to do with ours,
ours froze up and would not work(desktop model) we took it apart and put the mother board in the freezer for a hour or so, put it back together and it worked. That man is smart.
As to why, I have no idea, but it worked and is still working.I'll take 99.9% of what he says as gospel, the .01% I contribute to every one can be wrong that much. He's a remarkable individual.

LOU
 
Hard drive components or just about any electronic component maybe on it's last legs.
Freezing will sometimes allow down loading data from a failing HD.
Some electronic trouble shooting can be performed with a can of circuit cooler. Chill the suspect solid state component and see if it works better.
 
Last winter my desktop stopped working. I could turn it on, the screen would skip the picture and go right to one of the programs I never use but then it was done couldn't do any thing with it. I put it in the car to deliver to the shop to get it fixed and it sat in the car a few days in sub zero temps. Finally got it to the shop and left it and the guy called a few days later and said there was nothing wrong with it. Got it back and it's been working ever since.
 
Back up your hard drive now. Or, to be specific get any data off it you can't afford to lose.

The hard drive may or may not be getting ready to go. All current production hard drives have built-in SMART monitoring that constantly reports the hard drive's error rate. Naturally, Windows blithely ignores this information as your drive self-destructs. But you can use third-party software, such as <a href="http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/smartmontools/wiki">smartmontools</a>, to read the SMART info to see if your drive is on its last legs.

Freezing the laptop may or may not have helped. But you can be confident the problem will return.
 
Lou,
I agree with you he is a remarkable man.
A few years ago I had the pleasure to talk to him on the phone. I live in Western New York probably about 3 hours from him.
Cas
 
Mark, thanks for your post I am going to use it in the morning. Also, enjoy reading your informative posts.
Cas
 
I got a cousin who has his computer on 24/7. It was several years old when the electricity went off. Of course, the computer hard drive didn"t turn on. I told him about putting the hard drive in the freezer and it worked long enough to get all vital info off of it. He thought highly of me, at least for a day or two.
 
Thank you, Cas.

I should mention that although there's a Windows version of smartmontools, I don't think its very easy to use, due to its Linux origins. I only suggested it because I'm hesitant to recommend something I haven't used myself, and I have used smartmontools on Linux. There are other Windows-specific tools which you can find by googling "windows smart disk monitor". (If I wanted to check out the hard disk on a Windows PC myself, I would do it using a Linux "live" (bootable) CD, since that will work even if the PC can't be booted from its hard disk.)
 
never put an apple in the freezer, it will rot rapidly when you take it out, and let it thaw. Tastes terrible, too!
 
Just don't be surprised if the web sites you visit give you the "cold shoulder" now. :)

Sounds like a neat trick to keep in mind for a temporary rescue. I would bet, as others have said that it would be wise to get your info off there ASAP.
 
I never heard anyone putting the entire computer in the freezer. JUST the hard-drive. I've done it many times and it usually works to get a dying hard-drive to spin and boot up. That colds is NOT good for other parts of the computer. Yanking the hard-drive from a laptop is a 5 minute job.
 

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