Cool.
Adam? …is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge?
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Re: Adam? …is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge?
#32I would recommend just chilling the drive, and using an external enclosure to read the data. Less risk of killing a whole laptop's worth of electronics with condensation, less warmup time wasted in booting, etc.
He mentioned that the reason he didn't do that was to avoid voiding the warranty.
I had a dell where the power connector socket went bad, it would literally smoke if you tried to plug power into it to charge it. I took the hard drive out and shipped it back driveless without any problems. Got a newer model replacement laptop and a free external (well, $15 enclosure) for the inconvenience of using my desktop for a week.
Re: Adam? …is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge?
#33Does taking out your hard drive seriously void your warranty on a Macbook? That sounds, uh... completely insane relative to the practices of every other PC manufacturer.
No, it doesn't. Here's the relevant quote, indicating that the only thing they won't cover is damage you cause while attempting a swap. Swapping itself is fine. WARNING: Apple recommends that you have an Apple-certified technician install replacement drives and memory. Consult the service and support information that came with your computer for information about how to contact Apple for service. If you attempt to ins…
2nd this - I always remove hard disks before dropping off laptops for service.
Re: Adam? …is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge?
#34My wife's iPod broke last year. The hard disk was clicking and the device just wouldn't boot up. We took it to the genius bar and they helpfully suggested we buy a new iPod. Tough break.
Then somehow we found out about this cool the hard disk technique. We put the iPod in a ziplock bag and in the freezer overnight. The device was working perfectly fine while backing it up, but as per the post, it would warm up and start stalling. So we put it on an ice block and it lasted long enough to get the backup done.
Re: Adam? …is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge?
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
He mentioned that the reason he didn't do that was to avoid voiding the warranty.
I'm not sure about Powerbooks, but even in unibody Macbook Pros, both the HD and RAM are considered user-serviceable without voiding the warranty. There's an entire section of the manual dedicated to swapping them.
The hard drives in aluminum PowerBooks, older MacBook Pros, and virtually every other Apple laptop except the MacBooks and unibody MacBook Pros are not user-serviceable.
Re: Adam? …is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge?
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure about Powerbooks, but even in unibody Macbook Pros, both the HD and RAM are considered user-serviceable without voiding the warranty. There's an entire section of the manual dedicated to swapping them.
The hard drives in aluminum PowerBooks, older MacBook Pros, and virtually every other Apple laptop except the MacBooks and unibody MacBook Pros are not user-serviceable.
They aren't easy to get to: it takes a couple hours and ~50 screws to swap the drive in my 12" Powerbook — but it doesn't violate the warranty to do so.
They probably wouldn't have covered it if you obviously fucked it up while taking it apart, but there was never anti-tamper tape or anything in there to directly detect that you'd done so.
Re: Adam? …is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge?
#37We used to freeze NES cartridges when blowing stopped working. We always chalked its working up to magic/luck, but perhaps there was more to it.
Is it just the heat or is there something else at play here?
Re: Adam? …is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge?
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
The difference is here, that you can tell if something has been opened, but it is nearly impossible to tell if something has been 'friged.' Apple can only void your warranty if they can catch you. And please don't mention that he 'posted on the internet' so the Apple store will catch him; we all know the prob of that is zeroish. So, I think it is safe to say for all intents and purposes refrigerating your computer do…
Well, if there's enough condensation, they might catch you. Do laptops have the water-damage-sensing things that they put in cell phones? The ones that permanently change color when they get wet so that they know that the phone got wet?
> Do laptops have the water-damage-sensing things that they put in cell phones?
No.
Re: Adam? …is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge?
#39Can anyone explain the theory behind why this works?
Re: Adam? …is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge?
#40My girlfriend is using my ~4 year old Macbook Pro, and it's getting warmer and warmer. It's too hot for direct contact with skin. Also, it's starting to drop the Wifi at high temps. The battery has been replaced once already. As a result, we're looking at one of those unibody 13" Macbooks, those are reported to be cooler. Temperature is the only reason we're getting rid of this one.
Maybe you just have to clean the fans?
Thanks for the tip.