I did this once with a client's machine at the rinky-dink data center I used to work at. The breakroom fridge kept his server going long enough for us to get his data off.
Adam? ... is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge? (2006)
131–140 of 177 posts
Re: Adam? ... is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge? (2006)
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I was ~11ish I found my desktop was overheating quite regularly. The solution I came up with on my $0 dollar budget was to pop the side of the case off and point a box fan into it. Worked like a charm…for a while.
I did this a lot as a kid, up to the point where I just didn’t care about having a case anymore. I completely removed the whole thing and put it on top of a rubber plate, and covered it after use with an old horizontal metal case from a 486 or something. I loved how confused my mother and then later my girlfriend would look when they saw me working/gaming in that total barebones setup. To be honest I have very fond m…
My current desktop setup uses a mining rig frame and tends to get the same confused looks from people.
I have it setup that way because there are no motherboard options for my CPU which allow for sufficient spacing between two triple slot GPUs to provide adequate airflow.
Re: Adam? ... is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge? (2006)
#133This reminds me of a time I tried to install Ubuntu on an old thick Dell laptop many years ago. Each time I would try the system would overheat and then crash. The existing (windows) system still appeared to work fine with light loads so I was pretty sure I just needed to get past the install and decided to try one more time. It was winter at the time, I can't remember if it had snowed recently, but I think it was pr…
Good story! Still, IMO a better solution is fixing the hardware. Many years ago, I had similar symptoms with an old thick HP laptop. I think I have paid something like $30 for the new fan assembly, it’s a large part which includes a fan, radiator and couple of heat pipes. The assembly connects to the motherboard with a small plug, no soldering was required. It only took half an hour (and a blob of thermal paste) to r…
Opening it up and vacuum cleaning the fan from dust also can do wonders with old and "broken" laptops as a first step. Tiny bit of WD40 in the fan mechanic is the next, then thermal paste, then replacing parts.
(Advice, prevent the fan from spinning while doing vacuum)
Re: Adam? ... is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge? (2006)
#134I grew up in a city with temp reaching 48 Celsius in the summer Of course this wasn’t very good for electronic devices and hence every console I bought died with a year of over heating. For my PS2 I managed to extend the lifetime by placing big blocks of ice in a tray underneath it and the console sitting on top on a rack to avoid contact. I had to replace the ice every hour but the system worked well enough till the…
Large water bottles that are closed, placed on top the case and get replaced regulary also help a lot with no risk of water damage ..
Re: Adam? ... is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge? (2006)
#135Small world, I used to work with this guy. If you're reading this Adam, they never got back to me on the W2. I ended up having to call the corporate headquarters.
Smaller world, I also used to work with him. And just recently used the fridge trick on an old dying hard drive (it worked fwiw), but don't remember if he was the source of why I thought that might work.
Re: Adam? ... is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge? (2006)
#136Ooh I have a related story. My brother dropped his phone and cracked his screen and damaged some internal components as well. Sometimes the screen just wouldn't turn on, but the touchscreen would work. I told him to get a new one and he said no, this one is fine, he just has to throw it in the freezer for about 2 minutes at the start of each day. After a few minutes of freezing, the screen actually turned on. I thought it would eventually warm up and need refreezing again, but sure enough, it stayed on for the whole day.
I guess there is some circuit that determines if the screen comes on or not, but if it's already on, it won't switch it off, so he just disabled auto-lock and avoided the lock button all day.
My next question was how he figured it out. He lives in a cold climate area and his phone screen would consistently work whenever he walked to the store, and consistently not work when he was at home. Eventually he realized it was the temperature that made it work. I've seen stuff about computers in the freezer, etc, but there's something funnier about needing a quick freeze and it's good until you lock it again.
Re: Adam? ... is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge? (2006)
#137My laptop was once heated inside it's case, it was hard to touch it. I don't know how it didn't explode, it was so hot I decided to put it in THE FREEZER. I thought I'd leave it there for 5-6 minutes, but I fell asleep and forgot it THE ENTIRE NIGHT. 7-8 hours. In the morning I panicked as I remembered what I have done. It then had a black screen for a few minutes and I thought I was drowning in my stupidity, but lat…
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Re: Adam? ... is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge? (2006)
#138A friend would do this with his Apple M1 laptop when we would play something online. He'd take some frozen fresh cheese out of the freezer (in a plastic bag) and put it under the laptop. Otherwise, his framerate would crater. Sometimes, in winter, he'd put a coat on, open the window, and play with the laptop on the window sill. Apple laptops tend to be slim and silent, but their thermals always seem to pay the price.
This has to be the Air, because that one is passively cooled. I also use it and in the hot summer I've got 2 fans. One to cool me down, and one to cool my laptop down.
Still love the thing, so small, light and convenient while traveling. The few days it is hot here I can run another fan :-)
Re: Adam? ... is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge? (2006)
#139Adam? Why don’t you have ketchup in your fridge like a human being? Are you a cyborg?
Re: Adam? ... is there a reason your laptop is in the fridge? (2006)
#140The best one I ever saw was someone took a few gallons of 3M non-conductive liquid, put a working 486 motherboard in the bucket, put the bucket in the freezer, then overclocked it until it burned up.
They got an impressive overclock out of it, for a few seconds. lol