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Emergency Power-Down in High Temperature

B

bzen

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 31, 2008
35
0
I left my iphone in my car today while I made a quick visit into a friend's house. The quick visit turned into an hour, and my phone sat in the sun--outside temperature was about 105F. When I got back into the car I tried to use the iphone and it flashed a warning message that it was too hot and it could not be used until it cooled down (it did leave the option of dialing an "emergency" number...). It took about an hour, in an air-conditioned house, before it would start working again.

I was just wondering if anyone knew how hot the phone had to get before it entered this emergency shut-down mode.

And, yes, I know I'm an idiot for leaving it in the car.....:D
 
Ahhh, there was a thread a little while back about this... somebody read about it in the user manuel but nobody had seen it happen. Should have taken a picture =)
 
bzen said:
I left my iphone in my car today while I made a quick visit into a friend's house. The quick visit turned into an hour, and my phone sat in the sun--outside temperature was about 105F. When I got back into the car I tried to use the iphone and it flashed a warning message that it was too hot and it could not be used until it cooled down (it did leave the option of dialing an "emergency" number...). It took about an hour, in an air-conditioned house, before it would start working again.

I was just wondering if anyone knew how hot the phone had to get before it entered this emergency shut-down mode.

And, yes, I know I'm an idiot for leaving it in the car.....:D
Click to expand...

According to Apple...
Environmental requirements
Operating temperature: 32° to 95° F
(0° to 35° C)
Nonoperating temperature: -4° to 113° F
(-20° to 45° C)
Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing
Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m)
Click to expand...

And yes, I am sure the last thing that went through your head was a picture, but it would have been sweet. :)
 
skubish said:
no you can watch videos on an airplane. A plane is pressurized inside. If you were on a mountain above 10,000ft you might have problems.
Click to expand...

Hard drives are the limiting factor. They need sufficient air density to float the heads above the rotating disc surface.

No one knows why Apple puts the same altitude limit on non-hard-drive devices like the iPhone and some of the iPods. There's nothing inside them with such a low limit.

As far as heat goes, that's a battery killer.
 
deannnnn said:
Ahhh, there was a thread a little while back about this... somebody read about it in the user manuel but nobody had seen it happen. Should have taken a picture =)
Click to expand...

Don't I know it!!! :eek:

The message was a big yellow triangle with an exclamation point. The wording was something of the sort, "temperature too high, iphone will have to cool before using." The sliderbar scrolled "emergency calls only" in various languages. When I slid the bar, it popped up the keypad.

As freaked as I was about overheating the phone, I thought it was so cool (hot?:)) that it was programed to tell me it had overheated.
 
Same thing happened to me!

Yeah, similar story...I left my iPhone in the car and when I came back and touched it, it was scorching! Sooo i turned on the A/C to full and held it to the vents for 5 min. It worked normally after that.

It was a black screen (which is odd cuz I've never seen an apple BSOD). It had the "emergency" or "caution" sign (typically used on electronic products or road signs). The sign was a yellow upside-down triangle with a black exclamation mark. And underneath, "The temperature of your iPhone is too high, cool it down before using."

Even though I kinda freaked out, it was pretty cool cuz 1) i thot it fried! AND 2)Can't believe it took the time to explain the temp. was too high (how polite! lol)

Thot of taking a picture, but since the iPhone was the only device w/camera within reach, I cudn't :(
 
pscha3 said:
Yeah, similar story...I left my iPhone in the car and when I came back and touched it, it was scorching! Sooo i turned on the A/C to full and held it to the vents for 5 min. It worked normally after that.

It was a black screen (which is odd cuz I've never seen an apple BSOD). It had the "emergency" or "caution" sign (typically used on electronic products or road signs). The sign was a yellow upside-down triangle with a black exclamation mark. And underneath, "The temperature of your iPhone is too high, cool it down before using."

Even though I kinda freaked out, it was pretty cool cuz 1) i thot it fried! AND 2)Can't believe it took the time to explain the temp. was too high (how polite! lol)

Thot of taking a picture, but since the iPhone was the only device w/camera within reach, I cudn't :(
Click to expand...

The picture is on MR somewhere, but I can't find it. Anyway, that is a good feature, because what it does is shutdown the iPhone and keep you from ruining it. I don't think you can "fry" an iPhone from overheating it for just that reason (however, I'm not sure if all models have the feature). It's like a computer's shutdown when it gets too hot due to the fans failing.
 
Picture:

11296image.jpg


Google Images anyone? LOL :rolleyes:
 
iphone works in cold

first post!
decided i should start contributing to the discussions on this site.

i can attest that the iphone works in -10F, the screen ghosts really bad, but it operates just fine.

a bit of friendly information from minneapolis :)
 
You got LUCKY.

It was probably well over 130 degrees (F) inside that car and quite possibly close to 160 degrees.

I'm sure there are parts of the phone that wouldn't last a very long time in those conditions.
 
Small White Car said:
You got LUCKY.

It was probably well over 130 degrees (F) inside that car and quite possibly close to 160 degrees.

I'm sure there are parts of the phone that wouldn't last a very long time in those conditions.
Click to expand...

Way back when all people had were cassette players, my brother left my cassette player in the car while we were passing thru Arizona in the summer (probably around 100 degrees). It melted.
 
-aggie- said:
Way back when all people had were cassette players, my brother left my cassette player in the car while we were passing thru Arizona in the summer (probably around 100 degrees). It melted.
Click to expand...

Ha ha...that's great.

I've melted crayons and candy and stuff like that, but nothing like an entire cassette!
 
mrbrown said:
Well here's an interesting question - what about the low temp. limit? Would the same sort of error message pop up if I left it in the garage when it was -12 out??
Click to expand...

I doubt it. The 'too low' temperatures usually refer to the point when the battery stops working. So there's no point in creating an error screen for a situation where the power won't come on.
 
Small White Car said:
You got LUCKY.

It was probably well over 130 degrees (F) inside that car and quite possibly close to 160 degrees.

I'm sure there are parts of the phone that wouldn't last a very long time in those conditions.
Click to expand...

That is probably very true. I'm not sure if the iPhone has the same type of touch screen as my old Verizon Voyager, but I killed two of them by leaving them in my car. I work in a job where I cannot carry my phone inside so I would leave it in the glove box. Both times, the same fault showed up. It looked like a layer of electrostatic film under the glass became dislodged and peeled back much as if it had melted. Both times, the touch screen stopped working. The iPhone may be completely different, but my case shows the weird things that heat buildup can affect. Happy to hear it worked out for the op.
 
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