Macbook put in the fridge:

[Lqsh]

HI guys,
On my a recent flight to Europe the airline 'mistakenly' put my bag in the fridge. It included many lenses and 3 external harddrives as well as my Nov 2011 Macbook pro. Now its not starting again after I just had it fixed. Does anyone know if prolonged cold from the fridge will have done any damage? Very concerned!

 

[close2reality]

HI guys,
On my a recent flight to Europe the airline 'mistakenly' put my bag in the fridge. It included many lenses and 3 external harddrives as well as my Nov 2011 Macbook pro. Now its not starting again after I just had it fixed. Does anyone know if prolonged cold from the fridge will have done any damage? Very concerned!

Refrigerators are set to about 40*F give or take. That is well above the storage range, I would have let the laptop come back to room temp prior to turning it on.

Sounds weird though, I wouldn't think that would be the culprit.

 

[afhstingray]

if you tried switching it on immediately you may have killed it. not because of the cold, but because of the condensation that forms when you move from very cold to warm.

 

[Lqsh]

Thanks guys.
Im really concerned with the external drives as they were freezing to touch and also my camera lenses as they were freezing as well.
I'll back them up when I can just to be safe. Regardless, I'm very upset with this situation.

 

[mojolicious]

Im really concerned with the external drives as they were freezing to touch

They really shouldn't be: as close2reality said, a refrigeration unit is typically 40ºF and the cargo hold is 5º or so warmer than that.

The only way I can see temp-related failure is if your luggage had spent an hour sitting on the tarmac at a significantly sub zero airport, and you then turned on your MacBook the moment it came off the belt.

If the drives, lenses etc were left alone until they got back to regular room temperatures then they, at least, should be fine.

 

[austinpike]

Electronics get shipped, left in fedex trucks, car trunks, etc all the time at at sub-zero temps. 40° is nothing and won't do any damage in itself. The condensation thing is a possibility if you pulled your laptop and drives directly out of the fridge and powered them up immediately. Even then I don't think that is cold enough to really cause excessive condensation.

What did you have the macbook repaired for? If it is a late 2011 with the video card issue, my guess would be the the "fix" simply didn't last. I'd imagine the travel and vibration were worse for it than the cold.

 

[Meister]

Several years back in winter I took a drive with my car for about 10hours with my laptop in the trunk. When I arrived, the screen was white and never recovered. Cold will definitely harm your macbook. I would go to your lawyer and get damages from the airline.

 

[mojolicious]

This is from the current 13" MacBook Pro specs...

If you did turn on the MacBook immediately after collection, and if it had spent some time outside in a cage, then it might have been a degree or two below 50ºF. Still seems highly unlikely that this would cause failure.

The maximum shipping altitude is interesting. Don't most long haul flights cruise at around 40,000'?

 

[Gav2k]

This is from the current 13" MacBook Pro specs...

Image

If you did turn on the MacBook immediately after collection, and if it had spent some time outside in a cage, then I it might have been a degree or two below 50ºF. Still seems highly unlikely that this would cause failure.

The maximum shipping altitude is interesting. Don't most long haul flights cruise at around 40,000'?

Max altitude is only relivent on an Unpressurised hold.

Also the operational altitude is only relivent for platter based hdd's

 

[mojolicious]

Max altitude is only relivent on an Unpressurised hold.

Ah, that makes sense.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Electronics get shipped, left in fedex trucks, car trunks, etc all the time at at sub-zero temps. 40° is nothing and won't do any damage in itself. The condensation thing is a possibility if you pulled your laptop and drives directly out of the fridge and powered them up immediately. Even then I don't think that is cold enough to really cause excessive condensation.

What did you have the macbook repaired for? If it is a late 2011 with the video card issue, my guess would be the the "fix" simply didn't last. I'd imagine the travel and vibration were worse for it than the cold.

I'd say that the last part of this post is most relevant. If you had your logic board replaced due to video card failure then the replacement will fail it is only a matter of time.

 

[TheIguana]

Hah! 4ºC, which is what a refrigerator runs at, won't harm any of your electronics.

 

[paolo-]

I very much doubt the low temperatures would have harmed your computer. I live in Canada and I'm walk for roughly 30 mins in -30ºC weather several days out of the year. I even leave my computer in the car for hours. This is quite normal operation for lots of people. I've never had a problem or know anyone that has had a problem with a computer dying because it got cold.

Condensation may have been an issue but the air in an airplane is typically extremely dry so I doubt that you would have had a problem. I'm also supposing that the computer was in a bag so it would have lowered the chances of condensation as they would have slowly cooled and heated back up. Your hard drives should be fine as they are sealed.

It sounds to me like it's the 2011 video card issue that's shown it's face again.