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Macbook: storing in a hot car

R

Richard1028

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 8, 2009
1,577
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How well does it do for half a day baking under a car seat? Do you need to turn it over and butter the other side?

I'm too chicken to try it so I lug it around.

Not worried about theft either. My car has nuclear powered anti-theft lasers. :eek:
 
Excessive heat is definitely bad for the internals of the computer, particularly the battery. I know the chips get just as hot, if not hotter during use, but I don't think the battery will generally won't get THAT hot during use.

Personally, I wouldn't do it, even if safety weren't a concern.
 
Even on a not-so-hot day, a parked car can easily exceed the outside temperature by 40*F.

If it's 75F outside and sunny, the car's inside can get over 100F no problem. Every part of the car will get hot. The shading of the seat doesn't matter when the air inside the car is heated and that hot air diffuses all throughout the passenger compartment.

Just....don't do it.
 
Yeah, my gut's been telling me not to do it so I haven't. It's "hell season" here in the midwest so I'd better get used to it.

I wonder why all the electronic circuitry and gizmos in the car itself seem to do ok though?
 
The wiring and solders in the car are designed to withstand the stresses of extreme heat and cold that a car will experience, whereas a laptop is not.

Also, as far as the battery goes, the chemistry of a lead-acid battery vs. lithium ion in terms of temperature sensitivity is fairly difference. Extreme heat and cold will kill either, but Li-Ion is far more sensitive at either end of the spectrum.
 
Don't leave it in your car. My girlfriend has yet to understand the concept of keeping her BlackBook out of the trunk when she's out and about.

2 replacement Hard Drives later... Well, you get the picture.
 
If you have no choice, crack the sunroof and put a sunshade behind the windshield (there are modern looking sunshades now that don't look like aluminum foil bubble wrap or have 1980's palm tree graphics on them). Park in the shade when possible, of course. All-in-all, it's not the best thing for the computer. Did you ever touch a seatbelt buckle after the car's been in the hot sun? You better have- seatbelts save lives! Anyway, my MacBook Pro can get warm when transcoding video or gaming, but it doesn't get that hot!
 
it depends on the day?

I think a lot of times, your laptop is fine in your car by putting it in the shade in a case or sleeve. But, then, there are other days, when your car could melt a snickers bar in 10 seconds - Those days, i would 'lug' it around as you mentioned...

Heat & Humidity are the ultimate evils!

CrackBookPro:cool:
 
NewMacbookPlz said:
The wiring and solders in the car are designed to withstand the stresses of extreme heat and cold that a car will experience, whereas a laptop is not.
Click to expand...

What? Wiring is, for all intensive purposes, the same in a car and in a computer. Cars are also not held together with solder, but with welding- which is not really comparable at all. The soldering in your cars circuitry is basically the same as that in the computer.
 
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