Cold Temperatures, Condensation, and Electronics

My initial response is no, they are not sealed that well. If the package were sealed no cooling air could circulate to cool things off.

I'd also think that letting the laptop sit at room temperature for an hour or so should allow it to dry enough for use. Letting it dry is probably more important that not allowing condensation in the first place.

I've sat in the pool for 1/2 hour with my cell phone in my pocket, let the phone dry out for a day and still used it for two years after the bath.

And finally water vapor condensed out of the atmosphere is probably not very corrosive, nor conductive.

"I'd also think that letting the laptop sit at room temperature for an hour or so should allow it to dry enough for use. Letting it dry is probably more important that not allowing condensation in the first place."

That's what I figured, too. I've never had an electronic fuzz out on me when given ample time to dry out first (save a cell phone in with the dishes, but that's a story for another day).

And I agree that if it was actually hermetically sealed, there'd definitely be some issues with cooling

"I've sat in the pool for 1/2 hour with my cell phone in my pocket..." LOL, keepin in touch with some mermaid no doubt....

I used to do some work for a small electronic component manufacturing facility, and they used to wash some of the boards in a washing machine after soldering was complete....and we used to wash out window units with a hose, blow 'em off with compressed air, then let them set for several hours in the sun...Some laptops have heaters and fans and moisture detectors all designed for component protection....then again some don't

"I've sat in the pool for 1/2 hour with my cell phone in my pocket..."

I can tell you that if you drop your cell phone in a bucket of paint it pretty well messes them up for good ever.

I've dealt with a number of cell phones dropped in lake water, salt water, and hot tub water for varying amounts of time.

Disassembling, rinsing in DI or distilled water, and then drying in a room temperature container that contains some desiccant has always been successful...

...UNLESS an attempt was made to turn the phone on when it was discovered wet.

.

Every time someone tested a wet phone (to see it it was really damaged, I guess), disassembling, rinsing and drying were to no avail.

"And finally water vapor condensed out of the atmosphere is probably not very corrosive nor conductive."

Your words are sound, all sound. CORRECT!! The condensed water has been distilled and is relatively pure and non-conductive. However, it condenses as liquid on contaminated surfaces and the resulting "soup" can be highly corrosive. It is this soup that is responsible for a long list of failures of electronic devices. All it takes is a trace of a fingerprint or some ionic contaminant, and corrosion begins.

Agreed. Surface contamination may cause problems. Then again, it may not.

Even very complicated electronic packages like a laptop computer can be made impervious to extreme temperature and humidity conditions that can cause internal condensation. Rarely do people pay the extra money for these rugged systems.

Unless your laptop has a solid state hard drive, the reliability of this mechanical system can be the easiest to be compromised by moisture and ice crystal formation. My next concern would be moisture seeping into the laminations of your display. This will not cause a catastrophic failure (like a hard drive can) but a distorted image or bubble across the display.

None of these plausible problems should be a big concern for you since you religiously backup everything. Am I right?

My external drives have failed more than any of my hard drives, but yes, I do back everything up Regardless, I'm not super concerned about losing anything on this particular laptop, since I just use it to mess around with different interfaces with Linux - Mint.

I was told (for cameras, not laptops) to allow the item to warm gradually and not to use it for several hours (until it has felt room temperature for some time.)

I was also told that putting your wet cell phone in a bag of rice will hasten the drying considerably.

So, get 20 pounds of rice.....................................

It's a matter of timing and the age of the laptop. If it's only been a few hours you can take it from your car into the house and immediately power it on, there should be no problem because the internally generated heat will warm it up before any condensation forms, otherwise let it come to room temperature for 24 hours unpowered. Most LCDs are inactive at low temperatures but usually work fine after coming to room temperature.

I have found that the disk drive doesn't care, I have taken drives that would not boot and put them in the freezer overnight. Next morning they were put back in the machine ice cold and immediately started, 8 out of 9 different drives booted and worked long enough backup and recover all the data.

The thing to watch for is the battery, depending upon the temperature, type/chemistry, and state of charge/discharge, if it is frozen solid then plugging in the charger could be a formula for disaster.

If you're in a hurry then the best bet is to put the entire machine into an insulated box (picnic cooler) preheated with a low wattage light bulb and let it soak for 4 hours or more before powering it up.

I've done LOTS of qual testing (shake bake) on avionics. And as Mizuti is in New York I'm going to assume his house is dry from winter outdoor conditions. If there is water vapor dripping on the inside of the windows (from a humidifier or 20 or more cats perspiring), I would put it in a plastic bag, and let it warm up slowly or by the light bulb in a cooler technique. Otherwise just let it warm up naturally to prevent thermal shock.

The problem with consumer electronics is they don't wash the boards after solder re flow, as they use wash-less fluxes (typical, but may not be for this PC). So there may be halides (or other contaminants) left on the board (salts, as well from human contamination). In addition the cooling fan brings in contaminants. I'm guessing the back-light on LCD is not fluorescent, but if it is, this is real high voltage (2KV), that loves to arc on any PWB.

The cell phones being discussed above had to be Nokias.