hotponyshoes

Ok, so my car pc is not so bad but,
I spent the weekend 'on board' bit of fishing so we took a sony viao laptop out and plugged it to the battery using a car power supply.
we played music on it non stop from 10am sat morning to 3pm sun.
I try turning it on this morning and it gets to the post screen, windows logo comes up then it just goes black. I put the mains charger on it and it charges for 10mins then the light goes green telling me its ful.
hit the power switch - fan spins screen flashes - all dies again.
Take it to my local pc/phone place. he takes the back off and its all covered with fuzz on the pcb form around the fan intake and the vents on the computer. he puts it is some sort of ultrasonic tank and cleans it off.
It works again. i start using it when i get home and it dies after 20min.
Back at the shop he takes the lid off and a whole load of tracks have lifted from the pcb and the processor pins have all crumbled away.

Now this laptop sat in a dry cabin on a dry surface and this has been caused just by the salt in the air. I 'might' put a proper one in for music (i think it's a better idea to get an ipod on board) but i WILL NOT ever use one for anything i might trust my life to (gps/bottom sounder/plotter) and i would urge others to think carefully before doing the same.

I would not want to be the person that pust lifeboat crews at risk because i am lost at sea because my pc wont boot up or my homebrew software has crashed.

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PB 2.0Ghz, 20GB, 512mb, XPpro. 300GB Usb HDD, Griffin pwrmate, m-audio audiophile fw. BU-353 gps. 2x100w sony amps, 1x150w JBL sub amp, MBQuart front components, 6x9 rear, 10" sub. Audiocontrol epcienter, esp2, 3xs. Clifford G5, Finished, fitted, problems