Extreme Temperatures - Page 2

TruckinMP3 · 09-17-2009, 07:57 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by jdc753

snip

Only problem I could possible see with extreme temps would be with standard mechanical hard drives. Many have some sort of a liquid lubrication inside of them and this can be affected by the temperature. I don't recall all the times but mine has started up in 0° on several occasions. This took multiple pushes of the power button over maybe 5 minutes however the PC did eventually boot up.

These are called Fluid Dynamic Bearings (FDB) and your statement is accurate at very low temps the platters do not spin at the correct rate to be read correctly thus an incomplete boot to the OS,

Quote: Originally Posted by jdc753

This is also with a "ancient" Maxtor 120GB IDI drive, I figured I would use a old spare drive I had laying around as a test drive in my truck just incase the bumps (1 ton suspension) or temperatures (0°-100°+) were going to cause issues. So far 1 year or so and absolutely no hiccups other than what I mentioned with I guess hard cold starts.

Some drives are more picky about cold temps than others.

I have not had an issue in Denver, CO even on the coldest days. The coldest I remember off the top of my head is 11F ...

gerradbail · 11-11-2009, 06:26 PM

Living in Minnesota, I've had a couple of -40° F starts where a fluid bearing hard drive failed to spin up. Typically, the bios never ids the drive and the os fails to boot at all. But that happened during the coldest part of the winter. Waited a few minutes for the car to warm up, reboot and away I went. I do wonder how this mode of operation lowers the MTBF for the rest of the components in the car. I've had more power supplies die than anything else.

trader007 · 11-14-2009, 06:21 PM

i need to do a tune up before winter really hits. i want to add low voltage shutoff and remote computer killswitch so on the really cold mornings i can disable the pc first, then start the engine all with my remote starter. the cold shouldnt do much harm to the hardware, but allowing it all to warm up to at least above freezing first cant hurt it.

gerradbail · 11-17-2009, 05:55 PM

I was thinking about doing the same with a five-button remote starter. I already have a M3-ATX power supply in my case so I have the low voltage condition covered. With the aux line on the remote start I can boot the pc after the car has a chance to warm up.

trader007 · 11-18-2009, 10:37 AM

does the m3 have real low-voltage shutoff that's adjustable?

the m2 claims it has low voltage shutoff, but its only for the usb ports... its not something that will send a windows shutdown signal, and its trip point is not adjustable. i want something i can set so its shuts down the pc at around 12.0v battery left...

gerradbail · 11-18-2009, 10:25 PM

The M3 shuts down the +5v line to the PC completely if the battery voltage dips below 7v while in operation, or won't start the pc at all if the battery voltage is below 11.2v (had this happen with the stock car battery). The cut offs are not adjustable on the M3 but they are on the M4. Otherwise you'll want to go with an Opus or one of the more full-featured power supplies in the mp3car.com store.

trader007 · 11-19-2009, 12:08 AM

or make your own shutdown circuit like im doing as soon as i can find free time. 11.2 is awfully dead for a car battery.. you sure wont be starting your engine.

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