Has Cold Weather Killed your Carpc?

spiike · 02-13-2007, 01:10 PM

My hdd in my HP xe3 laptop died which I believe is from the cold weather. Chicago has -7*F -30 windchill. It was actually doing some crazy clicking of death the other day which was also subzero temps, and it finally died. New harddrive from the local tigerdirect outlet works great now, but I'm not putting the laptop back in the car anytime soon.

Has this happened to anyone else with more carpc experience? Since this is the first winter with my carpc, I didn't know what to expect.

05k20A3 · 02-13-2007, 01:35 PM

what part of chicago u live in. i'm actually hearing the hard drive start to click too. so i have been takin it easy on the computer and have just been using the headunit. man it's been getting cold around here. btw im not even using a laptop drive im using a regular 3.5.

spiike · 02-13-2007, 02:41 PM

I'm out in Naperville. If your harddrive is clicking I would start to back up your data, since it is the first signs of a dying harddrive.

ShawJohn · 02-13-2007, 04:22 PM

Sounds like it was on its way out anyway

My 3.5" works fine down to -5C

05k20A3 · 02-13-2007, 11:44 PM

yeah im here in niles/glenview area and this weather has seriously been gettin on my nerves. the inside of my car is all dirty n ****. my car went from black to white cuz of all the salt and so did my floor mats. luckly i havent really had any problems with the computer booting up, but i do have a problem with my wifi adapter. ill try to connect to my network and itll say connected signal strenght good then a sec later it'll say wireless networks available and when i click on it, it wont be connected to any wireless network. so i keep clicking my network or anyone else and it just does the same thing. ive only had the adapter for like 3 weeks. its http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833130111 this here. it works really good and it has some good reception but i cant get it to stay connected for more then half a second.

spoonraker · 02-14-2007, 12:49 AM

Every now and then mine won't boot because it's so cold, the HDD freezes up, so I just wait a few minutes and try to boot again and it always works. This almost never happens since I have remote start though. I wouldn't say that's a problem though, it was expected, that's why I have a switch on my ignition line going to the psu

dyne · 02-15-2007, 04:22 PM

my carputer doesn't boot up if it's less than -5-10*C. My CF card doesn't like the cold.

Also, my usb hub doesn't work very well in the cold either

2k1Toaster · 02-15-2007, 04:32 PM

-20C and still cooking.

EricE · 02-21-2007, 06:25 PM

I voted no but after reading the thread I realize that likely all my infrequent problems over the last couple months could be related to cold weather. For a couple of weeks I had some intermittent startup problems. Like sometimes it wouldn’t start and I would have to flip it off and on a few times to get it to go.
I also had a couple of times when the screen went either white or stayed off and I had to cycle power a few times to get it to go.

scotty562 · 02-22-2007, 01:03 AM

Yep, cold weather keeps my Toshiba A85's hard drive from working when it gets too cold. Waiting about 5 minutes usually solves that. That's okay though, I have to put my car away 3 months out of the year so whenever it starts having problems booting I know it's soon time to put it away

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W3bMa5t3r · 02-22-2007, 01:13 AM

I voted no. We've had around -10C (14F) (actual/not windchill) at times over the past week or two here in the Northern Virginia area, the only slight issue I've had is the touchscreen being a bit funny in reaction to my finger, but within a few minutes it was back to normal. No boot issues at all.

EvilLawnGnome · 02-23-2007, 04:13 PM

I had a problem once a couple of weeks ago. When I booted the computer, it said that it couldn't find the startup disk. I let it run for another minute or two then pushed restert. Booted right up after that. I guess it just needed to heat up a bit.

david69leonard · 02-27-2007, 03:31 PM

the only prob. ive had is the contrast on my TS is a little off, but the PC boots just fine

rsd212 · 02-27-2007, 04:48 PM

Random reboots, relay cycling on/off when I first start car...only happened since it was cold. Think it may just be related to the low-voltage setting, but unsure. Fixed my overheating problem though

dyne · 02-27-2007, 09:47 PM

Yep, dead USB hub.

Might just be a coincidence, though