{"id":4042,"date":"2020-01-08T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/langa.com\/?p=4042"},"modified":"2020-01-07T16:21:55","modified_gmt":"2020-01-07T21:21:55","slug":"why-does-a-dead-laptop-revive-after-putting-it-in-the-freezer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2020\/01\/08\/why-does-a-dead-laptop-revive-after-putting-it-in-the-freezer\/","title":{"rendered":"“Why does a dead laptop revive after putting it in the freezer?”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(Answer requested by Edgar Ferrer)<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yikes! If this actually worked on your laptop, you’re very lucky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The actual, true “put it in the fridge” advice is very old-school, and is\/was a nothing-left-to-lose, last-ditch recovery option for malfunctioning spinning-platter hard drives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deep-chilling a mechanical drive could sometimes free up stuck internal parts, via differential contraction\/expansion of the various metal components.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this was never, ever a “try this first” thing — the risk of further damage to the drive was high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the idea was always to remove the drive from the PC before putting it anywhere! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I haven’t heard of anyone having to revive a hard drive by chilling in years and years; I suspect that modern HDDs just don’t fail that way much anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even if they do, putting an entire HDD-equipped laptop in the fridge runs the risk of causing even worse damage to the laptop screen and battery; both of which fare very poorly at low temps, and can be permanently damaged by below-freezing temps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your hard drive is well and truly dead — not spinning at all — and you have nothing left to lose, sure, wrap the drive tightly in airtight plastic (to keep moisture\/condensation out), and set in in a quiet part of your fridge for several hours. Take it out of the fridge, unwrap it only enough to access the sockets, and reconnect it to a PC as an external drive. If it spins and starts, copy the data off the dying drive RIGHT NOW because it’s on its way out. If the drive still won’t start, rewrap it and let it fully warm to room temperature on its own. When it’s at room temperature, and the plastic is dry (no condensation), unwrap the drive and try again. If it works, you’ve bought a little time: Get the data off RIGHT NOW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But at least, you’re gonna need a new drive. And if you put your entire laptop “in the freezer,” you’ll soon need a new laptop, too!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Answer requested by Edgar Ferrer) Yikes! If this actually worked on your laptop, you’re very lucky. The actual, true “put it in the fridge” advice is very old-school, and is\/was a nothing-left-to-lose, last-ditch recovery option for malfunctioning spinning-platter hard drives. Deep-chilling a mechanical drive could sometimes free up stuck internal parts, via differential contraction\/expansion of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-reader-asks","category-hardware"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paaiox-13c","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2422,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/20\/a-reader-asks-my-laptop-isnt-working-how-can-i-recover-my-data-from-the-hard-drive\/","url_meta":{"origin":4042,"position":0},"title":"A reader asks: “My laptop isn’t working. How can I recover my data from the hard drive?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-03-20","format":false,"excerpt":"If the actual laptop is broken --- destroyed screen, liquid on the keyboard, or some such --- there's a good chance the drive itself is OK. If that's the case, you can physically salvage the drive and use another PC to recover the drive's data. First, unplug the laptop and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/ide-to-usb.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/ide-to-usb.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/ide-to-usb.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2841,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/28\/is-there-an-easy-way-to-upgrade-a-disk-drive-on-a-laptop\/","url_meta":{"origin":4042,"position":1},"title":"“Is there an easy way to upgrade a disk drive on a laptop?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-05-28","format":false,"excerpt":"(Answer requested by Joshua Sneed) Sure! In fact, you may be surprised how easy drive replacement really is. Often, the hardest part is figuring out how to open the case! Once you're inside, it's a piece of cake. You can find appropriate instructions for your system by searching for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/20190513_140928.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/20190513_140928.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/20190513_140928.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/20190513_140928.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/20190513_140928.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/20190513_140928.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2364,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/19\/a-reader-asks-which-is-a-better-way-to-speed-up-an-older-laptop-add-more-ram-or-change-the-old-hard-drive-to-a-solid-state-drive\/","url_meta":{"origin":4042,"position":2},"title":"A reader asks: “Which is a better way to speed up an older laptop, add more RAM, or change the old hard drive to a solid-state drive?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-03-19","format":false,"excerpt":"In general, \u201colder laptops\u201d were mostly 32-bit systems, which mathematically max out at 4GB of RAM. If the laptop has less RAM than that, I\u2019d consider starting there, to bring the laptop to its full memory complement. Because it\u2019s an \u201colder system,\u201d you probably can buy RAM for cheap. If\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/1280px-Samsung-1GB-DDR2-Laptop-RAM-e1587235482510.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5953,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2022\/01\/24\/inaccessible-backups-and-a-dead-laptop\/","url_meta":{"origin":4042,"position":3},"title":"Inaccessible backups, and a dead laptop","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2022-01-24","format":false,"excerpt":"How can you repair what you can\u2019t get at? Today\u2019s column covers two problems caused by very different access issues. In one case, a subscriber is locked out of her old, obsolete backup files; she can neither access nor delete them and thus cannot recover the huge chunk of disk\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AskWoody Plus"","block_context":{"text":"AskWoody Plus","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/askwoody-plus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fred Langa","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Langa-2-100.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1412,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/19\/a-reader-asks-how-can-i-reduce-laptop-noise\/","url_meta":{"origin":4042,"position":4},"title":"A reader asks: “How can I reduce laptop noise?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2018-12-19","format":false,"excerpt":"Laptop noise usually comes from four components: the cooling fans; any spinning-media data-storage device (e.g. hard drive or DVD); the keyboard; and the speakers. 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