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Computer too cold?

iamme

iamme

Lifer
What's the temp that's too cold for a computer to run?

A relative of mine had a computer that would keep freezing while booting up. He had his computer in a small offce at work that has no heater, so it was pretty cold in there. I took the computer home to see if I could see what was wrong with it. Once it warmed up to room temp, it booted up fine. It's a pretty old computer: HP Pavilion w/ a PII, 192MB RAM, running Win2K.

He was thinking of buying a small space heater and warming up the area each morning before booting up. Anything I should look out for? I was thinking the main concern would be condensation forming from heating up too fast. What do you guys think?

 
Why not just leave the computer on 24/7? Turn the monitor off when not in use. Probably saves somes wear and tear on the system and you don't have to go through the delay/expense of a space heater.

I have left my system on 24/7 since September and frankly I don't notice any change in the power bill. Course if he had a system like mine (1.4 Tbird) he would have the advantage of having a computer and a space heater located in one compact box.

How well does a PII run Win2k?
 
I think condensation only occurs if the object is cold and the air is warm and humid. The only issue with a computer going from warm to cold would be some thermal stress - the components would change size very slightly as it warms and cools each time, but that really happens with any computer that's turned off each night. As long as the temps are within the computer's operational temperature range, it should be fine.

I just checked Digital Research's website for some operating temps of some computer parts; this is of a CD-RW:

Temperature Operating 5ºC-40ºC, Non Operating -30ºC-65ºC.
Humidity Operating 5%-90%, Non Operating 5%-95% RH.

You should be quite fine, unless the temp gets so low that the computer is regularly encrusted in an inch thick layer of ice in the morning.
 
I just did a lab project, where we ran a PC at normal temperature, and then put dry ice in the box. Without exception, the ones with dry ice ran at least 10% faster. This is also conistent with other findings on how computers run. To answer the question...colder is better. THe problem with the computer freezing may have to do with the boot file, or bios settings. Also, he could swap in a known good 128mb stick, and see if that does any good. Have him check those before wasting the money on a heater.

Thump- I have Win2k on a pII 300, and it actually runs better than 98se. Thought that would be interesting. Also, I am running an NT box on a P133! HAven't had to reboot in 76 days, and counting.

NAte
 


<< Pavilion w/ a PII, 192MB RAM, running Win2K >>

well there's your problem... it's an intel chip..... throw an AMD in there and it'll heat right up.. especially an athlon-c.. 😀
 
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