It's the time of the year that (in many parts of the US) packages may arrive cold enough for your tongue to freeze to, so here are some tips about handling cold hardware and media.
1- Allow hardware and media to come to room temp before operating or using - at least 4 hours.
2- If they arrive in plastic bags, or sealed plastic wrapping, leave them sealed until the product inside is warm. This will prevent condensation on your media or the inside/outside of your hardware. Condensate is particularly hard on diskette media as the combo can really gum up a floppy drive head.
3- Optical disk media gets more brittle when very cold and thus more likely to shatter inside your drive. We've all heard those horror stories. So allow your DVD movies and CD music as well as your burnable media to come to room temp before using as well. Even the platters inside the hard drives can become more brittle.
4- The lubricants in mechanical hardware like drives and fans can get thick, making them hard starting and slow running for a while.
5- Use the media closest to the outside from a new package as the inner ones will take longer to warm up.
6- I received some nice and cold ink cartridges today (the impetus for this missive). I needed to use one right away, but I waited for it to warm up. One of the rare occasions where I followed my own advice...
So just be patient. It will pay off in reduced hassle and smoother operations all-around.
Enjoy the winter!
.bh.
1- Allow hardware and media to come to room temp before operating or using - at least 4 hours.
2- If they arrive in plastic bags, or sealed plastic wrapping, leave them sealed until the product inside is warm. This will prevent condensation on your media or the inside/outside of your hardware. Condensate is particularly hard on diskette media as the combo can really gum up a floppy drive head.
3- Optical disk media gets more brittle when very cold and thus more likely to shatter inside your drive. We've all heard those horror stories. So allow your DVD movies and CD music as well as your burnable media to come to room temp before using as well. Even the platters inside the hard drives can become more brittle.
4- The lubricants in mechanical hardware like drives and fans can get thick, making them hard starting and slow running for a while.
5- Use the media closest to the outside from a new package as the inner ones will take longer to warm up.
6- I received some nice and cold ink cartridges today (the impetus for this missive). I needed to use one right away, but I waited for it to warm up. One of the rare occasions where I followed my own advice...
So just be patient. It will pay off in reduced hassle and smoother operations all-around.
Enjoy the winter!
.bh.
Facebook
Twitter