Prevent Your Computer from Freezing Sault Ste. Marie ON

Steps

1. Buy the right equipment. For those who must work in sub-zero temperatures and take the laptop or computer with them, it is important to buy one that fits the bill. Biologists tracking caribou trails need a laptop that can stand the rigors of temperature changes, along with quite a few knocks. Ask your local computer specialist for advice. Many times, the laptop or computer will need to be specially modified to cope.
2. Purchase a slim fitting, quilted, padded cover. Keep your laptop in this inner sleeve at all times that you are not using it. If you need it, take it out and fire it up, use it and then return it to its cozy little bag to retain heat. If you have a pet dog, tuck the laptop under the dog where it is sitting as this will help keep it warm. Failing that, use the car heater zone, or the tent heating zone to keep it in a warmer part of your operations.
3. Consider making a special cover for the laptop or computer that can be "worn" during use. Something made from a fire blanket might be a good option provided that is non-flammable (they are supposed to be). You will need to make absolutely sure that the material is non-flammable and it must be cut away from any vent areas of the laptop or computer to allow it to remove any heat build-up (ironically this will still occur despite the cold, as that is the nature of computing hardware).
4. Keep the laptop or computer well-wrapped during travel. Even if you are not an intrepid explorer or a poorly paid biologist on a field trip way up North or way down South, you need to take good care of a laptop or computer being transported in your vehicle during cold weather. Keep a laptop snug in a cover (as described above), then place it in its carry-bag and - if you can - slip it into a backpack for additional warmth. If you need to use it en route, only turn it on inside the car with the heating on so that it is in room temperature environment. Avoid taking it out of the car into a sudden drastic change of temperature. For computers, just make sure they are well wrapped for both warmth and damage-proofing so that it reaches its destination in good condition. Given that you are less likely to use it, it won't be such an issue but again, don't try to use it in a freezing cold hotel room; wait until the room and the computer warms up first before switching it on. Ditto for when you arrive at your final destination - give the computer time to temperature settle before powering it up.

Tips

• If you know someone in the military, they might be able to point you to a good army surplus sell-out of formerly used laptops that did a round of duty in Afghanistan's winter, the Arctic, or somewhere else equally inhospitable. The benefit of such a laptop is that it is probably immune to being dropped. The downside is that it is probably pie-in-the-sky to imagine that the military would ever sell such hardware to anyone on the off-chance they hadn't obliterated all information held on it. But it can't hurt to ask.

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Prevent Your Computer from Freezing. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.