Industry guru Dave Taylor offers free tech support on a wide variety of technical and business topics, including HTML, Apple iPhone, online advertising, Cascading Style Sheets, Web design, management, Unix, Linux, search engine optimization, online dating, Mac OS X, shell script programming and Microsoft Windows.

Can cold temperatures adversely affect electronic gadgets?

Every year I have a problem trying to figure out where to hide Christmas presents and this year I've finally decided to just leave them in a box in the trunk of my card. My only concern is the cold weather. Can cold mess up digital cameras, iPods, etc?


Dave's Answer:

Oh yeah, that's a serious problem, one that I have been thinking about myself since I realized that I couldn't leave my own iPod in my car on nights when it gets below 32F, which we've definitely been experiencing in the last week or so here in Colorado.

Frozen Disk Drive imageI asked the folks at DriveSavers for their input on this issue, since they make their money recovering data from damaged drives and gadgets, and here's what they reported back to me:

"Winter’s cold temperatures can certainly damage hard drives and electronic gadgets. This holiday season, expensive presents with built-in hard drives like new game systems, personal computers and MP3 music players require extra protection from the cold. DriveSavers, experts at data recovery, warns that hard drives can be damaged when the temperature drops below freezing."

Their advice to you is:

  • Don’t keep gifts of electronic devices hidden in car trunks, especially: laptops or desktop computers, digital cameras, MP3 music players, game systems or hard drive-based video recorders.
  • If your hard drive-based gifts experience extreme temperatures (below 30 degrees), allow them time to warm to room temperature before operating them.
  • If you receive a new personal computer, be sure to backup all the files on your old computer before starting to transfer them to the new one.
  • As an added precaution, always use surge protectors or battery backup systems to protect your new electronic devices. This will prevent damage from power spikes or surges, common during the winter.

It definitely sounds like your storage tactic isn't going to work this winter, so I would encourage you to find a different solution. Perhaps you have a friend whose kids aren't so inquisitive? Or a neighbor? :-)



Help others find this article at Del.icio.us, Digg, Netscape, Reddit, and Stumble Upon    

Subscribe!

Never miss another useful Q&A article again! Subscribe to AskDaveTaylor with Google Reader.

Comments

Thanks for the info. I noticed that you focused alot on temperature's effect on hard drives (i.e. ferromagnetic HDD's), which is due to temperature's effect upon magnetism.

I want to add that LCD screens are also affected, albeit temporarily in most cases. Cold tempatures cause LCD screens (like the one in my PSP) to ghost, create shadows and darken the screen more than usual until warmed up. This is also due to the nature of physics. Cold temperatures cause liquids (like the liquid crystal in LCD, duh!) to travel at lower speeds. The freezing point for liquid crystal is much lower than water, but I couldn't find any hard numbers.

Another thing to consider is condensation. Bringing anything from colder weather to warmer weather will cause anything not airtight to cause condensation at levels based upon the temperature differences. This will range from an annoyance (think of condensation between an lcd screen and its protective cover - condensation on UMD/DVD/CD laser lenses cause them to read/write incorrectly) to catastrophic (water in any piece of electronics is never good news).

Posted by: M.Santos at February 29, 2008 5:41 AM

I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...
Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











Remember personal info?


Please note that I will never send you any unsolicited email. Ever.

While I'm at it, please note that by submitting a question or comment you're agreeing to my terms of service, which are: you relinquish any subsequent rights of ownership to your material by submitting it on this site.








Ask Dave Taylor: The iPhone App: Advertisement



Follow me on Twitter @DaveTaylor

Search
Find just the answers you seek from among our 2300+ free tech support articles by using our Lijit search engine.


Help!





Subscribe to
Ask Dave Taylor!

Add to Google Reader
Add to My Yahoo!
Subscribe in NewsGator Online

RDF   XML

Free Updates!
Sign up and get free weekly updates and special offers on books, seminars, workshops and more.


Recent Entries
Book Links
© 2002 - 2010 by Dave Taylor. All Rights Reserved.

Note: This web site is for the purpose of disseminating information for educational purposes, free of charge, for the benefit of all visitors. We take great care to provide quality information. However, we do not guarantee, and accept no legal liability whatsoever arising from or connected to, the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of any material contained on this web site or on any linked site.

[whiteboard marker tray]
"Ask Dave Taylor®" is a registered trademark of Intuitive Systems, LLC.