Left My Computer in My Trunk 2 Days in the Freezing Cold

metacogitans

Commendable
Feb 26, 2016
1
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1,510
UPDATE: Computer is working fine now. I let it dry out for 20 hours before touching it again and everything is working normally. I think moisture isn't the threat to computer hardware hardware it once was.. I'm impressed with how well everything held up. Even after freezing and thawing a couple of times (It probably thawed with the heat on in my car while driving, then froze again overnight twice). The hard-drives were literally dripping wet earlier, but everything is working just fine right now. You'd have to be trying to wreck your computer with just water, like totally submerge it or spill a gallon of water inside the case, and even then I think it might be fine if you turn it off right away and unplug it; the big risk I think is current from the power supply traveling through the water and frying something. As far as I know, nothing is close enough to anything else to permanently fry something if there's water. That's not true for older computers though, I built mine in 2008 or 2009 (can't remember, it was right after DDR3 ram and the AMD phenom II came out), or for laptops or phones or tablets... or macs (I bet there's stuff in apple computers just waiting to break).

I just tried plugging it in and starting it up without thinking about it.
What are the odds I just destroyed my computer? The case fan worked but then started making a horrible sound; the fan on the processor heat sink didn't turn on the first time, but turned on the second time for 3 seconds before stopping. Couldn't tell if anything actually posted before I turned it off.

If turning it on didn't wreck it, do you think the freezing weather outside by itself probably did?? It's been outside since Tuesday evening; the weather has been in the 20s and low 30s, and in the teens last night.

There's condensation on the outside of the hard drives =\

I'm letting it lay on its side with the case open, propped up a little bit so air can flow under. I'm hoping if there's a lot of moisture, it'll drip out. Then I'm going to put the case right side up so the moisture can evaporate without setting into anything.

The thing I'm worried about most is losing stuff stored on my hard-drives.
Should I unscrew the hard-drives right now and wipe them off with a dry paper towel? How easily can moisture actually get into where the disc is at? I'm assuming not too easily or they'd be toast getting exposed to freezing temperatures just once.

I'm not worried about moisture getting into the processor itself, but electricity traveling through across water and frying it. Hopefully power has to go to the onboard BIOS first, and if BIOS wont start then the processor won't start, so that way BIOS shorts out first as a first-line of defense against water on the motherboard.

RAM would probably be the first thing to go from water frying something.. Oh well, I need to upgrade from 2 gig of DDR3 anyways =P
 
Solution
If you didn't hear any sparks/pops and no smoke came out you may be fine, condensation can damage the HDDs, but they're fairly airtight.
If you could get a fan or heater (not 90F would be good) to blow some air in there to speed up the evaporation of any condensation.

A computer CAN be to cold though.

The case fans ball bearings could be damaged by condensation possible, and the loud sound could have just been condensation in the bearings path.

The powersupply also has a lot of electrical components in it though that could be affected by water.

If you didn't hear any sparks/pops and no smoke came out you may be fine, condensation can damage the HDDs, but they're fairly airtight.
If you could get a fan or heater (not 90F would be good) to blow some air in there to speed up the evaporation of any condensation.

A computer CAN be to cold though.

The case fans ball bearings could be damaged by condensation possible, and the loud sound could have just been condensation in the bearings path.

The powersupply also has a lot of electrical components in it though that could be affected by water.

 
Solution