Holy flaming laptops, Batman!

[theweaselking]

I hate opening my laptop bag to the sound of a heavily overworked fan and the smell of scorching plastic.

Apparently the damn thing *woke up*, while closed, and ran inside the sealed, padded bag for most of two hours.

I'll see how well it recovers once it cools down.

UPDATE: It lives! No obvious HW damage, no data loss.

Comments

[takhisis.livejournal.com]

Hey, if some guy's laptop can be baked by his grandmother in the oven and still work, I think you should be okay. ;)

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I'm not really worried about it, this time. The smell was just the case heating up.

I'm worried that it happened, and about how careful I'll need to be in the future.

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

It's occasionally a little annoying, but the thermometer in my laptop has saved my ass several times.

And by "ass", I mean "laptop", because my laptop is that important.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm kinda shocked that mine didn't shut down. I *know* it's got a good temp sensor in it.

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

Have you bothered the manufacturer about it yet?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Not yet. First it cools off, then I turn it on, then I check to see if the sensor I know is in there is actually turned on, *then* I contact the manufacturer.

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

Ohhhhh, I didn't quite grasp that this was breaking news. Sorry.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

... and it lives, it works, all is sanguine, and it seems there is *not* a temperature sensor in it.

This bothers me, slightly, as I was sure there *was* such a thing. I will have to get this corrected, even if it means aftermarket parts for a three-month-old machine.

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

Well, at least it's running. Thank Dog for that.

[unknownpoltroon.livejournal.com]

One of the thigs ive found, i THINK, laptops and desktops, the shutdow/overheat stuff is handled jointly by the chips and by the OS. SOmetimes if the computer locks up just right, the controll isnt properly passed off to the chips, so it locks, and keeps churning, even though its overheating. I have seen tis with laptops, and small profile desktops based on laptops. I could be wrong, I am not a hardware geek.

[pyroofone.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall this being handled by the BIOS not the OS.

I had to over clock something for testing and I disabled the cut out by cranking the temp cut off up to 85C.

[jl-williams.livejournal.com]

Also correct, if we're talking about the whole "shut down in case of too hot." In my reply I was talking about the relationship between the chips and Windows' "hibernate/shut down/standby/resume" thing.

[jl-williams.livejournal.com]

Correct, this is a joint endeavor. More often than not, it's the fault of the OS when things aren't working right, though.

(I *am* a hardware geek.)

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Except that in my BIOS, I don't even see a temperature readout, let alone a temperature shutdown cutoff.

So I actually think there might be no sensor in there at all, which is very odd.

[jagash.livejournal.com]

No temperature sensor on a laptop would indeed by the definition of "odd". Good thing you didn't leave the lappy in the bag for another couple hours.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

Saved by Doctor Who!

(Seriously. Watching episodes on the TV requires running them off the laptop.)

[demiurgent.livejournal.com]

What manufacturer?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Fujitsu.

[demiurgent.livejournal.com]

Ach! Right. I have a prevention trick or two for Apple Macbooks et al. But in this I cannot help you.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

No big deal, I know how to deal with it.

And, frankly, it's under warranty for another two and a half years, so I'm perfectly happy to take it into the shop if there's any trace of damage and say "turned itself on in the bag, overheated, now it's doing X, please to do the needful".

But, like I said, it was just fine. It probably wasn't even much over 60 degrees, *maybe* 70, and while that's high enough to risk serious damage, if serious damage didn't occur immediately it probably just dropped a hundred hours off my reliable battery life and nothing else.

[mrbankies.livejournal.com]

Ack. Momentary woggle while I processed the correct temperature scale. Still and all, glad to hear the unit's fine.

[kookiemaster.livejournal.com]

Ack! I had something similar happen with my AC when the window cleaners blocked the vents ... the appartment go ridiculously stuffy before the thing stopped working ... pets were ill, I was furious.

I'm wondering though, wouldn't / shouldn't they make laptop bag somehow fire / melting resistant just in case this happen, so that a laptop burnout doesn't end up as a house burnout?