Placing Laptop in Fridge for it to work.

This is my first post and here is an unusual scenario for you experts.

I have a laptop (Prestigio x20 - Singapore Brand, Centrino Duo running XP Pro) that I have had for over a year now. In the last few months, there are occasions I have to place the laptop in the Fridge or Freezer for it to power up and kick in the Bios. These are the conditions;

1. Once powered up, laptop works fines although does get quite hot but if I power down completely and move the laptop, it will not start up straight away. Have to let it cool down and place in 'minus' conditions for about 5 - 10 mins before it will kick in.

2. When doing a reboot (restart from XP) works fine.

3. Sometimes powering down overnight (not moving the laptop) it will start up in the morning no problems.

4. Leaving in standby mode and recovering is fine, (this is the state I have to leave the laptop when travelling), otherwise no guarantee it will start.

5. Have changed the hard drive and checked the fans etc. Not investigated or changed anything else.

Now has anyone seen this before, any suggestions / fixes would be appreciated, as I am sure putting the laptop in the freezer is not good !

Look forward to the responses and trust me, there is no stupid question.

 

Welcome to MagjorGeeks! Sounds like an odd problem. And if I am remembering correctly, extreme cold an LCD monitors do not get along well together.

I am assuming you have cleaned out the fans and such. If it was my computer, and the warranty had expired, I would redo the thermal paste on the CPU and check wire connections to make sure nothing was loose.

E

 

Thanks Fred_G,
cleaned the fans, checked all the wiring (as best as I can), not done anything on the thermal paste (how easy is it to do this ?).

 

the thermal pasting itself is very simple, getting inside your laptop to get to the cpu, not so much

a tube of silver 5 thermal paste is about $5

heres a link explaining how to apply it
http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/Hardware-Guides/Applying-Thermal-Paste/

 

thanks gimpster123
Will feedback results or not as the case maybe.

 

no problem.

 

Just before disassembling your laptop to reapply the thermal paste ot the processor - have you removed the RAM, cleaned the contacts, and reinserted the stick? Cleaning can be done by using a rubber eraser on the contacts, then wiping them with an alcohol based cleaner on a lint free cloth. RAM which is not making proper contact can and will hinder the boot up of a computer. (only suggested as an easier try prior to disassembly)

 

Well I have cleaned out the fans, checked all the memory, cleaned and reapplied thermal paste to the sinks.. And still the problems persist.
Based on the information provided by NHC it is running cooler now so that's a bonus on time spent taking it all apart.

Any other information would be helpful.

 

check to see if there is an airflow blockage. it's possible you have a stubborn dust-bunny in a vent somewhere and it isn't letting the laptop get adequate airflow