Of Laptops, Aircons, and Home Offices
A few days ago, our new airconditioner unit was installed in my bedroom-turned-home office, literally breathing fresh air into my work-from-home freelancing ‘career’.
I initially bought the aircon (yep, my first appliance unit purchase) to prevent potential overheating damage to my laptop. Funny thing is, Corsarify’s keys actually froze half an hour after the aircon was first turned on!
When I say froze, I mean the keyboard didn’t respond properly or didn’t respond at all. For example, pressing “z” will return “asfx” in one fell swoop, pressing “t” will print out a newline, and pressing half of the other keys results in nothing. Needless to say, the experience was baffling and terribly frustrating. I tried restarting the laptop a couple of times to no avail. Also, the keys didn’t work inside the BIOS interface.
So it all came down to my trotting to SM Cyberzone to have the laptop checked out. To my half-relief, half-humilation, Corsarify’s keys were back to normal, and were functioning properly. We — the technicians, Ia, and yours truly — therefore reached the (probably inaccurate) conclusion that the aircon’s oh-so-soothing gust temporarily screwed the keys, one way or another. Don’t ask me how, as I’m no expert (though one technician mentioned something about “keyboard sensors”).
A good few weeks before the aircon incident, Corsarify labored through GPU/ambient temperatures of 50 degrees Celsius and above. Credit that to the usually hot environs here in our place (we live in a multi-level apartment unit in a dense residential area). Is it possible that the sudden transition from hot to cold spelled a quickie of a doom for my laptop’s keyboard? It didn’t help that the aircon lies straight across the computer table and the notebook.
Anyway, there have been no additional problems since that day; in fact, I’ve experienced an increase in my productivity in the past few days with the aircon turned on. I don’t know if it’s psychological (feeling you’re in a quasi-office environment) or just the comfort that the cool air brings.
Now, my next problem comes in the form of the next power consumption bill!
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- New Printer for My Home Office
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October 31st, 2006 at 3:17 am
OK, I’ve paid for two electricity bills so far. Ha. Ha. Ha.
Quasi-office? Look who’s looking for an office environment now! Ha. Ha. Ha.
I’d rather have it hot than die of freezing. No siree Bob.
October 31st, 2006 at 6:49 am
A small fan behind or beside (put something behind your laptop like a CD case to redirect the air) will do.
October 31st, 2006 at 11:02 am
well working in an air-conditioned room isn’t that bad… although too much of it would make my sinuses malfunction.
October 31st, 2006 at 2:26 pm
Ia, antaray. As for me, I’d rather have it cold than die of heat. You know me
Anonymous, thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, I’m working in confined spaces…I can’t fit a small fan in any area beside/behind the laptop. It’s a pain to describe, but trust me, my ‘office’ is crowded.
MBacarra, well, that too, hehe..though heat has a more damaging effect on me than the cold. I sweat quite easily, and when I sweat, I get distracted in work.
October 31st, 2006 at 10:36 pm
Funny. That never happens to my 17″ MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo.
Of course, I don’t have a 17″ MBC Core 2 Duo.
(And I think the MBP gets too hot for air conditioning to cool down.)
November 7th, 2006 at 9:28 pm
Well, my MBP can go as high as 85C (when the fans start kicking in) but apart from the inconvenience (of it not “lapable”), I can still encode tons of video with only an electric fan to cool it down.
I got a Speck Product SeeThru case and even at 85C, my ‘book is now “lapable”. heheheh…
As for your notebook, have you tried shutting it down instead of rebooting? Some issues are solved by turning off the computer (or include battery removal) - rebooting is simply not enough.
Anyway, like Corsarius, I’d rather be in snow covered winter night than in sahara desert environment! Unfortunately, the wife prefers warm environments. I wonder how she’d feel if (when?) we transfer to Chicago.
November 11th, 2006 at 3:57 pm
J, I’m pretty sure you’d be getting one in the next months or so
Sir Rom, the Windy City! I’ve always been allured by Chicago, even if I haven’t actually stepped foot on the US.
Yep, I read your SeeThru case post days ago, and I’ve pledged to myself that once I’ve got an MBP, that red case is one of the first accessories I’ll ever buy. Red!!
Before I took it to Cyberzone, I shut down the laptop, along with the aircon, and left them for about half an hour. Still, the keys didn’t work, and that’s when I decided to have it ‘repaired’. Seems the hot temperature outside the house and inside the poorly airconditioned taxi did wonders, hehe!
November 23rd, 2006 at 9:38 am
Hey….
I would be picking that the temporary problem with your laptop was condensation, after being warm, and suddenly cooled, the moisture in the air condensed in your electronics causing all sorts of abnormalities….. when returned to heat, the moisture would have re-evaporated…… with the problems magically dissapearing !!!
just a thought !!
good luck with the bills,
Tama.
December 5th, 2006 at 12:31 pm
Tamab, yeah, I believe you’re right about that. Thanks — I’ll need the luck. This month’s bill already jumped to 5 thousand pesos (100 dollars)! Hehehe.
December 7th, 2006 at 3:26 am
[...] An airconditioner has been recently installed in my room/home office.This has greatly improved the air quality in my otherwise dusty room (we live in a high-density residential neighborhood passed by a lot of cars as a detour route). Like most modern aircon units, ours has a couple of filters that minimize the dust and particles in the air. [...]
August 1st, 2007 at 11:32 pm
[...] Good points. However, from what I know, the standby/sleep mode produces only minimal (if not negligible) heat. My laptop’s fans are powered down when in standby mode. Also, my laptop doesn’t feel warm after leaving it in standby for eight hours – of course, my room/home office’s airconditioner helps. (It had once frozen my laptop’s keyboard!) [...]