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Journal trmj's Journal: Ask you guys: Freezer fixes 10

Journal by trmj
So. I have a friend who has a nice shiney new Dell laptop. A few days ago, the power adapter starting making a high pitched tone while plugged into the wall, whether the lappy was plugged into it or not.

He mentioned this to me, and I told him to put it in the freezer for about 20 minutes, and it would work fine. In complete disbelief he ridiculed me and said that only works for batteries. When faced with his lappy powering down, he tried it, and sure enough it worked.

20 minutes in the freezer made his AC adapter work normally again for several hours, until it started making the tone again. Another 20 minutes in the freezer fixed it nicely. This has been an on and off process all weekend, and neither of us can figure out why this works.

Any ideas? Note: I originally found out that putting computer parts in the freezer fixes them when it revived two hard drive for me at different times. I didn't understand it then (nor did I have any clue why I even tried it), and I don't understand it now.
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Ask you guys: Freezer fixes

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  • But you could have told me this in about 1995 or so. Back then I had a printer, a Deskjet 320, in my student room and the power adaptor of that one produced a similar sound. It was driving me nuts, especially when I wanted to sleep. The only solution I found was removing the plug when I did not use the printer. For a printer, this is of course an acceptable solution. (I still have that printer today and it is in working order)

    Of course, it seems your fix is only temporary.

    • Temporary this time. The hard drives never failed again after sitting in the freezer for a while.

      I'm just at a complete loss for explaining this. Like a chinese gold farmer in a MMORPG, it just works.
      • Contraction and expansion of metal .If something works it's way loose it is possible that freezing will cause the metal to contract and work its way back into place
  • The heat dispensation thing in the power supply is not attached properly ;) So it overheats and makes funny noises
    • There's no moving parts in it, and it doesn't have a method of dispensing heat (other than radiating it away).
      • If the heat sink (inside) isn't glued down properly, it won't pull heat from any transistors in there. And heat can make all sorts of electronic components not work. Hence the reason they all specify an operating temperature range. (Not to be confused with Operating Thetan range. Of course, this could be the problem also. Hook up an e-meter to make sure)

  • wow (Score:1)

    by crimes! ( 907248 )
    that's absolutly ridiculous.
    so how have you been stinky? I haven't talked to you in a really long long time. it's no good. give me a call some time. or something I miss you kid get down to pa!
    xoxo Rachel
  • The little gnomes in the power supply are unhappy about something; if you stick them in the freezer, they can't complain and scream again until they thaw out later. You could find out what is making them unhappy, but I personally would just keep freezing the lil' buggers.

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