I recently bought a new Dell laptop a couple months ago. Last night I left it in my car, it was probably around 10 degrees Fahrenheit last night, but I figured the cold cant hurt electronics. I turn on the computer today, and whenever I have the power cord plugged in, the power light blinks red/orange. However, when I unplug the cord and run it on batteries, then the light stop blinking. There are no noticeable problems with the computer when it blinks red/orange. Any ideas what is going on?
Hm...that's odd. I've never had issues with the cold causing lasting damage to electronics. However, if your computer is still freezing cold on the inside, that will disrupt things. You might just have to place your computer in a semi-warm environment and wait till it heats up. That's what I had to do with my laptop after a 7 hour road trip during which my laptop was in the trunk, and we were going through snow.
You were exactly right. About 5 minutes after I posted this it stopped blinking. I think the power cord was semi frozen and was not conducting electricity very well.
Lol, well, there you go. I figured it was something along those lines. I don't know the exact chemistry/physics of all of it, but I do know that electronics function worse the hotter or colder they get. Basically, if a temperature is uncomfortable to you, it's bad for your computer. However, it takes really extreme cold to do lasting damage, to the extent of my knowledge.
It is possible that there was some condensation also on the connections inside, from the temperature change... You MAY want to let it stay inside, warm and toasty for a few hours or more to be on the safe side, as water and electronics USUALLY don't mix...
You know what else don't usually mix well with laptops? When your good-for-jack-!@#$ brother-in-law puts the laptop case on a 8.5 foot high shelf with the laptop sitting on top of the case so that when someone goes for the case, the laptop launches off the shelf onto the floor, 8.5 feet below. Good thing they got divorced or I might've choked him out. Hell, I should've anyway, just on principal. And then made him eat the laptop leftovers.
