Laptop delivered this morning. How long to let it come up to room temp before I open it?

[Garrett J]

Just had a replacement dell xps delivered this morning. Its been in the mid 30's during the day to maybe the 20's at night. The laptop was pretty cold when i brought it in. I didn't think about it and took it straight out of the box, but did not open or power it on. I noticed the outside had slight fog on it where my warm fingers touched. its been 4 hours and feels room temperature now. how long should i let it warm up?

[Helpful Tech Witch]

You can probably just turn it on, nothing gonna happen

[emosun]

That laptop doesnt require any minimum temperature that youd find in any normal location to function unless it has a regular hdd

[adarw]

it should be fine.

[Gamer Schnitzel]

You are mentioning fog. Are you trying to say that you want the laptop to be warmer because of water? Water is linked to humidity and not temperature. Temperatures have to be extreme for a computer to not work. Get a thermometer that shows you the humidity if you are worried about water damage and if your humidity is too high get a dehumidifier but it is unlikely yours is so high that it will cause water damage.

[bmx6454]

this is the first i'm hearing about warm up on a computer. i can't see any reason why it won't be fine to turn on while cold. maybe in Antarctica or something?

[Garrett J]

More than anything I was worried about it sweating from going from outside temps to inside. No visibly water droplets or anything crazy like that

[Garrett J]

1 minute ago, bmx6454 said:

this is the first i'm hearing about warm up on a computer. i can't see any reason why it won't be fine to turn on while cold. maybe in Antarctica or something?

I looked it up on Reddit and people seem to be really strict on it haha. I just don’t want it to sweat from the temperature change and me short something out.

[bmx6454]

Just now, Garrett J said:

I looked it up on Reddit and people seem to be really strict on it haha. I just don’t want it to sweat from the temperature change and me short something out.

oh reddit, that explains it lol. out of shear curiosity, i'm going to leave my least favorite laptop in the sub freezing garage over night and turn it on in the morning.

[Garrett J]

Just now, bmx6454 said:

oh reddit, that explains it lol. out of shear curiosity, i'm going to leave my least favorite laptop in the sub freezing garage over night and turn it on in the morning.

Hahaha yeah I tend to overthink. I’m just gonna give it another hour and check it out. People leave computers in their cars all the time I’m sure and don’t think about it. 

[Needfuldoer]

As long as there isn't any moisture condensing on it, it should be fine.

 

Give it a couple hours at room temperature before powering it on if you're worried about it.

[wolverine104]

You're good bro

 

[Kisai]

22 hours ago, Garrett J said:

Just had a replacement dell xps delivered this morning. Its been in the mid 30's during the day to maybe the 20's at night. The laptop was pretty cold when i brought it in. I didn't think about it and took it straight out of the box, but did not open or power it on. I noticed the outside had slight fog on it where my warm fingers touched. its been 4 hours and feels room temperature now. how long should i let it warm up?

It'll be fine as long as there's no visible moisture on it.

 

Basically concerns about breaking the CPU die from being in the cold come from sudden cooling of the device (Eg canned air) as these things not only suddenly cool the air, but will form frost crystals. So if you do that while it's on, it'll be a problem.

 

People use laptops in cars and boats all the time, and usually they hit a failure state because of a rapid change in temperature combined with humidity. If you don't see frost/dew outside, you're probably fine.