So I got a new laptop in the mail today. Only hitch is that its package apparently has been sitting in hot temperatures for a very long time, maybe even sitting in direct hot Texas sunshine for hours. Despite being turned off, the laptop felt very hot to the touch as I removed it from the box. Is this any issue as far as the laptop’s innards and battery are concerned?
I’d doubt anything internal is hurt. Laptops are expected to get pretty damn inside under normal operation. The outside generally doesn’t get as hot and some cosmetic bits might suffer(softened adhesive) depending on how fancy they went for looks.
Yes, but how damn?
Generally speaking, the temperature tolerance of electronic components that are turned off is much higher than their rated temperature operating range, so IOW, no, probably no harm done. At worst, the battery may have been slightly degraded as Li-ion batteries don’t like hot temperatures.
Not a laptop story, but I’ve unpacked pallets and pallets of Dell servers off of trucks well over 100 degrees and staged out in the texas sun for hours before I was finally able to get them racked and stacked and cabled and powered. Never once was there a failure contributed to the heat while they were unpowered.
The CPU and GPU are usually fine well running up to 180F or so, they are the hottest part though, and I’ve never measured the rest of the interior incompetents for temp to be honest.
Manufacturers of consumer electronics know their products get shipped to customers. Salty air on cargo ships, freezing temperatures in freight planes, high temperatures of trucks, shipping containers and boxes sitting in direct sun all day (think of the container at the top of the stack on the ship from China) - those are all known environments they design and test for. Manufacturers that don’t do this go out of business quickly, or learn quickly.
The battery is probably a little bit flatter than it would be otherwise. But probably only a little bit flatter.
Depending on the battery type, it shouldn’t be stored like that. I think NiMH batteries are the most temperature sensitive – they should be kept under 95F for long term storage. Some of the other battery types require long term storage under 140F.
Batteries that are stored hot have accellerated wear-out, but even then I’m not sure that there is any effect other than repeated charge-discharge cycles from faster than normal self-discharge, or failure from being stored flat.
Cool. I’m pretty sure this is a Li-On battery, does it have a risk of cook-off/venting if heated too high/too long?
I don’t think you would have had any venting or leaking. It probably didn’t get any hotter than it would if it started warm and then got charged.
As battery tech has improved, they’ve made it less likely that people will injure themselves or destroy their equipment. You’ve got to expect laptop users to be pretty dumb.
Another consideration is the screen. LCD screens don’t like heat. Note that when the laptop is running the screen is quite likely flipped up and away from the heat sources so it’s not often exposed to heat, like it should.
Once the laptop has cooled down, etc., run some basic screen tests. Display some all-one-color screens looking for uneven color, dead/stuck pixels, lines, etc.