netbook doesn't work on board an aircraft.

Hi to all;

I have the acer aspire one D250-0Dk, and it has a very strange problem.
Once on board an aircraft at a certain altitude, it just doesn't work anymore.
The screen turns blue and i get the message that windows is shut down in order to prevent damage to the device.
After that it doesn't even start up anymore.
Once back on the ground I can start windows normally, and the thing works fine.
I already installed a more powerfull battery, but still the same.
Any ideas on that?
It turns me nuts as i bought it specially for travelling becouse of the easy size to carry it.

Greetz

Carlos.

 

maybe it has something to do with airpressure? I have no idea....a loose connection? This seems very strange to me.

 

I would have to agree with the air pressure suggestion, it's really the only thing I can think of. I would go a step further and try running a temperature monitoring tool to see if the pressure may be offsetting the thermal readout. Having said that though, don't they pressurize the cabin?

 

thats weird. maybe your laptop is scared of heights lol.. just kidding. i can't say. i have never hear of anything like that

 

Hmm... done a big ot digging on this and found the following:

"It might work, it might get damaged or it might quit working and the hard drive will be irretrievably damaged. The issue is the read/write head of portable hard drives flies on a thin cushion of air. At high altitude the air is too thin to support the head and it might scratch and destroy the disk surface. This seems to be especially true if the drive is shaken around during operation (iPod etc).

It is not a question of easy and cheap. The issue is safe versus sorry. There are always some people who report that they used their portable drive without problems, but there are also iPod /portable drive/ laptop users who report having lost their entire photo or music collections, data, email, etc.

Search for something called an Otterbox. This will keep the ambient pressure at whatever altitude you are when you seal it. It's fitted with a coin slot handle so that you can open it after descending more than a thousand meters or so. Avoid boxes with automatic pressure relief valves. "

So it looks like you may be unlucky and have a hard drive thats poorly made (i.e. right on the edge of tolerances so affected by this more easily) or it could be that your laptop knows its not going to work and shuts down.
Personally I think option 1 is more likely.

The only way to rule out this is to get an SSD and try that as it has no moving parts and wont be affected by this.

Swarvey, cabin is pressurised to around 8000ft equivalent air pressure as above that the air gets quite thin and its noticably more difficult to breath. I've been to 11,000ft without oxygen and its very noticable

Paul

 

Haha ya learn summin new everyday, thanks Paul