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Tópico: Humidity - Laptop or Virtual DJ error

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I DJed a 3 hour dance at a school where the room sits below the ground. I have been there for years and never had the following problem. The room was filled with moisture after the 2nd hour. Water was on the floor and walls. As a result my laptop kept shutting down everytime I ran a video in Virtual DJ. It would stay on if I didn't run Virtual DJ videos. I could run the live camera and it would not shut down.

After the laptop turned itself off, I rebooted and ran virtual DJ. It would stay on if I used the lve camera, but would shut down the laptop if I ran a video. Was this a laptop or a Virtual DJ problem? I restarted the laptop a half dozen times with the same result.
I tested the laptop when I got home and it worked fine without shutting down when I ran a video.


 
Mensajes Mon 14 Apr 08 @ 8:11 am
Sounds like you answered you own question. Humidity and computers do not mix at all. Next time try to check the room you will be DJing in ahead of time. Suggest a couple of dehumidifiers if you encounter a situation like that again.
 
Opening a window helps too :)
 
Yes, I thought it was the humidity. The building just installed new doors which were closed all night. There was no outside air coming into the room which caused the high humidity. The old doors allowed air to come in.
It was odd that I could open Virtual DJ and keep it running until I played a video. Then it would shut the computer down.
 
My vote is not for the humidity, i think if that was the case the entire pc would be having issues and not just the videos.

but i guess stranger things have happened.
 
Yes someone else mentioned it must be the sofware since the heat inside the laptop would not be affected by the humidity. Windows would start up each time and Virtual DJ loaded without a problem. Soon as I loaded a video within a few seconds after play windows would shut down and turn off the computer. TheCPU level went up to 90%. Maybe a bug? coincidence that it happened when the floors became wet from humidity?
 
I would think the heat from the computer/CPU would keep it dry?
 
Well they wrote............
" It is highly unlikely that any condensation formed inside the laptop once it was turned on, especially since many of the components within a laptop are in fact sources of heat - which will dissipate moisture quicker than cooler surfaces do.

The video issue is more likely the same one or related in nature to what has been plaguing a number of Virtual DJ users who have upgraded to v5.x."
 
billyzee wrote :
Well they wrote...........


Who is they?? Are they VDJ users? I am an electronics technician during the day.....moisture and electronics do not mix period, paragraph.
 
"They" is a post I received from another Forum.
 
I agree TearEmUp. I've also built and worked on computers since 1982 and can tell you that just because a computer is in a humid condition, doesn't mean that it will immediately fail. The results may be erratic depending on how long the components are exposed. If left long enough, you will experience catastrophic failure. This is taken straight from Wikipedia:

Quote :
Many electronic devices have humidity specifications, for example, 5 to 95%. At the top end of the range, moisture may increase the conductivity of permeable insulators leading to malfunction. Too low humidity may make materials brittle. A particular danger to electronic items, regardless of the stated operating humidity range, is condensation. When an electronic item is moved from a cold place (eg garage, car, shed) to a warm humid place (house), condensation may coat circuit boards and other insulators, leading to short circuit inside the equipment. Such short circuits may cause substantial permanent damage if the equipment is powered on before the condensation has evaporated. A similar condensation effect can often be observed when a person wearing glasses comes in from the cold. It is advisable to allow electronic equipment to acclimatise for several hours, after being brought in from the cold, before powering on. The inverse is also true.

Excessively high humidity causes corrosion in electronics. Low humidity causes static electricity and spontaneous shutdown of servers in data centres. Electronics, and more specific TTL technology, cannot handle voltages that exceed the supply voltage by a small margin before it will blow and cause it to malfunction. Therefore humidity is an important measure in the control of data centre facilities.
 
Possibly moisture forming on the video out VGA connectors?? messing with the video card and windows dosent like that..
 
billyzee wrote :
"They" is a post I received from another Forum.


I am happy you are doing your own investigation on this topic. There are a great many of people out there who knock VDJ, usually people who have used a crack that did not perform up to their expectations. Or, they had on older PC and put VDJ on it, which is similar to trying to wedge a jet engine into a Cessna. This is your best source for honest input about VDJ. "They" like to talk, and "They" like to run our software down. But "They" are wrong most of the time about VDJ. Always keep what works best for you. And, always check here for information about how VDJ runs best with any particular hardware.
 
There is always a threshold where humidity becomes unmanageable. But generally it's a problem of positive pressure in the laptop.

Moisture condenses when there is a cooler surface than the environment. Generally your laptop is hotter than the environment so humidity should not condense inside too much.

If you're walking into a humid gig, you can power the laptop up outside, let it heat up and then go in. You will have raised the temp enough that it wont condense moisture before you start.

When you're leaving a humid gig, make sure you power down your laptop as quick as possible and put it sealed away into your bag. Dont let it sit and cool down because the humidity will start to condense as soon as it cools lower than the room.

You can use a program like this http://www.pbus-167.com/chc.htm to control your fans manually. By watching and throttling your fans, you can ensure the inside temperature stays a bit hotter than usual which ensure no condensation inside. Finding software that supports fan control might be a bit of work. It depends on the hardware.

Another trick is to stick a bunch of glycerine bags next to your air intake ports. These are the little sacks of thingies that come in shoe boxes. The glycerine will take some of the moisture out of the air before it goes into the laptop.

 
Paz75 wrote :
These are the little sacks of thingies .


Like it. Is that your technical term Paz.......might start using it myself ;)

BTW Paz where have you been? you've been missing ages.

 


Humidity is caused by heat.. in other words the place/people there generated a lot of temperature.
And humidity in itself doesnt need to be shutting down a pc, but can..

Most likely reason for it to happen is actually the heat/humidity combined with DUST.. I bet your fans/heatsink are blocked by dust, so that the laptop cant move free air good enough to keep the laptop cool.. OR.. that you placed the laptop in such a way, that the heatsink are blocked (always try elevate the laptop in heated environment to make sure it has fresh air).

It has happened to me too.. But Windows sutting down on high CPU use is a preventin measure.. from your PC. Its overheated, and shuts down to prevent the CPU from buring up.

http://icrontic.com/articles/clean_laptop_heatsink (clean the laptop)
http://www.laptopstands.co.uk/ (elevate the laptop from your dj table, to ensure free air)
http://www.techniz.co.uk/component/content/article/322 (if you play in extreme hot environments often, and the above dont fix it)


:)
 
Important aspects.
Also, check out the hardware specs of the computer, especially notebooks - manufacturers are stating in what temperature and humidity conditions it'll operate in. Some are better than other...
 
jimmy b wrote :
Paz75 wrote :
These are the little sacks of thingies .


Like it. Is that your technical term Paz.......might start using it myself ;)

BTW Paz where have you been? you've been missing ages.



hehe, yeah it was first thing in the morning and my brain hadnt had its espresso injection yet.

yeah i know ive been MIA. I work for an online agency and was promoted to position which requires all my spare time. i also moved house so had to deal with boxes in my 3 hours of daily free time. hoping to spend a little more time around here in the near future...
 


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