A minor scare

So yesterday, when I was out in the Polo Park area after writing my exam, I had left my backpack with my laptop in the car (I know, I know). It was still there when I returned a few hours later, but unfortunately the cold temperature had taken its toll.

When I woke up my laptop when I got home, to my horror I saw a series of teal streaks on the display. Needless to say, I was not pleased.

The streaks were on the order of a pixel or two wide, and up to an inch long. They seemed to react to pressure, so I surmised that whatever was happening wasn't just outright pixel death. I played a bit of minecraft to see if exercising the pixels with a changing picture would help things along, and after a little while of playing it seemed that the streaks were starting to get better.

Then the inspiration hit me: condensation inside the panel! The cold temperatures and high relative humidity inside my car had clearly caused some water or frost to infiltrate the panel and condense, messing with the function of the display.

To test this theory, I got out my hair dryer and, starting on low, heated up some problem areas. To my delight, they reacted by shrinking and lightening. After 10-15 minutes of heating, the areas I was concentrating on had vanished into perfect, flawless pixels, and I continued my way around the monitor cooking off the streaks. In the bottom corner, the last and worst trouble spot, I had to switch the hair dryer onto high, but those pixels too were soon brought back to life.

All in all, I'm annoyed but happy, and find myself with yet another reason to hate winter.