will my laptop battery mess up Intellipap electronics?

I am going to be traveling with my "back up" machine, an Intellipap AutoAdjust, and am planning to keep the machine and my laptop in my carry on bag. One time when I was traveling with my ResMed machine, my computer battery did a number on that machine's data because I had the two machines in close proximity. Am I running the same risk with the Intellipap? Does anyone have experience with this? Thanks for any thoughts.

ariana wrote:I am going to be traveling with my "back up" machine, an Intellipap AutoAdjust, and am planning to keep the machine and my laptop in my carry on bag. One time when I was traveling with my ResMed machine, my computer battery did a number on that machine's data because I had the two machines in close proximity. Am I running the same risk with the Intellipap? Does anyone have experience with this? Thanks for any thoughts.

I won't say it's impossible for a battery to affect data on a machine, but as an electronics and computer professional, I'd say your chances of getting struck by lightning while flying *without an airplane* are higher.

that said, you can use whatever carry case the intellipap comes in while flying, approved medical essential luggage doesn't count against carryon limits.

ariana wrote:I am going to be traveling with my "back up" machine, an Intellipap AutoAdjust, and am planning to keep the machine and my laptop in my carry on bag. One time when I was traveling with my ResMed machine, my computer battery did a number on that machine's data because I had the two machines in close proximity. Am I running the same risk with the Intellipap? Does anyone have experience with this? Thanks for any thoughts.

What do you mean the battery messed up the CPAP machine's data? Did it leak or overheat? If you're talking about some kind of electromagnetic interference, the computer itself might do that. Even that's nearly impossible unless the computer and the CPAP are turned on at the same time and sitting right next to each other. Even then, it's unlikely.

Was your carry on x-rayed? X-rays can change the data on flash cards.

Oh good. I appreciate the responses. Looking back on my request for help back when I was traveling with my ResMed S9, looks like my SD card needed to be reformatted after being too close to my Mac laptop battery. I can't blame airport x-ray machines because I was on a road trip. As for keeping my machines apart, although I can theoretically keep my CPAP machine separate from my laptop by using the carry case the CPAP comes with, what I am trying to do is put what I consider my essentials all into one bag for ease of movement on buses, New York subways, etc.

So hmm. The Intellipap does not have an SD card like the S9, right? (You can tell I am not a computer whiz.) So the problem I had with my SD card getting demagnetized--if that's what you call it--can't actually happen with this machine, I gather. Score one point for the Intellipap. And thanks again for the input.

ariana wrote:Looking back on my request for help back when I was traveling with my ResMed S9, looks like my SD card needed to be reformatted after being too close to my Mac laptop battery.

Your laptop battery somehow degaussed your SD card? Nope. Here are some ways an SD card will become unusable: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/can-magnet ... r-sd-card/

Far more likely scenario is that your Mac wrote some volume data to the SD card and the Resmed decided the directory information was corrupted and therefore the volume had to be re-formatted.

ariana wrote:So hmm. The Intellipap does not have an SD card like the S9, right? (You can tell I am not a computer whiz.) So the problem I had with my SD card getting demagnetized--if that's what you call it--can't actually happen with this machine, I gather. Score one point for the Intellipap. And thanks again for the input.

SD cards (flash memory) don't use magnetism. Electric shock (static electricity), radiation (x-rays), or heat might damage the data, but that's pretty unlikely. They do have a reasonably high failure/error rate even without abuse.

The IntelliPAP has an optional data module that uses an SD card. Even if you don't use the module, the machine probably has flash memory inside, which is like the guts of an SD card.

This brings to mind the lead-lined pouches once used for camera film.
Is there any current use for these?
Or would TSA just freak out?

I have always carried my laptop & machine in the same bag with no issues. It must have been something else. Besides if the battery had done that to your machine it would totally have fried your laptop too!

ariana wrote:Oh good. I appreciate the responses. Looking back on my request for help back when I was traveling with my ResMed S9, looks like my SD card needed to be reformatted after being too close to my Mac laptop battery.

batteries can't corrupt sd cards.

it's more likely, as arch says, that your mac did it, and so the s9 wanted to reformat the card so it was happy with it, happens all the time.

Wow, very interesting. So my Mac itself likely corrupted the old ResMed SD card! I am less reassured, especially since reading here that the "guts" of the Intellipap are apparently not all that different from an SD card. (I don't have the extra data module at this point.) Yes, the old lead envelopes are starting to sound good. It still seems like a fairly unlikely scenario that the CPAP would get messed up, but who wants their machine acting wonky while traveling? Too bad I can't reach inside the Intellipap to remove the electronics and put them in my purse while traveling.

ariana wrote:Wow, very interesting. So my Mac itself likely corrupted the old ResMed SD card!

BTW, I'm not the one who suggested that, but it does happen.

The Mac (or Windows 8.1) doesn't really "corrupt" the data card. It does something that's entirely appropriate to do to such a card. Unfortunately, it doesn't ask for permission first. After the Mac or Win8 does this the card will still work just fine for anything other than putting it in the S9 machine. SleepyHead or even Resscan will still read the data.

The "real" problem is that the programming in the firmware on the S9 is designed such that it sees this extra data on the card and decides to commit data suicide. I think the S9 would do the same thing if you decided to copy any type of file to the SD card with your computer.

ariana wrote:Wow, very interesting. So my Mac itself likely corrupted the old ResMed SD card! I am less reassured, especially since reading here that the "guts" of the Intellipap are apparently not all that different from an SD card. .... Too bad I can't reach inside the Intellipap to remove the electronics and put them in my purse while traveling.

OY! listen!.... your mac *may* have written crap on your sd card that the S9 didn't like, when you put the sd card in your mac, causing the s9 to want to reformat the card. don't insert your intellipap into your mac, and you'll be fine.

if you DID open up the intellipap and pull out the electronics and drop 'em in your purse, you'd be MUCH more likely to damage them due to static electricity than leaving them in the machine where they're designed to be.

ariana wrote:
Wow, very interesting. So my Mac itself likely corrupted the old ResMed SD card!

When I was new here, some of the members taught me about the ResMed SD card after I had a problem.

There is a "lock" lever on the card and I was taught to always put it in the locked position when inserting into any device besides the CPAP. This prevents any device from doing anything to the card.

Don't forget to "unlock" the card before you insert it back into the CPAP. (The ResMed display will give you a warning if you leave the card locked.)

If the problem that you had was due to your lapatop wrote on your SD card, then this will not be a problem with your Intellipap as it does not care what else is on the card as long as it can find its own files. The only SD sensitivity that I have encountered with my Devilbiss machine is that it did not like 4G sized cards, just 2G and less.

Just to clarify, and I apologize for perhaps being unclear--as I said, computers and electronics are not my forte. I never put the SD card IN my Mac. It was just collecting data in my ResMed S9. Ashamed to say I never went through the necessary steps to actually get that data read on my Mac. But after it traveled NEXT to my laptop, the SD card stopped recording data, from what I could tell. Thank you to all who replied and shared knowledge and experiences. I gather that in general folks have not had the sort of difficulty I described, and that traveling with CPAPs and computers next to each other is done routinely without problem. That's my takeaway from this, and it is helpful.