A few of the people in my class have had their laptops crash completely this semester. Mostly Macs. Your laptop is going to run hot here because of the temp, it heats up really fast so definitely bring a cooling pad for it! My cooling pad died a couple weeks ago and right after that I lost my wireless card so I know it was because everything got way to hot in there. If you want to extend the life of your battery here just take it out when you are at home and leave your comp plugged in when you use it. I use a converter on mine so haven't had any issues with the surges (knocking on wood since I still have a day here til break ) so it's a good idea to bring one just to be on the safe side!