Computer power help needed.

[Saphire]

I need some help about surge protectors. About 6 months ago I purchased B&Q Intelligent Extension Lead with Built in surge protector.

http://www.techdigest.tv/2007/10/bq_aims_to_save.html the middle one of the three.

I have been having computer and numerous memory faults for the last few months. It has been taking ages to boot, stopping at the first screen with only 1 CPU showing and then 5 minutes later showing second CPU then continuing to boot normally. Yesterday it just wouldn't boot at all it just had a long beep on switch on. I phoned tech support and he told me to switch memory chips and still nothing happened, he told me it was probably bad memory. I took it into the shop and he exchanged the memory, I thought great fixed just before the warranty runs out. This is the 3rd set of memory chips.

On setting up the computer at home I am still having the same problem, it being very slow to boot up. Not Happy I thought I would be ringing tech support again tomorrow Monday.

A light bulb came on this morning while in bed. I though surely the shop would have noticed the slow boot up on start up, now why didn't he mention it. So on getting up I disconnected everything of the Intelligent Extension lead and plugged everything straight into an ordinary extension, guess what the machine now boots up normaly.

My question is, could the Intelligent Ext Lead cut the power so much that it could damage the computers memory and is there a better unit out there.

[yelvertoft]

Originally Posted by Saphire

My question is, could the Intelligent Ext Lead cut the power so much that it could damage the computers memory and is there a better unit out there.

Christine,

The extension lead should not have any effect on your computer in normal operation unless it is faulty; from the symptoms you describe, it could well be faulty. It does sound as though it was limiting the power available to your computer, which in turn did not then have sufficient power to reliably boot up. This is unlikely to have damaged the computer, though it may have reduced the power supply's reliability (unlikely and not worth worrying about).

I'd take it back to B&Q and get a refund. Even if you've lost the receipt, you are entitled to a refund if the unit is faulty. B&Q are pretty good on returns, I doubt if you'll get any grief.

Regarding better ones, all I'd say is that the more you pay, generally the better you get. If you get one with a known brand, such as MK or Belkin you're likely to get better quality control. We use stuff by Olson in a lot of kit at work and it's very good, but it won't be cheap.
http://www.olson.co.uk/data-protection.htm

I've been using a socket like this (but not this specific model, mine came from RS but they don't seem to do it any more)
http://www.rapidonline.com/Electrica...d-socket/64120
for a long time and find it convenient because it converts any extension lead you may already have into a protected strip.

Duncan

[Saphire]

Thanks Duncan, I am not to worried about taking it back for a refund. I was just more concerned that is what was causing the memory to fail. The last surge protector blew from a big surge, we get lots of them out here so need to be protected.

Does the amount of units coming off one socket cause problems, most of them are low power I know but I wondered whether there is just to many at any one time. I have about 10 items in use at the same time such as printer, modem monitors, usb hard disks.

I may go for one of those single wall sockets if I can find something similar. Mario recently bought a belkin one for his electronic drums, they are not cheap.

[yelvertoft]

Originally Posted by Saphire

Does the amount of units coming off one socket cause problems, most of them are low power I know but I wondered whether there is just to many at any one time. I have about 10 items in use at the same time such as printer, modem monitors, usb hard disks.

It doesn't matter, as long as the total load being drawn from the single socket in the wall isn't drawing more than 13 Amps. On a home PC set up, this is highly unlikely. The kind of things you mention only draw a small fraction of this. I recently borrowed a power meter and found that the single socket I run all my PC stuff from is typically drawing about 150W, so that's just over half an Amp. If I had the printer printing, the scanner scanning, external HDD in use, etc., etc. I dare say I'd still not get above 1A. If you have a high-end gaming PC with a top end CPU and graphics card, then your load may well be a lot more than this, but it's still extremely unlikely that you'll get even close to overloading the socket.

Originally Posted by Saphire

I may go for one of those single wall sockets if I can find something similar. Mario recently bought a belkin one for his electronic drums, they are not cheap.

If you get lots of surges, it may well be worth your while getting a really decent quality item. Get on the phone to Olson
http://www.olson.co.uk/left_right_filter.htm

Bowthorpe used to be a good brand for this kind of thing too. I found this product available
http://uk.farnell.com/580107/electri...-623gba-bow-hp
You can buy from Farnell even if you're not in the trade.

D.

[Saphire]

The Olson protectors look quite good, I will give them a bell tomorrow.

We had a good surge last week when it was windy, I thought all the lights in the house were going to blow, without a protector I think it would have fried the machine.

[Saphire]

I have just hit another snag. I thought I had solved the problem but no I haven't. The B&Q Intelligent ext is going back because after close inspection there is a wire trapped in the seam of the case so will swap it for something else.

Anyway here is the problem, I have removed the extension lead which has no surge protection and replaced it with Mario's Belkin protector, the computer is now booting very slow again, I am back to square one, any ideas as to what is going on.

[yelvertoft]

Ok, try this as an experiment.

Empty the kettle completely, and then fill to a particular, repeatable level of water. Plug it in directly to a wall socket and switch it on. Time how long it takes to boil.

Empty the kettle, rinse with cold water from the tap, empty, fill from tap to same level as before. Plug in to wall via belkin protector, time how long it takes to boil.

If they take the same time, as I would expect them to, there's no problem with the surge protector. I can't imagine that a working surge protector is limiting the current being drawn to such an extent that it's preventing the PC from reliably booting. It can't be drawing more than an Amp on boot up.

I wonder if you have a poor quality power supply unit (PSU) in the PC which isn't power factor corrected and the PSU is being seen as a highly inductive load by the protector, which it doesn't like. How old is the PSU in your PC? Do you know if it is Power Factor Corrected, it will possibly have a label on it saying this, or PFC, if it is.

Duncan

[Saphire]

The computer is only 11 months old, I have gone through 3 sets of memory chips because they have failed after a couple of months.
I will give that a go with the kettle and see if there is any difference. I will also try plugging the machine into other outlets in case the socket I am using is on a different circuit. The house is a bit of a mishmash with old and new and the wiring is the pits.

[nirofo]

Hi Saphire

Your surge protector wouldn't cause your computer to run slow, it would either work or not work! In any case does the computer run OK direct from the wall socket or not, if not then the surge protector is not the problem? What's more likely is you have a computer power supply that has been damaged by previous surges, (you mention you had one recently), or is simply on it's way out. Surge protectors don't always protect the equipment that's plugged into them, I've repaired several computers that had been damaged by power suges even though they were plugged into so-called surge protectors. Another possible cause is a corrupt bios set up, you can try resetting your bios to default and see if that makes a difference. However if as you say you have already had to replace 3 sets of memory chips in an 11 month old computer, then there's a fundamental problem with the computer and I would suspect the motherboard. In any case if it's only 11 month's old I would be harrassing the shop where you purchased it and demanding they either fix it or replace it pronto!

nirofo.

[Saphire]

There doesn't seem to be any problems with the surge protector so I can now rule that out. I also tried the computer back into the ext that worked first thing yesterday, that no longer works. It is definitely looking more like the computer is at fault and not the anything to do with the power.
If I want to go into the bios I have to sit and wait for about 5 min before I can press delete.
I have phoned them again and this time I will be without the computer for a week because they said it worked fine for them once they changed the memory. Now I am getting mad. No computer for a week