If you are having trouble with your PC ( you know, unexplainable crashing etc) as I was until just recently - try this:

Buy yourself a brand spanking-new surge protector extension thingy kit.

I couldn't for the life of me get my new scanner to install, but on trying the above, it installed like a dream and now I'm scanning for England! And everwhere else!

The reason: it's simple. I worked it out 'just like that', as dear old Tommy Cooper would have said.

The brand-new electric cable is feeding unpolluted electricity into the PC!

And that's what causes the crashes etc, isn't it?

Fit is my computer.

Anyone not using a surge protecter gets what they deserve anyway.

I have my electricity specially imported from France but my computer still went down with a virus.

This past 2 months I've had 3 PC's with some toasted component or other due to poor power supply issues..

2 hard drives that had really eaten themselves and a modem that had gone south too...

Word of advice though.. if you're paying more than £20 for a telephone and 4 plug surge protected socket unit, you're being ripped off.. Ebuyer have an APC unit (the same people who make Uninterrupted Power Supply units) at a reasonable price, even with the postage... Staples are charging stupid money for similar products.

I just have it plugged into the wall, but all my other stuff TV/VCR etc is in a gang extension lead...


Alex

Originally posted by Sam Miguel
And that's what causes the crashes etc, isn't it?

Not really mate... surge protectors are just handy for thunder storms and such, your general every day appliance, including your PC's power supply can handle the varying voltage and current of a normal supply of power... including small spikes...

but I wont deny a surge protector can save your equipment in a bad spike or dip... I have 2 surge protectors in my room cus I have a lot of electrical equipment I dont fancy losing in a thunder storm!

but the reason your PC generally crashes is due to Windows being rather shoddy, the more software you pile into it the less stable it becomes, it's been the same since Windows 95 (windows 3.1 was much more stable), windows NT and 2000 are also fairly stable although they suck for general purpose use...

Windows XP was SUPPOSED to solve this problem, but as we all know it still sucks and crashes, although it handles problems a lot better now then how Windows used to handle errors... THE BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH!... anyways... you need to follow preventitive measures and you'll be fine... such as:

regulally defragmenting your HD's... making sure your PC is virus free... not installing random rubbish... keep your tempory internet files size to no more than 80mb...

Originally posted by xafier
Not really mate... surge protectors are just handy for thunder storms and such, your general every day appliance, including your PC's power supply can handle the varying voltage and current of a normal supply of power... including small spikes...

but I wont deny a surge protector can save your equipment in a bad spike or dip... I have 2 surge protectors in my room cus I have a lot of electrical equipment I dont fancy losing in a thunder storm!

but the reason your PC generally crashes is due to Windows being rather shoddy, the more software you pile into it the less stable it becomes, it's been the same since Windows 95 (windows 3.1 was much more stable), windows NT and 2000 are also fairly stable although they suck for general purpose use...

Windows XP was SUPPOSED to solve this problem, but as we all know it still sucks and crashes, although it handles problems a lot better now then how Windows used to handle errors... THE BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH!... anyways... you need to follow preventitive measures and you'll be fine... such as:

regulally defragmenting your HD's... making sure your PC is virus free... not installing random rubbish... keep your tempory internet files size to no more than 80mb...

BSODs - don't you just love 'em? ;)

Alex

At one place I worked we had a guy who was more PC than human, to such a degree that when he was having a bad day we just used to say that he'd 'blue screened'.....

Now here's a question - some of my amateur radio gear is fed through a plug that also incorporates RF filtering to take computer generated noise off of the mains. Do modern surge arresters and such incorporate similar filtering or do they just have spike elimination?

Joe

But does everyone agree, though: brand new wiring is bound to send 'cleaner' power into the PC. I mean, some of the old wires must get pretty gunged up.

All the electricity that passes through a cable, must eventually leave some sort of electronic scale' or 'slag' on the wiring itself.

I'm seriously thinking of working on some sort of cleaning system for old wiring. Not just for PCs, you understand - but imagine sharper lighting and cleaner, crisper sounding music coming from your HI-FI?

Just get a bucket full of water and give all the electrics a good scrub ;)

The main thing you have to watch with wiring is that you don't crimp data cables.

The data packets build up and the cabling can burst. Not too bad if you've been brwosing the history of English Norman churches, but really messy if you've been looking at Hamster Porn web sites....;)

Joe

Originally posted by Sam Miguel
But does everyone agree, though: brand new wiring is bound to send 'cleaner' power into the PC. I mean, some of the old wires must get pretty gunged up.

All the electricity that passes through a cable, must eventually leave some sort of electronic scale' or 'slag' on the wiring itself.

I'm seriously thinking of working on some sort of cleaning system for old wiring. Not just for PCs, you understand - but imagine sharper lighting and cleaner, crisper sounding music coming from your HI-FI?

A friends mother told me ages ago that she had only just stopped believing that 'you had to leave the electric plug in, or the electricity would leak out'
She learnt it as a child, went through life as a scool teacher AND became a very well published sheffield (and internationall) author, but still carried this belief.
But I think you are winding us up, Sam;) ;)

Originally posted by Sam Miguel
All the electricity that passes through a cable, must eventually leave some sort of electronic scale' or 'slag' on the wiring itself.
Well DC current travels through a cable but AC just vibrates back and forth. As your home wiring is AC, it shouldn't get 'gunged up'.

(what am I doing, there must be better things to reply to?)

Perhaps oxidisation of the copper will eventually cause degredation of the cables?

For years there was a debate about whether oxide build up on plugs and sockets for audio gear caused degradation of signal between components.

Some audiophiles claimed to be able to tell the difference between cables with gold plated connectors and those with just copper, steel or bronze plated pins, even when the distortion measurements said there was no discernable difference.

As I'm not an audio buff, I wouldn't know. The 'scientific' explanation put forward was that the oxide coating acted like a semiconductor diode and introduced distortion, which is possible, I guess.

Joe

Originally posted by Strix


(what am I doing, there must be better things to reply to?)



What am I doing, there must be better things to write about!

Sorry Sam, It just seemed a little surreal. I wasn't sure if I was being lured into another pssss take.

Originally posted by JoePritchard
The main thing you have to watch with wiring is that you don't crimp data cables.

The data packets build up and the cabling can burst. Not too bad if you've been brwosing the history of English Norman churches, but really messy if you've been looking at Hamster Porn web sites....;)

Joe

Finally got round to tidying up the Broadband and Sky cables, got the trusty staple gun and THWAP - straight through the Sky cable!! Checked everything ok and tried again - THWAP - straight through the broadband cable!! This, I thought, was going to be bad, turned the pc on and miraculously everything ok.

I then proceeded to pull the carpet up and hide the cables there!!!!