Close Call

This morning I woke up and thought I'd overslept. The clock said 12:57. It took me a few moments to realize we'd had another brief power failure in the middle of the night.

I didn't think anything of it until an hour or so later when I went to turn on my desktop.

Click. Silence.

Then I knew I was screwed. A few months ago we installed a 'power leveller' in the house. The main reason for this is that our wired smoke alarms would go off briefly with any power surge,

Last night the smoke alarms did not go off. So even with the power leveller and a surge suppressor, I had a dead computer. I tried all of tricks I could think of. Turning the surge suppressor off and on. Resetting the CMOS jumper. Nothing worked. My power supply had a green LED that was dark. I couldn't remember if the LED was always on or only on if the computer was on, but this gave me some hope.

So I disconnected and disassembled the power supply looking for a circuit breaker. I didn't find any but I did see something like scorch marks on one of the parts. This gave me hope that I had a dead power supply and possibly not a dead motherboard.

Now my computer has been deteriorating for the past few months. I've had overheating and other issues. It's a Presario 2600 with an AMD Sempron and 1.5GB of RAM. With the extra software I've loaded and the ever increasing demands of McAfee Antivirus, it seems to be getting slower. I am in the market for a new computer, but I wasn't intending to rush.

So my first visit was to Second Source to see if they had a used power supply. On the way there I was guessing $10 and this turned out to be the price. I brought my old power supply with me and they confirmed that it was DOA. Again that spark of hope.

I got home and installed the power supply. I had a moment of panic before I remembered that I had disconnected the power switch from the motherboard.

So I've bought myself some time.

Our power went off briefly last night, too. Weird.

Conspiracy...

*thinks* when did I last back up my hard drive?

Too long ago.

Damn, there's another thing that needs doing.

richlevy;613548 wrote:

Then I knew I was screwed. A few months ago we installed a 'power leveller' in the house. The main reason for this is that our wired smoke alarms would go off briefly with any power surge,

What is a power leveler?

Watch out Rich, tw's setting you up for a lecture. :lol:

richlevy;613548 wrote:

A few months ago we installed a 'power leveller' in the house.

What is a power leveler?

This'll do the job.

Assuming you do not have a garage that large, then what is that power leveler?

tw, Instead of playing, I-know-something-you-don't-know-but-you've-got-to-drag-it-out-of-me, just fuckin' say it, will ya? :eyebrow:

may as well ask a spade to be a non spade like thing

Maybe tw really doesn't know what a power leveler is, and his google finger is broken? You insensitive bastards!

xoxoxoBruce;618303 wrote:

tw, Instead of playing, I-know-something-you-don't-know-but-you've-got-to-drag-it-out-of-me, just fuckin' say it, will ya?

I have absolutely no idea what a power leveler is. I don't play those games. I ask, "What is a power leveler" because I have no idea what it is. The question asks only what it asks.

OK, I apologize.

Well, this definition resembles the mouse picture above, but that's not what we're looking for. From context, I assume a "power leveler" is a machine for stabilizing the voltage coming into the house. I'd love to provide a link, but Google can't find any useful links for "power leveler" (except for companies that provide the above linked service.) I suspect it's not the correct formal name for the machine.

power conditioner
voltage regulator

Flint;618816 wrote:

power conditioner
voltage regulator

But there is not such thing on AC electric. Voltage is stabilized back at the substation since that equipment must be large, expensive, located behind security fences for safety reasons, carefully maintained, and remotely monitored.

One item to adjust power - to decrease electric bills - was a synchronous motor that ran constantly and powered nothing. I doubt anyone has a large spinning electric motor constantly running and mounted to the basement floor.

What is a power leveler?

Something that removes or reduces spikes in voltage?

Flint;618944 wrote:

http://www.frys.com/category/Outpost/Electronicstab/Audio/Home+Audio+&+Speakers/Receivers,+Amps+&+Tuners/Power+Conditioners/

First, a power leveler was for the entire house. Nothing in that URL is sufficient for that kind of power.

Second, the URL has many Monster Cable products. Monster Cable is a benchmark for scams. For example, Monster sells speaker wire with polarity. One end must connect to the speakers. Other end must connect to the amp. Some therefore believe they can hear inferior sound if wire is reversed - scams are that easy to promote. A $6 speaker wire is sold by Monster for $70. If Monster Cable is selling it, those products are scams.

Meanwhile, nothing in that list is called a power leveler. What is a power leveler? I have never heard of one.

I can only deduce that power levelers do not, in fact, exist. :rolleyes:

Shawnee123;619172 wrote:

I can only deduce that power levelers do not, in fact, exist.

Or the term is being used for something else. The post implied that this building wide solution fixed smoke detectors that were otherwise tripping on their own. Something does exist. What is it?

Rich seems to have left the thread, or maybe he doesn't realize the question is for him to answer.

I'll bet he means this:

http://www.hardwareandtools.com/invt/1812916

It's actually a power conditioner. It does appear to have worked in that we are no longer experiencing short bursts from our wired smoke alarms in the middle of the night.

It doesn't appear to have saved the power supply, but none of the other equipment appears to have been affected.

tw;618939 wrote:

One item to adjust power - to decrease electric bills - was a synchronous motor that ran constantly and powered nothing. I doubt anyone has a large spinning electric motor constantly running and mounted to the basement floor.

What is a power leveler?

I have one of those large power condenser motors bolted to my basement floor, but I use it to deter the flying spaghetti monsters from nesting down there.;)

I think it has something to do with World of Warcraft. :confused:

richlevy;619221 wrote:

It doesn't appear to have saved the power supply, but none of the other equipment appears to have been affected.

What power supply got destroyed? Do you also have flying spaghetti monsters?

tw;619519 wrote:

What power supply got destroyed? Do you also have flying spaghetti monsters?

The power supply to my old computer. I had to go to a used parts store to get a replacement.

Nothing else appears damaged.