(no subject)

[meanfreepath]

A decent night's sleep can do wonders for clearing the brain.

Our PC at home, when asleep, seems to occasionally restart itself of its own volition. I'm not sure what's happening. We have the PC plugged into a surge protector which is then plugged into the wall. My suspicion is that too much power is being drawn, and that consequently fluctuations or ripples in the AC are crashing the computer. Anyone else have similar experiences or suggestions? Would the purchase and installation of a UPC possibly help?

(It is certainly the case that, when someone does something energy-draining like turn on a hair dryer or the laser printer, the lights noticeably dim)

Comments

erm, that's not good

[obcordate.livejournal.com]

More than a UPC, I think it might be worth it to have your electric be redone or at least looked at...

Then again it might just be the PC's power supply or restart switch that might be faulty. Have you opened it up?

[gerbilicious85.livejournal.com]

It might not be a power thing at all...my Windows machine used to restart randomly, plugged in or not, way before the problems with my power adaptor began. Then I found the little option under My Computer somewhere (Computer Information perhaps) that said "Automatically restart when Windows crashes" checked and I unchecked it. Now, instead of restarting, it goes to a blue screen of death, which usually informs me that Windows shut down to protect my computer and why. It often names the process at fault (ex: atapi.sys) and gives a long string of numbers like (00000x1...etc.). These things actually mean something, and if you write them down there's some help section on the Windows site where you can type them in and run a search and see if there's a fix for your problem. The error message will suggest things too. A surge protector ought to protect your computer, and if your unprotected things stay on when your computer restarts, it's more likely that it's a Windows crash. (If it's a home PC, it could be clogged with spyware) Good luck!

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

Windows machines often need a reinstall, as much of a pain as that is. I'd also wonder about the power suplly, as was mentioned above. A UPC will stabilize the power some, but I'd suggest checking the other two first.

Don't open up a PC power supply unless you're really careful and know what you're doing. Them's big capacitors.