patience...my ass

[kevmeister]

well...where to start; first, my MoBo calves out on me. its about 2-3 years old and we have 'dirty' power (brown-outs and power blinks). THEN...my old machine grenades itself (4+ years) which was worse because we still don't know what shape that HD is in (that one has 3 years of income tax entries).

anyways...another 2 weeks and hopefully were patched up. LOL

:)

[gcountach]

Man, that sucks. We live out in the country, so I know what you mean by dirty power. If it's a constant thing, you should consider getting a UPS (Uninterpretable Power Source). It's basically just a surge protector with a battery. It'll clean incoming power so there's no sudden drops or dips in power going to whatever you plug into it. Also, in a complete black out, it'll run on battery power long enough to say your goodbyes online, save and close everything, and shut down. They can go for anywhere between 50 bucks to 250 bucks, depending on wattage requirements you're looking for.

While you may not find this funny now.... when I was watching these videos that were teaching me about information covered on the A+ Certification exams, the topic of backing up came up. The guy on the video said "There are two types of people when it comes to making backups: Those who back up and those who haven't lost anything yet." Hope that HD turns out alright though. That's some important information to lose.

[Kevman]

Most backup UPS' won't work unless it's 120V + or - 10%, at 60 hertz, we've tested generators that are within the 10% of 120 volts, with a frequency of 58.5 hertz, and the UPS switch on and off.. In big factories, we put in big capacitor banks, which cleans, and evens out dirty power.. Best bet would be looking into something like that, but for a residential application.

[Ayce]

Yep, you need a voltage regulator of some kind to keep the power constant. Not sure if they exist for home use, but you could Google it and see.

I remember my dad having problems with a customers T.V. Wouldn't work at the customers home, but worked fine in the shop. I helped him once taking the set back and noticed the lights seemed a bit dim. Turned out the customer was only getting ~90v at the outlets. :-O

[gerbiepiep]

There are batteries you can put in some computers wich delivers electricity when the power is down, but i have no idea if it would help against anything what you are describing.
My mom has a PC wich can have a battery in it, it is a HP brand computer.

Also maiby worth a shot is connecting your PC to a solar powered system.
Costs allot though.

Are you guys on powerlines above the ground?

[gcountach]

There are batteries you can put in some computers wich delivers electricity when the power is down, but i have no idea if it would help against anything what you are describing.
My mom has a PC wich can have a battery in it, it is a HP brand computer.

Also maiby worth a shot is connecting your PC to a solar powered system.
Costs allot though.

Are you guys on powerlines above the ground?

I think they call those laptops :p. Seriously though, this a desktop you're talking about? I've never heard of something like that being built into a desktop PC.

[gerbiepiep]

I think they call those laptops :p. Seriously though, this a desktop you're talking about? I've never heard of something like that being built into a desktop PC.

Yup talking about a desktop. :)

With some googling i stumbled uppon this site with some UPS's wich should work fine with desktop PCs (do not take my word for it, i dont have one so cant say anything about it, either contact them via email or phone if you are interested): http://powerquality.eaton.com/Products-services/Backup-Power-UPS/PC-Workstation-Home-AV/default.aspx

It works in the descibed conditions you are in, also when the power is completely down.

[kevmeister]

we just picked up a UPS but the damage was probably already done. anyways...sucks to be me right now. LOL

:)

[Pie]

I'm having PC troubles too Kev, lost my main hard drive and my 8600GT went on the fritz it's showing signs of overheating at only 60* celcius. Pretty sure the core is shot. Have a 9600GSO I found for $40 on the way.

You can run a PC off of a fairly small solar setup. If I had the money for the panels I would totally do it.

[kevmeister]

well...I dropped some money on a new Gigabyte MoBo (and a quad-core processor, new stick ram and windows 7). looks like were back in business for now

:)

[Chaul]

I've been wondering how big of an UPS should I get to safely run a decent gaming PC on it. Mine has a Core i7 860, Radeon 5870, both slightly overclocked at times, single WD green hard drive and a DVD drive and a 550W PSU. I can't find detailed enough information anywhere and if I do it's contradicting.

It's quite enough to have it running on battery for few minutes or just long enough to be able to power the computer down automatically. However, I'm mostly looking for stable, somewhat regulated power, as I may be getting spikes through the mains when lights are switched off elsewhere in the house. When that happens, the speakers connected to the amplifier make a "pop" sound and I want to get rid of that. But then I would also need to connect the amplifier to the UPS, wouldn't I... hmm.

This is an old house and the grounding isn't really proper. And, it's scary that the main power switch does not seem to have any effect on this room. It's like one of the three phase wires is permanently fused on at the fuse box. Maybe I should be looking something other than UPS.

[ROKKET]

I've been wondering how big of an UPS should I get to safely run a decent gaming PC on it. Mine has a Core i7 860, Radeon 5870, both slightly overclocked at times, single WD green hard drive and a DVD drive and a 550W PSU. I can't find detailed enough information anywhere and if I do it's contradicting.

It's quite enough to have it running on battery for few minutes or just long enough to be able to power the computer down automatically. However, I'm mostly looking for stable, somewhat regulated power, as I may be getting spikes through the mains when lights are switched off elsewhere in the house. When that happens, the speakers connected to the amplifier make a "pop" sound and I want to get rid of that. But then I would also need to connect the amplifier to the UPS, wouldn't I... hmm.

This is an old house and the grounding isn't really proper. And, it's scary that the main power switch does not seem to have any effect on this room. It's like one of the three phase wires is permanently fused on at the fuse box. Maybe I should be looking something other than UPS.

yeah like an electrician to re-do your wiring and find the short