Recent content by westom

Yes, it does filter. And then view manufacturer's spec numbers. That filter is near zero. Just enough above zero so that the many who recommend it subjectively can claim 100% filtering. Little difference between a subjective claim and a bogus one. How well a UPS filters is further made...

Making electrical anomalies irrelevant to all electronics is the job of its power supply. But due to so many computer assemblers without electrical knowledge, then some power supplies are dumped into the market missing these essential functions. Why is what is only noise getting into your...

So your town is without phone service for four days after every thunderstorm? Because their computer, connected to wires all over town, suffers about 100 surges per storm. And no damage? When damage happens, correct failures created by protective equipment that ... and again read the spec...

Did you read their fine print? Good luck getting that warranty honored. It has numerous exemptions. Or read the manufacturer specifications. Where does it claim to protect from each type of surge? It doesn't. Or read its numbers. Destructive surges are typically hundreds of thousands...

You are correct. A UPS has one function. To provide temporary and 'dirtier' power during a blackout. During normal operation, switches are connected (by the UPS) directly to AC mains. No filtering or power conditioning. Second, if a fan make audible noise, then the fan is defective...

Some electronics have a safety lockout feature. Unplugging is necessary to reset that feature. All computers have that protection. That disk drive may have that feature that is reset when unplugging the external drive.

Read spec numbers on every UPS. Those numbers define even less protection than the power strip. Most who learn only from advertising will ignore relevant numbers. Surges occur maybe once every seven years. If you had a surge, then damage is permanent. And probably to many appliances...

Despite popular myths, low voltage does not damage electronics. But low voltage caused signal threshold and timing changes. Eventually one signal does not get detected in time. So the entire computer crashes. Crashes as in software execution changes; not hardware damage.

Yellow wire identifies the defect. Others see specs (ie 10%), but forget to learn other factors that must be combined with those spec numbers. At 11.5 V, the 12 volts is completely defective. So what is the reason for that defective voltage? In simplest terms, two factors. Either...

Set a multimeter to the 20 VDC scale. Attach its black lead to the chassis. Locate a purple wire from the PSU to where it attaches to the motherboard. Push the red probe into the nylon connector to touch the electrical conductor. Read something like 5 volts on the meter. Record that number...

Professionals (long before an IBM PC even existed) start with critical power system voltages. In your case, important voltages, measured by a multimeter (in 20 VDC scale), would be from any one purple, red, orange, and yellow wires. Report those numbers (to three digits) to exonerate or...

It only means insufficient facts existed to know anything useful. For starters, you should have known this. A defective supply may still boot a computer. A perfectly good supply can be defective in an otherwise perfectly good system. And defective computer hardware can make some otherwise...

It was posted repeatedly. Either you followed up because that is the only solution that provides a useful answer. All examples of how to first know what is defective. Some tasks can be done immediately. Others may require asking for details (based upon a still undefined level of...

They say in CSI, "Follow the evidence". You were doing exactly what they say to not do. Wild speculation followed by part swapping. Also called shotgunning. At best, only symptoms were cured. Posted last week (Friday) is what you do so that the next post is the solution. If you do not...

This is not a one way street. We share information so that everyone can learn. Exactly what solved the problem?