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December 11th, 2017 03:00
RECENT VERY WEIRD ELECTRICAL PROBLEM !
I'm hoping someone else may have experienced my recent weird electrical problem.
My setup: I have a Dell 3020 Mini Tower powered from a wall socket via a surge protector, & this is plugged into the 'Master Socket' of a 6 way power strip. When the PC is turned on at the wall, the Master Socket turns on the 5 slave sockets for monitor, speakers, printer etc. When the PC is shut down, the power strip powers off all the slave sockets. Very convenient!
The problem: when the Dell & peripherals were running recently on a couple of occasions, the monitor, speaker & Ethernet switch all switched off then back on again - all in a split second. It gave the speakers a big 'thump' but the PC remained running.
This weird event happened when I plugged in a mains charger for my laptop, in the same room. The charger wasn't even connected to the laptop, as I always do that after the charger mains cable is powered.
The exact same event also happened, when another laptop charger was plugged into the wall socket in another room, but not even switched on!
Is is possible that the cause was a spike of some sort affecting my Dell system? I'm worried that a spike or whatever it was, could damage my Dell & peripherals.
I'd very much appreciate any ideas, thoughts & even a solution. Perhaps some kind of mains smoothing device is needed for my system.
Thanks to anyone who can advise.
Niloc1017
fireberd
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December 11th, 2017 07:00
I would suspect the surge protector strip. Replace it. Surge protector strips do not last forever and we usually do not know when they stop protecting. If it had a large spike at some point and the protector did its job (sacrificed itself) protecting it is no longer capable of protecting. I'm a musician and use a surge protector strip for my equipment, which includes an effects processor, and I routinely replace the string once a year. Relatively inexpensive for safety.
As far as a "mains smoothing" that gets into high priced equipment. Maybe a UPS would be something to consider, it has surge protection and it also guards against momentary and short term power outages.
Niloc1017
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December 12th, 2017 03:00
Hi Fireberd - many thanks for your helpful thoughts & advice. My 6 way mains power strip doesn't have any protection built in, but the cable that feeds it is plugged into a surge protector. From what you say, it's possible that it did it's job then 'died' - so I need to replace it. As you say, they're cheap enough.
But, as it's impossible to tell if it was a surge, it may have been a rapid spike on the mains supply. This probably needs a different form of protection. Something I need to research.
Thanks again & kind regards, Niloc1017