Zennie 0 #1 September 16, 2001 OK this is totally not skydiving-related, but I learned some interesting things while grounded & I thought I'd share them.Since I've moved into my house I've had sensitive electronic components act totally wacky. Hard drive crashes, computer monitor blips, an electronic keyboard that was possessed and two dead DVD players. Weird, weird stuff.At first I thought putting things onto surge protectors would help. It didn't.Finally, after watching my monitor blip and my Linksys router croak, I decided to call an electrician. He said he could spend an eternity trying to find the exact source of the problem. But he noted that home power supplies weren't really designed with sensitive electronic devices like computers (or DVD players, I suppose) in mind. So you get lots of highs & lows when the A/C kicks in, or you turn on your dryer, etc. etc.He recommended that before I spend a fortune troublshooting the house's electric system that I try a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply). So I bought a couple and hooked my computer and home entertainment system into them.What a difference! My monitor is rock solid and my 'puter seems smoother & more stable. But here's the kicker. My 'puter has 512M of RAM and a GeForce3 card. So this thing should scream right? Wrong. It scored only 1260 3DMarks. After I put it on UPS I re-ran the test and scored 3889 3DMarks.I never would have thought "dirty" power could have that dramatic of a performance impact. But it looks like it does.Any electronics expert out there want to comment? Are my observations correct or are these just coincidences?--------Zennie"I know the pieces fit. 'Cause I watched them fall away..."--Tool Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DZBone 0 #2 September 17, 2001 Well, seeing as I used to work for APC, I know a thing or two about power that I never thought I would. Of course, I'm a software guy, not hardware, and I missed a lot of what those folks said. The faster system speed, that's a good one! There are a number of reasons this could be happening, including a slow clock or various low-power modes that the CPU or graphics system use.If you want to see what the power in your house is doing, run the software that came with the UPS. It should give you some visibility, including voltages, frequency, spikes/sags, etc.Note that only an "true online" UPS will generate its own output frequency, unless the power goes out altogether, but generally that's OK. Normal power in the US runs at 60Hz (50 in Europe). This happens right at the generation point, and there aren't really any conditions that would make this vary in transmission. If it is off, my guess is that you would have a ton of other problems with appliances, etc.Probably you have fluctuating voltages and transients, causing mini-resets of the system that are slowing it down. The software should tell the story.BTW, what kind of UPSs did you get? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billvon 3,119 #3 September 17, 2001 >I never would have thought "dirty" power could have that dramatic of a> performance impact. But it looks like it does.>Any electronics expert out there want to comment? Are my observations correct> or are these just coincidences?They may be coincidence, but may well be caused by the bad power. For example, if your PC's power supply has poor line regulation, and the input sags, the 12 volt output of the supply (that runs the hard drive and CD-ROM spindle motors) may also sag. Those motors have feedback loops that keep them spinning at a constant speed, but even so, you may lose some bits while the control loop tracks. Since a hard drive will automatically retry if it sees an error during read, your performance may suffer without actually crashing the machine.Some audiophiles are particularly paranoid about this, and buy DC-AC inverters (running off batteries) that both deliver perfect power and provide the ultimate protection against brownouts/blackouts.-bill von Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zennie 0 #4 September 17, 2001 QuoteBTW, what kind of UPSs did you get?They are Belkin 325VA Regulator Pros.They're nice. It has 8 outlets, 4 surge/outage protected, 4 surge protected.--------Zennie"I know the pieces fit. 'Cause I watched them fall away..."--Tool Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
