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You let the smoke out of it! All electrical devices work on smoke. So if
you let the smoke out of them, they won't work any more.
Don't want to insult your intelligence, but you've got a troubleshooting
problem on your hands. This could be anything from the circuit breaker in
your breaker box to a moth on your motherboard (the original "bug"). What
you're going to need to do is begin isolating components in order to test
them one by one.
Let's start with a few questions:
- What's the amperage of the circuit breaker that powers your UPS? Can you
afford to take your system off the UPS for a while? Could you also move
your system to another electrical outlet in your home?
- Why did you replace the battery on the UPS?
- Who replaced your smoked motherboard? Where on the motherboard was the
burn mark? Was it near the power supply connection? Did you install the
new board yourself? What did you replace it with (the same type board that
came out of it, or an upgrade)?
- What does the Power Supply nameplate say? (Power (watts), max current,
brand, ...) What does your power supply sound like (noisy or smooth and
quiet)?
- Do you happen to own a multimeter (a hand held electrical meter or test
light)?
- Why did it take an hour for them to figure out that your modem is bad? Is
it on but just not working right?
- Can you afford to unplug and put aside your second computer for a while
or, at least, move it to a different room for a while?
All the best,
The Omega Man (TM)
On today's menu: Green eggs and Ham.
-----Original Message-----
From: Jerry Baker <jlbaker@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: omega-list@xxxxxxxxxx <omega-list@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Saturday, August 29, 1998 10:23 AM
Subject: HELP!!! from hardware guru
Hi,
In April of this year I had a hybrid computer built. It has a 300MX with
64K Ram, CD drive, CD rightonce, 56K modem and 6gig hddr. Within the
first two weeks the harddrive failed and it was replaced at no charge (I
had to rebuild data again). Three weeks ago, I smelled smoke coming from
the back of the computer. The mother board had been fried as had been the
power supply (there was a burn mark on the mother board). They told me it
was not covered under warranty as it had to be caused by an "external"
problem. Last evening, my modem failed. After an hour with Global Center
(on-line company I use), they determined it was not functioning properly.
When I called the computer company again this am, they said it would not be
covered again under warranty if the power supply showed evidence of an
"external" cause again.
My question: "How can it be external causes, when my computer is plugged
directly into a 650 Tripplite power supply with battery back-up (new
battery), brown out and black out protection? I have a second computer
that is an old 486 that is also plugged into that same power supply (only
those two items) and nothing has failed with it."
Thanks for help from one who knows this stuff.
Jerry
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