Could insufficient power cause instability?

[pood]

So I moved my comp to another room.

Within 3 days, my comp started acting up...more then usual....

My roomates comp used to be in that room and he's been having tons a problems...just a couple weeks ago, his comp just stopped working

I know it can't be the heat because the temperatures are actually better.

My comp would freeze periodically and it would require a hard reset. The comp would freeze usually when windows restarts....sometimes without menus popping up sometimes right after.

I noticed that my Thermalake Hardcano 13 frooze...the LCD panel that is...couldn't change fan settings....

So i restarted and my comp beeps for a second and nothing would come up on the screen....took me a while to figure out that that Hardcano was causing the problem...disconnected it and it works....

Could there not be enough power in the power socket and it's breaking item by item on my comp? I know it sounds weird and kinda of far fetched...but could it?

it might also be my Raptors HDs, so I'm doing an exteneded test on each of them right now.

I was using his UPS, but I'm using my own now to see what happens...doubt it could be that.

 

[JMoore]

Insufficient power can cause instability, get an UPS with AVR and it should fix everything.

 

[pood]

what's AVR?

is there anyway I cna test the sockets?

 

[JMoore]

AVR is automatic voltage control. When your voltage is low it kicks in the battery to compensate. So you have stable power.

 

[MWink]

Originally posted by: JMoore
AVR is automatic voltage control. When your voltage is low it kicks in the battery to compensate. So you have stable power.

Actually that's not quite right. AVR (Automatic Voltage Regulation) boosts or trims the incoming power by a certain percentage WITHOUT a battery. A Standby UPS that does not have AVR will switch to battery and run solely off the battery while the voltage is out of the acceptable range.

is there anyway I cna test the sockets?

If you have a voltmeter set it to AC and test the voltage coming out of the socket. It could also be something else on the circuit generating noise. BTW what kind of UPS do you have?

 

[pood]

Originally posted by: MWink

Originally posted by: JMoore
AVR is automatic voltage control. When your voltage is low it kicks in the battery to compensate. So you have stable power.

Actually that's not quite right. AVR (Automatic Voltage Regulation) boosts or trims the incoming power by a certain percentage WITHOUT a battery. A Standby UPS that does not have AVR will switch to battery and run solely off the battery while the voltage is out of the acceptable range.

is there anyway I cna test the sockets?

If you have a voltmeter set it to AC and test the voltage coming out of the socket. It could also be something else on the circuit generating noise. BTW what kind of UPS do you have?

oh, so should I just get a UPS with battery backup without AVR?

Now im using my own UPS, but it only has a 300w battery when my PSU is 510 watts.

i was using my friends UPS, that mightve been the problem...no battery backup...doesnt say what brand it is.

could using the faulty UPS damage any of my hardware permantly>

 

[JMoore]

I doubt it. Your power does not go directly into your computer from the wall. The PS on your computer is what your computer draws its power from. The only thing it might strain is the PSU, maybe. And no, you defintily want a UPS WITH AVR