John Ward April 2, 2014 Uncategorized

Slog bombed by mystery electrical surge

Apols for absence over last 5days’, my pPC was blown apart by a massive electrical charge that remains as yet unexplained.

I have ordered new model and should be back online by weekend.

47Comments

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1

ombzhch on April 6, 2014 at 5:46 am

When, long ago I bought my first property in SW France, I looked at my power with a scope, it took 2 weeks to get EDF to fix their problems and provide a list of approved surge supressors, because all those lovely thunder storms can produce huge GROUND bounce >= 50v, exit most PSUs., you need to do the whole house, not just the computers.

The France Telecom derogation has caused untold misery, and before xDSL was easy to fix, you just put 200 ohm in each leg. This kills the DSL speed, so it is now more complicated, sorry.

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2

jaywit on April 4, 2014 at 1:12 pm

ombzhch,
Bi George I needed that,
And I am certain John will follow those instructions to the n’th degree.

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3

Julian on April 4, 2014 at 6:58 am

If you haven’t already got one, get a parafoudre – a lightening protector on the mains.

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4

ombzhch on April 4, 2014 at 3:53 am

Plese read mA as A in above, sorry

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5

ombzhch on April 4, 2014 at 3:49 am

Please see the comment below on varistors and phone circuit protection, if Both legs of both circuits are surege protected (ground bounce) the chopper in the charger(almost all are switch mode) will roll over the overvoltage, see ISO (aka CCITT) design rules on telephone transformer air gap and FT special current limiting, you aim for a 600 ohm loop

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6

ombzhch on April 4, 2014 at 3:41 am

Fit a surge suppressor across L-G & N-G say 50A 1000v, especially where you are, and similar but 100V in both A, B of phone line, two equal series resistors so the equivalent Thevenin Resistance is 400-600 ohm, calculate from:

E=IR so R = 0,5 x 48 / (I measured) else France Telecom will disown anything and point you at the CCITT rule that allows them. Example if you measure 200mA you are 40ma over current and you need to increase the resistance of the loop by TWO equal 90 x 10W resistors. The correct off hook current is 0,166 ma for loop 600 ohm.

If you get less than 0,166 mA look for existing resistors and renew, and start soldering not wrapping connections.

This makes all the difference between ADSL2+ and ADSL, Finally remember if you hav e no resistance FT will, on day connect some testware and blow all your kit.

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7

halfkidding on April 3, 2014 at 8:54 pm

An external keyboard and monitor can attach to a laptop just like a desktop. Just about anyone can change a desktop motherborad and not a laptops but really, what are the chances you would need to? Let’s face it graphics and HDD functions on desktops are on the motherboard too. Need I mention less noise and power consumption.

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8

boncourage on April 3, 2014 at 2:25 pm

John, over the years I’ve become only too familiar with the vagaries of EDF power surges. Although happily, they’re much less frequent than they used to be. Mini-outages used to be the bane of my life. Literally, a five second power-cut, then on it would come again, but of course, it was long enough to loose any work I was doing on my PC.

My advice would be to get good anti-surge protection, preferably incorporating an uninterruptible power supply. It gives you several minutes to save your work and then shut the machine down normally, whilst you wait for the power to come back on. The pc/modem/router/vdu etc. should all be powered through it.

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9

John Ward – Slog Bombed By Mystery Electrical Surge – 3 April 2014 | Lucas 2012 Infos on April 3, 2014 at 10:28 am

[…] http://www.hat4uk.wordpress.com / link to original article […]

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10

Mazzzz on April 3, 2014 at 10:21 am

Welcome back, almost, from another fan!

Nice one Hero, I’m sure JW will appreciate your humour!

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11

zeusgoose on April 3, 2014 at 10:19 am

Look forward to the return….for a minute there I thought someone had put you out of our misery :-)
Anyway …plenty to chew on as far as the Greek situation is concerned with scandal about about Golden Dawn dominating at the moment amid resignations etc.
And on the financial front an interesting article by Y.V. caught my eye…. but it`s not good news…..

http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2014/04/01/europe-and-the-stressed-banks-of-ireland-and-greece-a-tale-of-two-swindles-too-similar-for-comfort/#more-5329

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12

dofornow on April 3, 2014 at 9:33 am

Snap! Happened to me a few year ago…..thunder storm … I had unplugged from mains but it came down the telephone line … blew the modem card to shreds.
do not run away yet.
dofornow

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13

Bronco Billy on April 3, 2014 at 9:15 am

Glad you’re alive & well JW I was worried that you might have had an apoplexy.
A small investment by you obtaining a ‘Surgeguard’ power protection trailing link, or the like.
Relieved that you’re still breathing.

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14

Roland Bonlett on April 3, 2014 at 8:52 am

+10

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15

hadclub on April 3, 2014 at 8:32 am

Why use a desktop?
Well for a start you will have a far more comfortable keyboard to use. Secondly you can choose to have a nice large monitor and have it positioned further back from the keyboard so that it is easier to focus on.
Then there is the advantage if something goes wrong I can actually fix it myself and at a sensible cost.
Probably quite a few more advantages too although time stops me from thinking of them at the moment.

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16

Caratacus on April 3, 2014 at 8:05 am

:-) Perhaps all those early morning sharpeners courtesy of Chateau Eugenie have finally taken their toll …

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17

Hieronimusb on April 3, 2014 at 8:03 am

Hope the ~~nude~~ new model ~~goes down~~ works well.

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18

bodge on April 3, 2014 at 7:54 am

Exploding power supplies are not that unusual I personally have had two fail spectacularly in desktop PCs. If your using a laptop I know that Dell had a faulty battery batch that literally burst into flames. Your hard drives data should be largely unnaffected.

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19

Mudplugger on April 3, 2014 at 7:22 am

Many a true word…….

Good to know it’s only technical, JW – looking forward to more ‘sparks’ soon.

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20

Andy S on April 3, 2014 at 7:20 am

It’s a NSA conspiracy…

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21

Roland Bonlett on April 3, 2014 at 7:08 am

And yes, it affects laptops as well as Desktops, sometimes the laptop power supply (the brick thing on the power wire) will blow leaving the laptop undamaged but it’s just a game of chance. Best get a protector and not leave it to chance. Good luck with Windows 8 by the way… try not to kick the thing to death before it’s even warmed up ;-)

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22

Roland Bonlett on April 3, 2014 at 7:05 am

Hmmmm….. surge protector maybe? Cough….

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23

halfkidding on April 3, 2014 at 2:26 am

If using a desktop use a surge protector. Well why would you use a desktop? It makes virtually no sense unless you need super powerhouse graphics or use some super large data intensive applications.

(I admit to thinking no power surge can hurt a laptop. Perhaps I am wrong. It’s happed)

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24

FrankS on April 2, 2014 at 11:27 pm

When they make us all have “smart” meters, I suppose targeted spikes will become more common.

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25

Salford Lad on April 2, 2014 at 10:40 pm

If you are connected to mains supply from your under- refurbishment house,it is likely the workmen are using power tools ,hence the power surges. Stay on the battery supply on your laptop for reliability.

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26

dave/r on April 2, 2014 at 10:30 pm

was worried you may have come to some harm glad your ok keep on keeping on

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27

Owen on April 2, 2014 at 10:12 pm

Am suffering heavy withdrawal symptoms…… Need my fix…

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28

Hieronimusb on April 2, 2014 at 10:07 pm

:) Apparently his hair always looked that way, must have been an ‘up yours’ from Cahors..

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29

Gary on April 2, 2014 at 9:59 pm

Glad you’re back, thought you were being “blocked”

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30

Caratacus on April 2, 2014 at 9:52 pm

All this bollocks about unexplained electricity surges, you’ve been rubbing your armpits with balloons and licking 9v batteries again haven’t you? Oh – it WAS an electricity surge .. I’m so sorry.

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31

Hazel on April 2, 2014 at 9:45 pm

You haven’t said if you lost important data. We have had two laptops die on us but the computer shop managed to get stuff off the hard drive both times so we could still have our photos, music and important documents. Perhaps you routinely back up your files, as we all should but probably don’t.

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32

oldasiahand on April 2, 2014 at 9:26 pm

John: you don’t have to be paranoid to know ‘they’ are out to get you!

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33

gerry parker on April 2, 2014 at 9:20 pm

I thought your implants may have been giving you bother. Great to have you back.
Get a Mac if you’re buying new kit. Much less bother than a winbox.

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34

Iain k on April 2, 2014 at 9:17 pm

Good to hear your okay John,

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35

Hieronimusb on April 2, 2014 at 9:00 pm

Hmm, isn’t Serge Puissance head of la Sûreté?

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36

Iain on April 2, 2014 at 8:42 pm

Glad you are back, I was beginning to worry.

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37

theguvnor on April 2, 2014 at 8:40 pm

Saharan dust down this way. Look forward to reconnection at w/end

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38

AJC on April 2, 2014 at 8:37 pm

Its that foreign electricity!

Best get yourself a modest UPS with good spike and surge protection.

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39

kbx66 on April 2, 2014 at 8:34 pm

Thank goodness!! The withdrawals are hurting!!

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40

GrahamD on April 2, 2014 at 8:25 pm

Good to hear from you JW. Jeeze…Even Snowdon hasn’t divulged that they could do that one yet ! They must be running really scared of you. I suppose suggesting it could be a spike from a drone is a little far fetched ? ;)

Note to self to buy JW a model rocket for next Xmas …just in case !

Anyway…and most importantly …..if they assumed we’d all give up and go away after 5 days and go watch CNN or Fox or read The Sun instead……we Sloggers prefer our current affairs Raw rather than Minced and Refried …thankyou ! ;)

….now where were we all before we were so rudely interrupted ?

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41

pippakin on April 2, 2014 at 8:24 pm

There is a God…

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42

Inlooker on April 2, 2014 at 8:08 pm

Warning!.You are upsetting someone somewhere.Please try,in future,to just post cat & kitten videos.Then you won’t have any more of these problems.& don’t – whatever you do – allow ANYONE to mention the Bradbury Pound.We don’t want you “suicided” with three different caliber bullets in you,

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43

Lil Swizzle on April 2, 2014 at 8:04 pm

Hurrah hurrah! Roll on the weekend – I’m sure there are tales to tell…..

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44

kfc1404 on April 2, 2014 at 7:57 pm

Back online I meant..

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45

kfc1404 on April 2, 2014 at 7:57 pm

Phew, thank f*ck for that.

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46

Linda Fisher on April 2, 2014 at 7:54 pm

Oh no! have they blown you up?

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47

Ned Grier on April 2, 2014 at 7:53 pm

Just ask the NSA for an answer.

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