Mini fridge causes computer crashes?

[EvilVargon]

I recently upgraded my microphone from the blue snowball to the blue yeti and have been experiencing some issues. Every time my mini fridge turned off, my audio drivers would suddenly restart. If i was in a skype call, both audio in and out stops. If im watching linus rock his socks and sandals, the video crashes, unloads everything that i just watched, and forces me to reload the page to continue viewing. (On vessel i got the error: "Your browser doesn't seem to support playback of this video. Try another browser or another video."

 

As said in the beginning, this happens every time my mini fridge turns off. Here is as much information about my system as I could scramble together. Keep in mind, nothing is overclocked.

 

Computer

550W PSU

i7-2600

Zotac Gtx 960

8Gb DDR3 1600Mhz

Gateway motherboard (I do no remember the model number, my apologies)

 

Peripherals

2x 21.5" Monitors

Logitech G600

Coolermaster TK Storm Red

Ugee G3 (Drawing tablet)

Blue yeti

 

Other Power Sources

A floor fan

A deskjet printer

Speakers

Guitar Amp (Used as a subwoofer for those curious)

Pyle 4 channel headphone amplifier

2 desk lamps

 

I have tried the following to detect the source of the problem:
I have unplugged the fan, printer, lamps, speakers, and guitar amp. I left the mini fridge untouched. Still crashes drivers. At this point I think it might be the fact that i have all my wires behind my mini fridge.

 

I have moved the mini fridge across the room, on a different outlet on its own. No results, still crashes upon mini fridge powering down.

 

When the mini fridge is not plugged in, of course, the drivers will not crash. This has only happened once i have purchased my blue yeti. Switching back to the blue snowball also stops audio crashes.

 

If i have posted this in the wrong part of the forums, i deeply apologize. Please let me know where I should post this, or if i should resort to another forum. I am new here.

 

[inactive account]

Can't tell if troll or being serious

[wyattzx]

Make sure to put the snowball in the mini fridge. It's melting, and that's why your audio is crashing.

[FakezZ]

The yeti doesn't like the fridge. Classic.

[EvilVargon]

Can't tell if troll or being serious

Unfortunately im being dead serious. It baffles me by how abstract the whole thing is.

[EvilVargon]

Bad wiring.

Would that be wiring from the house, or human error? I've tried re-wiring my computer, with everything plugged into different ports and using a combination of usb2.0 and usb3.0 with no change in results.

[EvilVargon]

Weird things like this can happen with bad house wiring.

How could something like this happen to one microphone but not another? I unplugged everything else from my computer to 'balance' it such as unplugging a printer, drawing tablet, speakers, etc.

[You_are_a_cunt]

I'll just assume the mini fridge isn't one of those USB powered doohickeys to cool a can of soda or a bottle of beer.

 

Your mic might be sensible to power variations, so every time the pump in the fridge starts or stops it sends "bugs" into your electrical system (there's a term for it, but I'm used to calling spikes "bugs"), causing it to crash (either on an electrical level or on a software level).

 

Since you seem to have isolated it to only when the fridge stops, it's safe to assume that you have an issue along your power line.

Depending on how your electrical system is designed, it could be in a single circuit or on multiple circuits. If it's on multiple circuits, you could try to power your computer off a separate one from the fridge.

 

I've had something similar happen with a monitor and a neon bar. Every time I'd turn that particular light on, the display would distort for a few seconds, then resume normal functioning.

This has also happens with a wireless router (Asus RT-G32, iirc), because of the same neon bar and both the router and the neon being on the same power circuit. Upon changing circuits, the WiFi wouldn't crash anymore when turning on the light (when they were on the same circuit the WiFi would drop for a fraction of a second while the LAN would still function properly)

[rentaspoon]

Unfortunately im being dead serious. It baffles me by how abstract the whole thing is.

My electric recliner cause my rgb mouse to light up and start up the PC when the motors stop.

Reroute the cables if you can or see if you can enable an option in the bios to deal with electric interference.

[Psykomantis00]

Use a different power outlet that runs from a different breaker. Or put a UPS on your system. Basically it sounds like your power is dirty and causing issues. 

[DanTheMuffinMan]

Yep, you should try putting the computer and mini-fridge on different breakers, 

[LogicalDrm]

If the mini fridge is USB-one, then PSU might not be enough to handle all power or mobo has really bad interface for power handling. But if the fridge has own power converter, its gotta be what @revsilverspine said.

[zanthros]

You can more than likely resolve the problem by putting a voltage stabilizer in the power line. (IE... UPS unit with a built in power conditioner or just a power conditioner in the system.) You may also be able to get away with just using a powered USB hub and plugging the mike into it (or the MINI fridge if it is a USB type).......

[0x1e]

It's bad wiring from the house. The fridge is having a power surge. I suffer from it as well.

 

Either rewire your entire house (not feasible) Or

Mitigate the problem.

The way I "solved" it was to do many things. Every bit helps but will never completely get rid of it.

Buy good quality power surge protectors to plug your machine into. Use a UPS as well if possible and of course a great power supply. Move the fridge as far away as possible from your plug socket. The fridge should also have it's own surge protector from the outlet.

Take as much off USB as possible, including the motherboard I/O. USBs suffer from the surge far worse than PCI-e. So I moved my LAN, and sound to PCI-e and since then I've had no problem. At least no where near as much as I used to, my keyboard / mouse will flash once / twice a week tops as they are still USB.

 

You'll have to keep all this in place once you've fixed it. Even if you completely remove the fridge you may eventually buy something that triggers this problem. I used to have a lava lamp and the electric one (not a clue what it's called now) and they both had the same symptoms as the fridge. I simply reached the max load for this breaker.

[killtothis]

Either rewire your entire house (not feasible) Or

 

 

Perfectly feasible, My house needed a full rewire when I bought it. If you're not Part P certified (not sure on US equivelant) yourself, pay someone to do it. 

[0x1e]

Perfectly feasible, My house needed a full rewire when I bought it. If you're not Part P certified (not sure on US equivelant) yourself, pay someone to do it. 

Rewiring the house and bringing it into the modern age is the best decision, but some (I would guess most?) people simply don't have that kind of money to fix one problem.

I have no idea how much it would cost on a typical house but I would guess it's expensive.

[joaosambro]

its a wierd thing . They seem not related to each other in physics and chemistry. I could only say that you should use a different electricity socket for both these devices. If that does not work, then it means your house might be haunted

[killtothis]

Rewiring the house and bringing it into the modern age is the best decision, but some (I would guess most?) people simply don't have that kind of money to fix one problem.

I have no idea how much it would cost on a typical house but I would guess it's expensive.

 

Yeah I get what you mean, Suppose I'm lucky since I'm in the trade, if you own your own home and are having issues though it's something I'd recommend though since you could potentially have worse problems (at the most extreme could cause a fire) can't put a price on your families safety. Plus if you were to sell your house it goes as a good selling point that it's been done. 

In this situation though, you're right it's probably not feasible due to the cost and amount of work, I'm just a gun-ho kinda guy, I don't do things by half always take the most extreme option available. example: My boiler fan broke, instead of buying a replacement, fit a brand new boiler. 

[Monkey Dust]

I had a issue years ago where PC wouldn't boot occasionally. Took me ages to figure out my PC didn't like sharing a socket with my printer for some reason, plugged the printer in over the other side of the room and no more trouble. The wiring of the house I was living in at the time was sketchy as hell.

[csre26]

On 7/7/2015 at 11:02 AM, 0x1e said:

It's bad wiring from the house. The fridge is having a power surge. I suffer from it as well.

 

Either rewire your entire house (not feasible) Or

Mitigate the problem.

The way I "solved" it was to do many things. Every bit helps but will never completely get rid of it.

Buy good quality power surge protectors to plug your machine into. Use a UPS as well if possible and of course a great power supply. Move the fridge as far away as possible from your plug socket. The fridge should also have it's own surge protector from the outlet.

Take as much off USB as possible, including the motherboard I/O. USBs suffer from the surge far worse than PCI-e. So I moved my LAN, and sound to PCI-e and since then I've had no problem. At least no where near as much as I used to, my keyboard / mouse will flash once / twice a week tops as they are still USB.

 

You'll have to keep all this in place once you've fixed it. Even if you completely remove the fridge you may eventually buy something that triggers this problem. I used to have a lava lamp and the electric one (not a clue what it's called now) and they both had the same symptoms as the fridge. I simply reached the max load for this breaker.

 

I know that years have passed since this publication I read your comments sorry I hope you can answer me that problem caused you instability when playing with the mouse and keyboard as it sometimes feels accelerated how could you solve it