dirty power?

[208grom]

what kind of problems would you have with a pc if you have dirty power from your wall outlet?

[emosun]

more dust than usual

[Mira Yurizaki]

https://www.vertivco.com/en-us/insights/articles/educational-articles/what-causes-dirty-power/

 

There's a table there.

[WkdPaul]

9 minutes ago, emosun said:

more dust than usual

Please don't post useless replies when a user ask for help.

 

 

@208grom You might have stability issues, you could have performance issues (lower perfomance in games or slow when executing regular tasks) up to the point where the PC could randomly crash or reboot, etc...

 

 

EDIT : @M.Yurizaki nice link!

[208grom]

6 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

https://www.vertivco.com/en-us/insights/articles/educational-articles/what-causes-dirty-power/

 

There's a table there.

they dont have old wiring on there. i live in an old house turned into a 4 plex apartment and the majority of the wiring in the house is knob and tube......

5 minutes ago, wkdpaul said:

Please don't post useless replies when a user ask for help.

 

 

@208grom You might have stability issues, you could have performance issues (lower perfomance in games or slow when executing regular tasks) up to the point where the PC could randomly crash or reboot, etc...

 

 

EDIT : @M.Yurizaki nice link!

ive been having problems with it freezing up and i cant figure out why when the cpu, gpu and ram all work fine when stress tested 

[Hiitchy]

Usually lower performance, depends on what it is you're doing but sometimes even simple tasks can cause an issue

[208grom]

also i only have maybe three outlets that have the ground prong but not sure if the ground is actually hooked up

[WkdPaul]

1 minute ago, 208grom said:

ive been having problems with it freezing up and i cant figure out why when the cpu, gpu and ram all work fine when stress tested 

If you can, try to test your PC somewhere else (like a relative or a friend house) or a UPS.

 

If the problem ends up being the house wiring, it might be complicated to fix.

[Mira Yurizaki]

2 minutes ago, 208grom said:

they dont have old wiring on there. i live in an old house turned into a 4 plex apartment and the majority of the wiring in the house is knob and tube......

It doesn't matter if you have old wiring or not, you can have poor power delivery regardless of the wires.

 

Dirty power essentially means the power you're getting from the wall is not a nice clean 50/60Hz 120V/240V sine wave.

[Evolution.]

How far is the main panel? IF its close run a wire directly from it to get a clean source of power

[208grom]

1 minute ago, M.Yurizaki said:

It doesn't matter if you have old wiring or not, you can have poor power delivery regardless of the wires.

 

Dirty power essentially means the power you're getting from the wall is not a nice clean 50/60Hz 120V/240V sine wave.

im almost positive im not getting clean power since pretty much my whole aparment minus my kitchen and all of my upstairs neighbors wall outlets are all on the same breaker

[208grom]

Just now, VenomZ_ said:

How far is the main panel? IF its close run a wire directly from it to get a clean source of power

its outside on the side of the house and im in the basement apartment in the opposite end of the house

[Mira Yurizaki]

2 minutes ago, 208grom said:

im almost positive im not getting clean power since pretty much my whole aparment minus my kitchen and all of my upstairs neighbors wall outlets are all on the same breaker

I'm not arguing you're not getting dirty power. I'm saying you can get dirty power regardless of the conditions of your wiring. Yes old wires can give you dirty power, but so can other things in the system even if your wires are brand new.

[dizmo]

If it's bad enough, it can kill the PSU. Had that issue at a buddies place, went through 4 PSU's.

Moved to a nicer building, 0 problems.

8 minutes ago, VenomZ_ said:

How far is the main panel? IF its close run a wire directly from it to get a clean source of power

You should never mess around with a breaker box, especially if you don't own the unit.

[Evolution.]

Just now, dizmo said:

If it's bad enough, it can kill the PSU. Had that issue at a buddies place, went through 4 PSU's.

Moved to a nicer building, 0 problems.

You should never mess around with a breaker box, especially if you don't own the unit.

messed with it plenty of times when hooking up houses for electric

[208grom]

Just now, dizmo said:

If it's bad enough, it can kill the PSU. Had that issue at a buddies place, went through 4 PSU's.

Moved to a nicer building, 0 problems.

You should never mess around with a breaker box, especially if you don't own the unit.

ive been looking into picking up a ups and yeah im not touching anything in that box other than the breaker that pops multiple times a day

[208grom]

1 minute ago, VenomZ_ said:

messed with it plenty of times when hooking up houses for electric

i cant do that since all four apartments are on that box with multiple things from different apartments on the same breakers

[dizmo]

1 minute ago, VenomZ_ said:

messed with it plenty of times when hooking up houses for electric

You can win at Russian Roulette many times too.

Not only is it extremely dangerous, but if anything happens to the house and there's a fire, you tampering with that box without having an Electricians ticket voids any kind of house insurance the owner has. It's incredibly negligent.

Just now, 208grom said:

ive been looking into picking up a ups and yeah im not touching anything in that box other than the breaker that pops multiple times a day

Do those help clean the power up? Or are they just a back up?

[Calico Morgan]

1 minute ago, 208grom said:

ive been looking into picking up a ups and yeah im not touching anything in that box other than the breaker that pops multiple times a day

If you have a breaker popping multiple times a day it's a serious indication of a bigger issue. You really should get an electrician to check it out, or if you have a landlord, point out that there's a potentially hazardous electrical issue in your place and have them bring someone in. Breakers trip as a safety, so don't mess around with something like that.

[Evolution.]

1 minute ago, dizmo said:

You can win at Russian Roulette many times too.

Not only is it extremely dangerous, but if anything happens to the house and there's a fire, you tampering with that box without having an Electricians ticket voids any kind of house insurance the owner has. It's incredibly negligent.

Why should I pay an electrican 100s if I can do it myself. also that directly hooking the power thing up was a joke lol

[208grom]

Just now, Calico Morgan said:

If you have a breaker popping multiple times a day it's a serious indication of a bigger issue. You really should get an electrician to check it out, or if you have a landlord, point out that there's a potentially hazardous electrical issue in your place and have them bring someone in. Breakers trip as a safety, so don't mess around with something like that.

funny thing is my landlord just had that breaker box completly redone a few months ago and ive told her multiple time that the breaker keeps popping and all she has to say is "well theres nothing i can do about it right now, someday ill have a breaker box for each apartment but i cant afford that right now" so i have no clue what to do now 

[208grom]

5 minutes ago, dizmo said:

You can win at Russian Roulette many times too.

Not only is it extremely dangerous, but if anything happens to the house and there's a fire, you tampering with that box without having an Electricians ticket voids any kind of house insurance the owner has. It's incredibly negligent.

Do those help clean the power up? Or are they just a back up?

i was looking at the apc ups at bestbuy today and it does say this on the box 

• Automatic voltage regulations maintains healthy voltage conditions without using battery power

[Calico Morgan]

Just now, 208grom said:

funny thing is my landlord just had that breaker box completly redone a few months ago and ive told her multiple time that the breaker keeps popping and all she has to say is "well theres nothing i can do about it right now, someday ill have a breaker box for each apartment but i cant afford that right now" so i have no clue what to do now 

Unfortunately, it sounds like the breakers she has for all the units are not enough amperage to sustain everybody's needs, so they trip from being overdrawn. The only thing to do would be to add higher amp breakers/wire, or add additional breakers and circuits. Sounds like that's not in your hands though. Not much you can do. This happens all the time. Lots of land lords don't get that you have to actually maintain a building as part of owning one. I'm sorry for your situation

[208grom]

1 minute ago, Calico Morgan said:

Unfortunately, it sounds like the breakers she has for all the units are not enough amperage to sustain everybody's needs, so they trip from being overdrawn. The only thing to do would be to add higher amp breakers/wire, or add additional breakers and circuits. Sounds like that's not in your hands though. Not much you can do. This happens all the time. Lots of land lords don't get that you have to actually maintain a building as part of owning one. I'm sorry for your situation

maybe she will understand when the day comes that the horrible wiring setup kills thousands of dollars of electronics, hell ive already lost an xbox one elite controller to a power surge

[Calico Morgan]

Just now, 208grom said:

maybe she will understand when the day comes that the horrible wiring setup kills thousands of dollars of electronics, hell ive already lost an xbox one elite controller to a power surge

I hope it's just the breakers. Too low a gauge wire in the circuits would heat up under higher than rated amperage and is what often causes electrical fires in old buildings. Just try and stay safe.
For your more expensive gear, I think an APC might actually work, since you'd be plugging into that and NOT the wall. The APC will regulated amperage fluctuations effectively enough to keep something from destroying your pc, I think. It's worth a shot imo.