Started with flickering case lights and crashing while gaming, got a new 850 power supply, problem seemed solved.... old monitor started flickering, it was making popping sounds before that so i assumed it was the monitor sent it off for warranty. My new monitor is now flickering the same as my old one was and my case lighting was just flickering while gaming moments ago, oh yeah, and one of my outlets in my room stopped working a few days ago mid gaming (I know sounds crazy, I checked the breaker box 3 times), the house is old, it's from the 50's... I really don't want to have to call an electrician but that's what it's looking like it's going to come down to. Is there something like an active UPS I could use as a bandaid? I'll be moving out fairly soon so a perminant solution isn't really needed I just need to keep my shit from catching on fire. If anyone has a solid explanation of what exactly is happening that would also be great.
yes
I have this
You'll want something that regulates the voltage, lessens the surges and picks up the slack on a brown out/power loss
Like a power supply, get more wattage than what everything connected will draw
How much of the house is the breaker with your pc outlet?
i'm pretty sure it's my room and the office next to me so.. i'm 95% of the power draw.
A UPS will help a lot but move out as soon as possible. Two of the probabilities are - old installation and you have connected too much stuff on the same line or the more probable low supply voltage which is really good at destroying everything electrical you have.
Brownout is quite common in older houses. Find the light subcircuit that uses two switches to switch on one single light, in old houses that would normally be the hallway or something. 9 out of 10, there will be an electrical issue there if you're getting brownouts. Alternative is that your neighbour is growing weed and is tapping your line for it because he doesn't want his electrical bill to give him away lol, that actually also happens regularly.
A power conditioning UPS is what you need. A regular UPS will die very rapidly, because UPS's that are not made for power conditioning, are not made to switch on/off rapidly and frequently.
Get an electrician :) Fuses/breaker and main boxes do wear out. If main box isnt well balanced and overloaded :) As zoltan said brownout
Is there a special term for these "power conditioning" UPS's or is that what I should search for?
I believe what zoltan was talking about is that you need a UPS that purpetually runs the computer off the battery while just continually charging off the wall. These are the higher price UPS's, as the battery quality has to be far superior to that of normal UPS's.
Okay, how can I tell the difference between those and a normal UPS?
Really the only way I know of is just to specifically search for "Power conditioning UPS." You can bet most 95% of the sub $200 UPS's are not going to be power conditioning. Here are a couple I found so far:
I think the term "Line interactive" is a sign of it being power conditioning, but I'm not 100% on that.
Hmm... a little more than I want to spend however I'm tired of having panic attacks lol. Plus those are a pretty nice form factor, could easily mount it under my desk. Really trying to avoid having the knob and tube wiring redone in a place I'll be moving out of soon, this circuit will never see this kind of power draw again so seems pointless to me.
Run your system off a 30 amp breaker/ Fuse circuit ? solid consistent power is good :)
I don't think I have any 30A circuits anywhere in the house... I know that my room is 15A (which 'should' be adequite considering the stuff in my room is the only stuff that uses it) but idk... I just find that if a UPS can solve the problem (which it looks like it will) I'd like to have one since it'll also help with power outages and the like as well.
I was looking at this APC unit that @thecaveman linked me and it says it protects against Under and Over voltage without drawing off the battery which is exactly what I need for my situation.
I'm going to grab a kill a watt tomorrow so I can be sure voltage from the wall is the issue, but at this point i'm pretty convinced.
There you go 15 amp and 14/2 :( Reference: Should only be for a single purpose / a single recepticle use . Say like frig.
Your pc should at least being sitting in a 20amp and 12/2 wire circuit even then a powerhouse pc may tap that pretty hard depending on how much and what else is in the circuit.
Sorry being from a non native English speaking country I am not 100% sure about the terms but it must be something around those lines. -
Voltage regulator
Auto voltage regulator
Self voltage regulator
Voltage stabilizer
Voltage correction
And so on, look at the overview and read carefully most of the manufacturer's will specify that it will protect from change in voltage. You must be looking for under and over voltage regulation (which must be the standard but sometimes manufacturer's cut corners).
Oh by the way Zoltan did write the specific term in English - brownout so they may also call it brownout protection etc.
I had a power conditioner at home that was in a server cabinet and it weights a ton so must be put into a rack system or just placed on the ground so I don't think you can fix one of those under your desk. Also if you're getting a UPS be sure to get a pure sine wave one because the APFC in the PSU might fry the whole system if the wave is not as close as possible to a pure sine.
Other than that I don't think you can fix your issues with those devices. I mean they're nice to have to get cleaner power and a battery backup for any PC is worth but looks like your issues are higher in the piramid, so to say.
There are basically three main types of UPS's:
Offline/standby
Only provides battery back-up and surge (lightning) suppression, little to no line conditioning is done. Most cheap consumer units fall in this category. If the supply voltage drops, it switches to battery power.
Line-Interactive
A line-interactive UPS dynamically reacts to undervoltage and overvoltage events by switching transformer taps, this provides a stable output voltage without having to switch in the batteries (within a certain window).
Depending on the unit, it may also react to changes in line frequency and other unwanted power events.
Small business and more upmarket consumer models fall in this category.
Double conversion
The incoming "dirty" AC is converted to DC, and then back to near-perfect AC through an inverter. This gives you the absolute cleanest output (at the cost of conversion losses).
This is the type of UPS that you'll find in medium to large data centers. Smaller desktop units exist, but they're very expensive.
You found power conditioners further through the thread I see.
There are cheaper ones also:https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00009RA60/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&condition=all
Just as good. for just over 50 bucks, unless your PC draws more than 10 amps, which at 110V is 1100 Watts, so you might draw more, but it's rather unlikely.
Edit: the brownout correction rating of these battery equipped power conditioners is not in VA (Volt Ampère) like real UPS systems, but in Joule. Joule is Watts per second. That tells you how many Watts and/or seconds for a given energy in Watts the unit can correct.
Most brownouts are the effect of induction currents and natural capacitance of old circuitry, which means that most brownouts will last less than one second. Let's say that you have a unit that does 500 Joules, and has a total capacity of 1000 Watts, then that unit will be able to correct a complete blackout for half a second. If you have for instance a brownout where the power drops to 55 Volts, the unit will - at full 10 amps current - be able to correct the brownout for just over one second, which is relatively long.
Overkill is not always necessary. If the electrical circuit is deteriorated to the point of a one second brownout that cuts most devices, you really need to have the circuitry redone, because you're going to be out of fridge soon. You see your computer cutting out, but that has a conditioning power supply that can mitigate most potential brownout and induction spike damage. A fridge or TV doesn't have that. Appliances do not like being hit by induction spikes and brownouts, it reduces their lifespan considerably. Some devices tend to become fire hazards with electrical conditions like that. So measure your grid, see if it's still within safe boundaries. A power conditioner is just a patch, it's not a real solution.