I deserve a (yet another) medal

Technology and Gaming
#1

My apartment’s bedroom is infamous for tripping the circuit-breaker. It tends to use most of the electricity in this joint, yet its three outlets are stuck on a single breaker.

Back when I didn’t live alone, and my ex had her desktop here, we were unable to start our towers up at the same time because it’d throw the breaker. Sometimes, when both towers were running, throwing the light switch would cut the bedroom’s power. I used to think that instance exemplified how on-a-hair my electricity consumption was, that a lightbulb could put it over the limit.

I was wrong.

Today, comrades, I had two of MY towers running. One was playing music. I have a modem, a router, two monitors, one set of forward speakers with woofer, and one external hard drive. (Elsewhere running in the bedroom was one alarm clock, and…that’s it. No lights were on.)

And then I did it.
One computer had been plugged into the router, as I was still setting up the modem. I was using the second computer, now, to proceed activating the DSL, so I decided to plug it in.

WHAM!
As soon as I got the cat5e into the back of the router, my power went out. In the bedroom, at least. MY ETHERNET CRASHED MY FUSE BOX :fffuuu:

Either the router drew too much power handling a second connection, or the PC activated its ethernet card and drew too much power… either seems like a ridiculously small amount of current. So that’s my story, I hope you enjoyed. And if you know anything about circuit breakers, would it be possible (and safe) for me to find one which has a higher tolerance, to install for this bedroom’s circuit?

#2

haha that sucks

#3

since i logged on tothis forum for the first time in 6-8 months ish i have been meaning to ask you what’s up with your sig image. It looks like a dude with 3 hands wearing both a long sleeve shirt and a t-shirt, and one of the hands is doing the “i’ve got you’re nose” thumb gesture… and another one has bizarre tiny pointed knuckles like horns. What the fuck is that?

#4

cool.

#5

The arms and fists are just a backdrop, with some emphasis given on the fortunecookie-like sage advice text in each panel. The subjects themselves are just two people sitting side by side, in a triptych. It’s a resized/refined version of this comic:

(hyperlinked for your convenience)

#6

Ok.

#7

the two peeps

1080×432 57.1 KB

me=bored

#8

you = artist

That’s actually really informative, who knew such a small excerpt could reveal the atmosphere the subjects’ postures create.

#9

#10

Get a heavy duty extension cord and plug a surge protector into it and plug one of your computers (tower, monitors, etc) into that, then connect the extension cord into a completely different outlet somewhere else (on a different circuit)? You’re still protected from surges by going through the surge protector but you’ll be getting power from a completely different circuit.

Thoughts?

#11

that’s nothing, in the kitchen the microwave and toaster don’t run, one at a time or it trips within 30 seconds. I was washing dishes and my mom was microwaving something, I was listening to a playlist of trance songs on my laptop wirelessly through windows file sharing… the power went out as soon as a 5min song ended because the wireless card was sending a request packet.

I also bought a cheap replacement power supply for another laptop last year, it would turn off if the laptop pulls any more than 3.15 amps. Once I was too lazy to pull out the battery to use it so it worked fine for about an hour then shut off because someone talked to me on MSN and the sliding popup used a bit of CPU power.

#12

Between the phone line and the power outlet, there… looks around to confirm isn’t a single wire touching the ground. I’m afraid I can’t consider that solution if it involves something I’ll need to suspend across the apartment or step over. Or, more practically, pass through the bedroom doorway.

I had a crossing wire with my ethernet last year, and it was kind of annoying. As awesome as that old desk setup was (roomy, extremely accessible behind the towers, facing the room instead of the wall), I have not replicated it for that one-wire reason.

#13

Dude, take all this with a grain of salt … but:

It is very possible that the circuit breaker has started to fail. I don’t know whether you are in the US or the Civilized World, so I will try to accommodate my advice for both.

Check the Circuit Breaker. Especially if you are in Europe and the wiring adheres to the ISO384HD directive, then at the main panel you should have a General Circuit Breaker (Rated for the whole electrical Installation. Usually at the bottom and 40 to 60 Amps.) There should also be various other breakers for lines (Lighting, HVAC, Sockets etc).

If you could be more specific on what kind of breaker it is … it would help. Also it’s ratings.

So basically:

You have a bad circuit breaker, get it replaced.

You have an overload, that doesn’t trip instantly because of tolerance. Get a cheap plug in Watt Meter and compare the watts to the breaker’s Amp rating.

(Exotic Diagnosis) You trip the earth-phase loop breaker (also known as electrocution prevention relay). This IS actually a possibility if you have bad hardware or use FTP Ethernet cables. It is a long shot, but shortening the grounded shield from the PC’s Ethernet jack through a router’s bad / failing PSU could trigger a voltage differential between earth and neutral that could trip the relay. Again … VERRRYYYY long shot.

#14

#15

fun fact, I have a friend who doesn’t have breakers, they have fuses that need to be replaced when they trip so his dad installed fuses that take more amps than the wiring in the walls

#16

Sure, if you can turn off the power or if you have a screwdriver with an insulated handle and good nerves. Check the throughput of your current circuit breaker and get a heftier one. We had a 25A one and the welding machine used to set it off when coupled with other power hungry appliances. So we got a 40A one for like 15$ and it’s all good now.

#17

see my post above for why this is a bad idea

#18

so i cant move in?

#19

you can move in any time my parents take in any crackhead… had 2 tenants (not at same time) both smoked weed, the 1st one was a compulsive liar, in the end he jacked my laptop, xbox360 with gta4 and halo3, one 26" HDTV, one 19" LCD screen and my mom’s money stash, the other tennant just went crazy and started talking to himself after a few weeks. Neither one paid even half of the rent.

#20

i was talking to tiki but you smoke and made your house sound totally appealing

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