computer and monitor failure

[tw/nci]

Got a call from a customer, they are having a high failure rate of computers and monitors in 1 particular building. I am wondering if there are some common things that we should be looking for as part of our investigation. Thanks for any help

 

[stars13bars2]

You should check for the usual; loose neutrals or bad grounding accompanied by surges lightning etc...
Or it could just be older computers in the one building. How and how often are they failing?

 

[bob]

What type of process does the customer have?
You should look at what is also connected near the computer that might be generating a spike. This was a while back, but a customer has an electric adding machine that produced a 400 volt spike each time he hit the add key. Over time it killed the electronics in the monitor.Those are out of date now but there could be something similar. You may have to put a disturbance monitor near the computers to check the voltage level.

 

[tw/nci]

the customer is a school district, they are losing about 25 monitors per year vs. 2-3 in the other schools which have more computers, they are losing bulbs and ballasts at a higher rate as well

 

[catchtwentytwo]

Got a call from a customer, they are having a high failure rate of computers and monitors in 1 particular building. I am wondering if there are some common things that we should be looking for as part of our investigation. Thanks for any help

Are the monitors CRT or LCD?

 

[mcclary's electrical]

Or nothing is wrong electrically, just a black market for computer monitors in that district.:grin:

 

[cadpoint]

I'll bet that you have multi-circuits in one raceway, you'll need to ring that room and the rooms on either side... probably the kiss aspect, the circuits are crossed (period)... :roll:

Even better I'll go on a limb and state that it'll be 1,2,5 Vs 1,3,5 desired!

 

[tw/nci]

would you be saying that the nuetrals are all tied together or that they have the nuetrals from 1 circuit switched with the nuetrals from another?

 

[tw/nci]

Looked at the 1,2,5 vs 1,3, 5 you must be trying to look for a balanced nuetral

 

[cadpoint]

10-4 on the Over loaded and/or mis-directed (dreaded) shared neutral...

Fine be it the mis-directed undgrounded circuit of desired origin ...

 

[tw/nci]

Thanks for the help all, I will let you know what we come up with. Wouldnt miswired nuetral also set up higher than normal magnetic fields due to no cancellation effect

 

[mxslick]

10-4 on the Over loaded and/or mis-directed (dreaded) shared neutral...

Fine be it the mis-directed undgrounded circuit of desired origin ...

Yep, some years back I had to figure out an unusual problem with a screening room..they were burning up audio amplifiers at a steady rate, amps which were normally stone reliable....they also had a LOT of hum and noise issues too...what I found was 5(!) circuits (20 amps each) off of a 3-phase panel all being served by a SINGLE #10 neutral!!

The ONLY change I made was to pull in dedicated neutrals to the rack..the hum and noise stopped and we had no more burning amplifiers.

We later got the contract to do a full audio and video upgrade on that room since we were smart enough to solve the long-standing prior issues.