Re: [tlug] Stupid mistake?"

[Raymond Wan <rwan.kyoto@example.com>]

Hi David,


On Tuesday, January 10, 2012 04:19 PM, David J Iannucci wrote:
> Have we fried her power supply?  It's lower voltage than the PS is
> expecting, but... does that matter?  Is there any other plausible
> explanation for this?  If this is the right diagnosis, has there
> possibly been damage to internal peripherals?


The voltage difference is slightly different (100 V for 
Japan versus 120 V USA/Canada) and I'm not sure if I was 
lucky, but I never had any problems without a transformer. 
I didn't have a desktop, but things like a Zip drive [this 
was over 10 years ago :-) ] and a Playstation worked fine.

I asked around and the few "experts" around me said that 20 
V was within the tolerance of many appliances.  *shrug*

Of course, the difference between these two things and the 
desktop is that the desktop is more complex and it is always 
drawing power [1].  Hence, your power supply's green light 
and LAN lights are always on.  Not sure if over the course 
of a month did it decide to give up...

On the other hand, I just brought a desktop to Hong Kong 
recently and as Bruno says, blowing the power supply was 
instantaneous.  Because the PC is always drawing power from 
the 220-240 V outlet, I didn't have to switch it on -- once 
I plugged it in, I heard a pop and then smoke.  And then me 
saying "*doh*".  :-)

It isn't that expensive to change the power supply to find 
out.  *Maybe* everything else is ok -- the power supply 
blowing is suppose to protect the rest of the computer [2]; 
indeed, once I changed the power supply, the rest of the 
computer, including the hard disks, were all fine...

Good luck!

Ray

[1]  Incidentally, I was shopping for transformers at 
Yodobashi Camera and there are these relatively cheap 
all-in-one transformers.  I wanted to get one but if you 
look in the back, some said that it is meant for things like 
hair dryers; not for something that is turned on for 
extended periods of time.  So, it would seem duration also 
has an effect...if someone on this list knows, I'd like to 
find out the real answer.  I ended up getting an expensive 
one that weighed a tonne...

[2]  The tech support for my Dell machine said this.  I had 
to call them because "surprisingly", Dell chose to use a 
non-standard power supply.  I had to pay them to fix it for me.