My G400 fried

[lindberg]

Yesterday when I was playing GTA3 frame rates suddenly dropped, or shall I say, the game froze a few seconds at time. The sound started to crackle and the compo completely froze so I did it the engineer way and shutted it down.

When I turned it back on, the tellie crackled and popped in the back (got my G400 hooked up to the scart). I powered off again, removed the second vga-connector. Turned the power back on and discovered that I no more have any picture in my G400

After gathering my thoughts and checking the damage I discovered this :

• Secondary output on the G400 black and burned at the circuitboard
• Picture in the tellie is totally white and the circuitboard around the scart-contact is black and burned
• My brand new 3x240W Philips stereo which was connected to the tellie scart and the computer has no longer an working amplifier and can no longer read CD's
• the sound crackled a lot from the computer, I suspect that my brand new Fortissio II card has also got a punch

Don't know about the rest of the computer but it seems to work, it beeped the "ok" beep when it started and the hdd seemed to start loading.
I wonder what happened here . Maybe it's because the compo-tellie-stereo is not earthed together but there's no earth contact on the tellie nor the stereo.

Remains to see what the insurance company will insult me with

[ayoub_ibrahim]

that's really bad news.
looking on the bright side you have every reason to replace it with the new P!

[SteveC]

You could try to RMA the card with matrox and get a new one. I'd be very suprised if the card failing caused your amp and TV to also break - it sounds more like a power surge or something...

[lindberg]

Too bad the P isn't out yet and I'm without graphics card... It sure breaks my heart to be forced to leave the G400 but maybe I'll throw in a raedon 8500 LE with tv-out until pahrelia shows up :P

As far as I know it the closest I'll get to G400 with features but 10x better 3D performance.

There must have been some kind of potential difference between my computer/TV/stereo. But I've had it like this for ages without any trouble, but I do get electrical shocks when I touch e.g. the rca connector to the stereo.

I'll connect them all to gorund (PE) in the future, no more s**t like this for me.

[The PIT]

Buy a cheapo Gforce MX and then you will really enjoy the quality of the P when it comes out and you won't have broken the bank in the meantime.

[Greebe]

Lindberg dude do yourself a favor and have an electrician look at the wiring. If you have been experiencing electrical shocks then there has been for quite some time now an electrical fault causing this. A relatively small power surge (from many varying sources/effect) could have easily tripped up your rig. Sorry to hear.

Now find that PH#

[lindberg]

In fact I have an bachelors degree in electrical engineering... But you seldom care to overlook your own stuff! I'll take a look at it. Seems as the soundcard got it also.

Running a chepo G-Fart MX200 now, boy it's slow! It's even worse than the G400! I would never have thought that...

[Wombat]

You may be an EE (as am I, well, Comp. E), but that doesn't automatically qualify you as an electrician. When it comes to house wiring, you're not a trained professional in that field. Get someone who is.
Not to be rude, but you hadn't even heard of grounding adapters.

[KvHagedorn]

Once you get your house wiring in order, check out Panamax surge supressors. They are the best ones around, and most importantly they have a lifetime warranty on all their products, which includes repairs/replacement of any attached equipment. (They do make good on this warranty in every way.. we sell the things and have had people with nearby lightning strikes blow out some very expensive equipment which Panamax paid for) They have 220v products if you do a search.

[Greebe]

Should I suggest buying some MOV's of the proper size and installing them your self?... Naw would be much cheaper and too easy todo if you can solder.

[KvHagedorn]

The main reason to get Panamax is for the warranty. No MOV will protect you against serious stress.. like a near lightning strike where one customer lost her 40" TV and woofer amps in both her speakers, PLUS the Panamax. In her case, Panamax paid for all repairs plus sent her a new surge protector. This isnt the only danger, though.. you could have a situation where the power turns on/off many times within a short period of time. My VCR's power supply blew because of this, and Panamax paid the $170 repair bill in full. Remember that when you are writing the checks to replace your equipment.

[lindberg]

double ! Umm, think I might be qualified as an electrician since I've also got an technicians degree in the house wiring field, electrical power (don't know the correct name in English though). Proper grounding is what I need, I've nerver measured my outlets or grounding potentials since I've never have had any problem before. And I've had it this way for half a year now, even more I think.

I will install an UPS to help my server survive power losses and they also have built in surge suppressors, the one I looked at had 2 UPS'ed outlets + 4 transient voltage protected outlets. If something else happens it's the insurance companys problem, boy did their inspector cry when he looked at my case...

yes, and one more thing, this didn't happen because of my ignorance but of my negligence I'll take this as an lession now for the future, don't mess with the grounding.

[Greebe]

Why Panamax Chuck?

[KvHagedorn]

Originally posted by Greebe
Why Panamax Chuck?

Just from experience dealing with them. They don't give you the runaround.. they just send you a check.

Damned useful when your homeowner's insurance carries a deductible which would probably make it useless it many cases..