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Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Chopsdad on 27 February 2007, 22:02:54

Title: Internet bulb failure
Post by: Chopsdad on 27 February 2007, 22:02:54
Just sitting here in the dark pondering if it could be true.....

For the last two weeks my PC has been unable to get a dial tone when the Vampires get out of bed, I've had some Virgin's test the line and it's "very noisy sir, with a lot of interference, could be a bad earth from your street lights".  :-?

Anyway, tonight it's working ok but the PC (not speaker) is making a whining noise that I thought was a faulty fan but then the ceiling light blew and the noise stopped.... internet's ok...am I fixed?  :-/

Title: Re: Internet bulb failure
Post by: Taxi_Driver on 27 February 2007, 22:13:44
Yes......but unfortunatley you will not be able to move as the problem will come back. Just sit in the dark 24hours a day....typing away and all will be fine  ;) ;D

Seriously tho......thats a bit of an odd one......i would report to BT (if the line is BT) as a fault.....and let them sort it out.  :y
Title: Re: Internet bulb failure
Post by: Kevin Wood on 27 February 2007, 22:15:39
Weird goings on indeed!

Was it a low energy bulb? Guess they have the potential to cause interference, especially in some weird failure mode but other than that I struggle to see how they could be connected.

If the phone line is still bad try looking for the master socket (phone socket with a horizontal split across the middle). Undo the two screws and remove the lower half of the socket and move it to one side being careful not to dislodge the wires connected to it. You will see another phone socket recessed into which the bottom half normally plugs. Plug your PC / phone into here and see if it's still noisy.

What you have just tried is to disconnect all the extension wiring in your house and connect directly to the incoming line. If that improves matters you have a problem somewhere in the building. Could be dodgy wiring or a duff phone connected to an extension somewhere.

Are you on broadband or dial-up?

Kevin
Title: Re: Internet bulb failure
Post by: Chopsdad on 27 February 2007, 23:16:16
Quote
Weird goings on indeed!

Was it a low energy bulb? Guess they have the potential to cause interference, especially in some weird failure mode but other than that I struggle to see how they could be connected.

If the phone line is still bad try looking for the master socket (phone socket with a horizontal split across the middle). Undo the two screws and remove the lower half of the socket and move it to one side being careful not to dislodge the wires connected to it. You will see another phone socket recessed into which the bottom half normally plugs. Plug your PC / phone into here and see if it's still noisy.

What you have just tried is to disconnect all the extension wiring in your house and connect directly to the incoming line. If that improves matters you have a problem somewhere in the building. Could be dodgy wiring or a duff phone connected to an extension somewhere.

Are you on broadband or dial-up?

Kevin

I'm on Broadband 1meg at present.  The Virgin helpline asked me to drag the PC to the master socket (in another room) and plug it in whilst the fault was active - and I was on the phone - needless to say I cut him off and it still didn't work.  They've run 2 line tests and it's bordering on 1meg with interference. All the lights were off, and my central heating was off, both kids were asleep - so no excess noise. :D

They have no clue, so I'm downgrading to 512kb, so at least I'll have connectivity and TBH I'm sure the bulb's a red herring - but it did make the PC noisy :-/

FYI, I only have energy saving bulbs in the garage, cos the cat likes the slow introduction of light as they warm up  - the one that blew was just a 60w bulb.
Title: Re: Internet bulb failure
Post by: Jimbob on 28 February 2007, 08:39:42
Are are your pc gubbins / router plugged in through one of those surge / spike rfi protection thingies?

I had loads of grief (with pc and very old dvd player) until I bought some of those.

Things like heating, washing machine, shower all played havoc with the sensitive stuff.
Title: Re: Internet bulb failure
Post by: bogit on 28 February 2007, 09:03:01
many moons ago when i still lived at the parental home.every time some one turned on the kitchen strip light,or the fridge compressor kicked in my usb modem would throw a fit and spit its dummy out.had to un plug from the pc and refit every 10 minutes on saturday nights.my mum can drink tea for england  ;D
Title: Re: Internet bulb failure
Post by: DaveL on 28 February 2007, 18:15:19
Have heard about the early energy bulbs causing interference due to the why the energy is used.
Do n't know if the latest ones do though.

Good find by mark one eyeball and ears though. :y
 8-)
DaveL
Title: Re: Internet bulb failure
Post by: Chopsdad on 28 February 2007, 21:59:27
Quote
Are are your pc gubbins / router plugged in through one of those surge / spike rfi protection thingies?

I had loads of grief (with pc and very old dvd player) until I bought some of those.

Things like heating, washing machine, shower all played havoc with the sensitive stuff.

Yeah it's plugged into a surge protector.  Since it's blown it's been working fine - what would cause the PC tower to make an noise in the first place?  High pitched whine - worse than the wife  :-[
Title: Re: Internet bulb failure
Post by: Jimbob on 01 March 2007, 08:34:34
Sounds like either a fan on its way out, the PSU or a hard drive to me.
PSU's going can be bad, ive known a few take the pc out with them.
Title: Re: Internet bulb failure
Post by: Chopsdad on 01 March 2007, 21:12:09
Quote
Sounds like either a fan on its way out, the PSU or a hard drive to me.
PSU's going can be bad, ive known a few take the pc out with them.

Its fine now Jimbob - stopped as soon as the light bulb blew  :-?
Title: Re: Internet bulb failure
Post by: Jimbob on 01 March 2007, 21:16:11
Sorry, should read more carefully!

Sounds like it was interference then.
Does your protector do RFI or just surge / spike?
Title: Re: Internet bulb failure
Post by: Chopsdad on 01 March 2007, 21:26:32
Quote
Sorry, should read more carefully!

Sounds like it was interference then.
Does your protector do RFI or just surge / spike?

Just surge protection.  Connection has been fine since but they're downgrading me any day now to 512 so I find the coincidence uncanny.
Title: Re: Internet bulb failure
Post by: Jimbob on 02 March 2007, 08:06:52
Ive added surge / spike when I was having different grief, pc rebooting, dvd's breaking up etc
when there was electrical noise going on, shower on / off, heating, washing machine.

A better surge spike rfi unit solved the problem.
Title: Re: Internet bulb failure
Post by: Marks DTM Calib on 02 March 2007, 09:30:49
Hmmmm.....sounds like a supply issue....wonder if you have an iffy neutral connection somewhere.....do you know what earth setup the house has...
Title: Re: Internet bulb failure
Post by: Chopsdad on 02 March 2007, 20:52:38
Quote
Hmmmm.....sounds like a supply issue....wonder if you have an iffy neutral connection somewhere.....do you know what earth setup the house has...

Brown earth in the garden.  Green and yellow sleeved earth in the house.  :-X  So, no sorry I don't.
Title: Re: Internet bulb failure
Post by: sir moanalot on 03 March 2007, 07:17:55
not just me pulling my hair out then. sometimes i can connect wireless to my bt home hub and sometimes not. sometimes it crashes the connection and sometimes very slow.
phoned bt and was given all the usual bumf but the last thing they said was having the sky telephone lead plugged into the line set up can effect settings/connections etc????  was told to disconnect sky phone line for a couple of days to diagnose, weird eh?  well i'll let you know the outcome. tone.
Title: Re: Internet bulb failure
Post by: Chopsdad on 03 March 2007, 23:15:18
Quote
not just me pulling my hair out then. sometimes i can connect wireless to my bt home hub and sometimes not. sometimes it crashes the connection and sometimes very slow.
phoned bt and was given all the usual bumf but the last thing they said was having the sky telephone lead plugged into the line set up can effect settings/connections etc????  was told to disconnect sky phone line for a couple of days to diagnose, weird eh?  well i'll let you know the outcome. tone.

Disconnect SKY was the first thing I was told to do too.  It only needs to be plugged in for the first year of your contract and if you want to download movies etc, so now they can't keep tabs on me   ::)