My PC power reg buzzes on startup

[eohrnberger]

Or use one to keep your internet working during power outages. That's a lot less power than a PC so it should last for hours.

Yup. I just put UPSs on on the WiFi, cable modem and main distribution switch. Est. battery run time is around 10 hours.
PCs suck juice far more.

 

[Slartibartfast]

Or use one to keep your internet working during power outages. That's a lot less power than a PC so it should last for hours.

I read it as him buying another computer. On rereading it, I should have paid closer attention.

 

[The Stars Tremble]

I read it as him buying another computer. On rereading it, I should have paid closer attention.

Uh yeah. If it was the PSU in his computer, a new one is even cheaper than a new UPS.

UPS's and cathode ray monitors are the two things I know of that can still keep a lethal charge inside them, even when unplugged for a day or more. I'll take the opportunity to repeat: if anyone does open a UPS to check the fans, be careful not to touch parts inside.

 

[Slartibartfast]

Uh yeah. If it was the PSU in his computer, a new one is even cheaper than a new UPS.

UPS's and cathode ray monitors are the two things I know of that can still keep a lethal charge inside them, even when unplugged for a day or more. I'll take the opportunity to repeat: if anyone does open a UPS to check the fans, be careful not to touch parts inside.

I was thinking case fans. Opening up a PSU is a really bad idea.

 

[The Stars Tremble]

I was thinking case fans. Opening up a PSU is a really bad idea.

There are some big capacitors in there, but as far as I know they're not super-capacitors which hold charge for hours. I've opened up many of them, and stripped them for parts, but I use a "conveyor belt" system which ages them out first. If I'm looking for a fuse or something, I attack the oldest of my decommissioned PSU's because working or not it's the least useful (power rating 200W or some such). After a few YEARS there isn't much chance of any charge remaining.

UPS's are different. They have a battery, the very purpose of which is to keep charge for a long period of time, and circuitry raising the voltage from battery voltage to 110v for the output. Anything above 12v should be well insulated, but in a cheap UPS I wouldn't take the chance.

 

[Slartibartfast]

There are some big capacitors in there, but as far as I know they're not super-capacitors which hold charge for hours. I've opened up many of them, and stripped them for parts, but I use a "conveyor belt" system which ages them out first. If I'm looking for a fuse or something, I attack the oldest of my decommissioned PSU's because working or not it's the least useful (power rating 200W or some such). After a few YEARS there isn't much chance of any charge remaining.

I just go on pcpartpicker and find another one.

UPS's are different. They have a battery, the very purpose of which is to keep charge for a long period of time, and circuitry raising the voltage from battery voltage to 110v for the output. Anything above 12v should be well insulated, but in a cheap UPS I wouldn't take the chance.

I have yet to have a UPS battery go out on me. Right now I have 3 in use (unraid server, NAS, and cable modem + main wifi node).

 

[The Stars Tremble]

I just go on pcpartpicker and find another one.

I have yet to have a UPS battery go out on me. Right now I have 3 in use (unraid server, NAS, and cable modem + main wifi node).

The last one I owned was years ago, and it used a sealed lead acid battery. Those things don't stand up to deep cycling. The proper use of a UPS is to keep you running for long enough to save work and shut down ... but I was a gamer back then. I just ran the battery down until the UPS cut out, which it turns out wasn't good for the battery. I got a new one from an electronics shop, and with better use that lasted a lot longer.

I don't currently use a UPS. They were half obsolete with the invention of journaling file systems, and fully old fashioned with SSD's. "Losing my work" doesn't bother me lol.

 

[WorldWatcher]

The last one I owned was years ago, and it used a sealed lead acid battery. Those things don't stand up to deep cycling. The proper use of a UPS is to keep you running for long enough to save work and shut down ... but I was a gamer back then. I just ran the battery down until the UPS cut out, which it turns out wasn't good for the battery. I got a new one from an electronics shop, and with better use that lasted a lot longer.

I don't currently use a UPS. They were half obsolete with the invention of journaling file systems, and fully old fashioned with SSD's. "Losing my work" doesn't bother me lol.

I keep a UPS on my gaming rig and the wife has one on her home/office computer. The ability to save in case of a power outage is nice and they provide power smoothing. Once power goes out and everything is powered down safely, the nice thing is...

..... ..... ..... ..... Modern UPS's have USB charging ports, since we have two 1500 VA models, we can probably keep cell phones charged for weeks. (Although the longest power outage we've had is 5 days after a hurricane, we are on the same trunk line as the local school and have underground power. Once the school is back up - normally a priority - our power comes back also.)

WW

 

[Slartibartfast]

The last one I owned was years ago, and it used a sealed lead acid battery. Those things don't stand up to deep cycling. The proper use of a UPS is to keep you running for long enough to save work and shut down ... but I was a gamer back then. I just ran the battery down until the UPS cut out, which it turns out wasn't good for the battery. I got a new one from an electronics shop, and with better use that lasted a lot longer.

I don't currently use a UPS. They were half obsolete with the invention of journaling file systems, and fully old fashioned with SSD's. "Losing my work" doesn't bother me lol.

My normal computer (and work computer) are both laptops, so I don't need a ups for that. My gaming rig is a desktop but if I lose a game save, its not the end of the world.

For my other devices, I would prefer to skip a parity check if a power outage ever occurs. Both are set to turn off after 20 minutes.

 

[The Stars Tremble]

My normal computer (and work computer) are both laptops, so I don't need a ups for that. My gaming rig is a desktop but if I lose a game save, its not the end of the world.

For my other devices, I would prefer to skip a parity check if a power outage ever occurs. Both are set to turn off after 20 minutes.

Ah. Well that's another thing. I didn't trust the software which came with the UPS (it was super cheap) and as far as I know Windows back then didn't have generic software to work things like that. I plugged it into the serial port (!) and nothing happened, so it was all up to my gamer willpower ... heheh ... it would have been one of the Civilization series though I can't say for sure which one. Those games are heroin.

 

[Slartibartfast]

Ah. Well that's another thing. I didn't trust the software which came with the UPS (it was super cheap) and as far as I know Windows back then didn't have generic software to work things like that. I plugged it into the serial port (!) and nothing happened, so it was all up to my gamer willpower ... heheh ... it would have been one of the Civilization series though I can't say for sure which one. Those games are heroin.

In both home server cases I use the apcupsd service for Linux. For the wifi and cable modem, it will just run out when it runs out.

 

[The Stars Tremble]

In both home server cases I use the apcupsd service for Linux. For the wifi and cable modem, it will just run out when it runs out.

OK. If it's any good it should cut out before damaging the battery inside.

I bought a new-condition compact laser printer once. It came with a driver on floppy, which I could only use by installing NT 4 on an old computer (my "print server" lol) but even then it would only print documents without dumping formatting commands all over the page ... if I ALSO formatted the document in some ancient .doc format. I learned my lesson I can assure you: that was the one and only printer I ever bought.

The connection I guess is that I tried hard to make the printer work from Linux, but it was built to only one standard and that standard sucked.

 

[Slartibartfast]

OK. If it's any good it should cut out before damaging the battery inside.

I bought a new-condition compact laser printer once. It came with a driver on floppy, which I could only use by installing NT 4 on an old computer (my "print server" lol) but even then it would only print documents without dumping formatting commands all over the page ... if I ALSO formatted the document in some ancient .doc format. I learned my lesson I can assure you: that was the one and only printer I ever bought.

The connection I guess is that I tried hard to make the printer work from Linux, but it was built to only one standard and that standard sucked.

These days you can usually just use a postscript driver with pretty much any laser printer and it works fine unless you have an unusual font (sometimes barcode fonts don't print well, for example)

I had a laser printer for years (brother model) but two years ago moved to a Epson ecotank and never looked back. I have spent $15 in blank ink during that time, which is a similar cost to laser.

 

[The Stars Tremble]

These days you can usually just use a postscript driver with pretty much any laser printer and it works fine unless you have an unusual font (sometimes barcode fonts don't print well, for example)

I had a laser printer for years (brother model) but two years ago moved to a Epson ecotank and never looked back. I have spent $15 in blank ink during that time, which is a similar cost to laser.

$15 is a lot for blank ink

Linux used to be a huge hassle for minor brands of hardware, but it did keep up enough market share to keep Apple from their diabolical plan of "made for Apple" and of course the only alternative "made for Windows". Postscript was a big step forward, but more than that, hardware manufacturers now have no obligation to build and maintain their own drivers. They keep to the standards almost always, because that way they can sell to the whole market and spend almost nothing on drivers.

The battle has moved to aps: "made for iPhone" v. "made for Android" but I expect it will end the same way. It is not in the interest of content creators to have access to only half the market, and without the content creators neither marketplace has any reason to exist.

 

[Slartibartfast]

$15 is a lot for blank ink

It was really expensive lemon juice, I admit.

Linux used to be a huge hassle for minor brands of hardware, but it did keep up enough market share to keep Apple from their diabolical plan of "made for Apple" and of course the only alternative "made for Windows". Postscript was a big step forward, but more than that, hardware manufacturers now have no obligation to build and maintain their own drivers. They keep to the standards almost always, because that way they can sell to the whole market and spend almost nothing on drivers.

The battle has moved to aps: "made for iPhone" v. "made for Android" but I expect it will end the same way. It is not in the interest of content creators to have access to only half the market, and without the content creators neither marketplace has any reason to exist.

These days Linux isn't so bad. Just buy some hardware that is a couple of generations behind and you will be unlikely to see an issue. The most recent rig I built was based around the i5-10400 (which is my unraid server) and it had a slight issue with the b560 chipset, but it just needed to set a boot flag and it was fine (it redetected that bit of hw again with systemd and set it up correctly later in the boot process). If you are willing to do a bit of research, you can get top of the line, especially if you go with AMD products (they write their own drivers and usually have them ready to go before hw releases). I just didn't feel like putting in the effort.

I cut my teeth on Debian back before the Ubuntu days and have stuck with Debain (or a derivative) ever since. My gaming laptop (for rpg night, not video games) uses Mint.

 

[The Stars Tremble]

It was really expensive lemon juice, I admit.

These days Linux isn't so bad. Just buy some hardware that is a couple of generations behind and you will be unlikely to see an issue. The most recent rig I built was based around the i5-10400 (which is my unraid server) and it had a slight issue with the b560 chipset, but it just needed to set a boot flag and it was fine (it redetected that bit of hw again with systemd and set it up correctly later in the boot process). If you are willing to do a bit of research, you can get top of the line, especially if you go with AMD products (they write their own drivers and usually have them ready to go before hw releases). I just didn't feel like putting in the effort.

I cut my teeth on Debian back before the Ubuntu days and have stuck with Debain (or a derivative) ever since. My gaming laptop (for rpg night, not video games) uses Mint.

Debian used to be hard but package managers made it a lot easier. I've tried a few distros and the one firm preference I've formed is: never Slackware. I'm not mad about distros that lock you out of root or make you use sudo command-by-command. But more than that: never Slackware.

Have you tried the Wikileaks distro? If you're interested in using a Tor browser, that distro comes all set up for it.

 

[Slartibartfast]

Debian used to be hard but package managers made it a lot easier. I've tried a few distros and the one firm preference I've formed is: never Slackware. I'm not mad about distros that lock you out of root or make you use sudo command-by-command. But more than that: never Slackware.

sudo passwd root

To the bigger point, I've never been a purist and never got into stuff like the vim/emacs wars (I use nano or gedit), systemd/init (I don't care as long as it works), etc. Generally, if whatever tools requires less time for me to get it up and running, I use that tool.

Have you tried the Wikileaks distro? If you're interested in using a Tor browser, that distro comes all set up for it.

I played with Tor a long time ago, all I saw was conspiracy theories and crime. I never tried it again.

 

[Excon]

Argh, I should have seen your reply before ordering a new one. Ah well...

Things like that do happen.

You could always refuse the delivery and you will eventually get your money back.
But sometimes the peace of mind that comes with the lack of coil-whine is better.
If interested, there are also videos that show how one could reduced, if not outright eliminate coil-whine. They involve hot wax or hot-glue.


Interestingly enough, I have purposely not been logging-in for the peace of mind it has. iLOL
Alas, your post prompted me to log-in to see if I could be of assistance. Oh well. But I have to ask, given all the other comments, and that I see you list yourself as a Libertarian. Please tell me you bothered to check out the device for obvious issues (like a possible "fan" problem) before bothering to go on-line to ask. Right? Right? iLOL

 

[The Stars Tremble]

sudo passwd root

To the bigger point, I've never been a purist and never got into stuff like the vim/emacs wars (I use nano or gedit), systemd/init (I don't care as long as it works), etc. Generally, if whatever tools requires less time for me to get it up and running, I use that tool.

I played with Tor a long time ago, all I saw was conspiracy theories and crime. I never tried it again.

Likewise. Masses of illegal merch, and child porn. It was also horribly slow ... which may in retrospect have saved me from getting involved in crime. Surely you can't be prosecuted for something you bailed out downloading as soon as you saw what it was?

I was however impressed by how they customized the Debian base to do only one thing. There was even a secure notepad that ran entirely in RAM.

There was another distro, though I've forgotten the name. It saved any changes you made to HD but otherwise ran entirely from the CD. It got rather slow after a while, but you could burn the whole thing onto a new CD if you wanted, then it would run as quick as a CD/DVD could read. Ancient history I guess.

 

[Slartibartfast]

Likewise. Masses of illegal merch, and child porn. It was also horribly slow ... which may in retrospect have saved me from getting involved in crime. Surely you can't be prosecuted for something you bailed out downloading as soon as you saw what it was?

I was however impressed by how they customized the Debian base to do only one thing. There was even a secure notepad that ran entirely in RAM.

There was another distro, though I've forgotten the name. It saved any changes you made to HD but otherwise ran entirely from the CD. It got rather slow after a while, but you could burn the whole thing onto a new CD if you wanted, then it would run as quick as a CD/DVD could read. Ancient history I guess.

Knoppix?

 

[The Stars Tremble]

Things like that do happen.

You could always refuse the delivery and you will eventually get your money back.
But sometimes the peace of mind that comes with the lack of coil-whine is better.
If interested, there are also videos that show how one could reduced, if not outright eliminate coil-whine. They involve hot wax or hot-glue.

Why not silicone sealant? It's an excellent vibration damper, it's an electrical insulator, and the whole supply would have to be on fire before it would even melt!

Interestingly enough, I have purposely not been logging-in for the peace of mind it has. iLOL
Alas, your post prompted me to log-in to see if I could be of assistance. Oh well. But I have to ask, given all the other comments, and that I see you list yourself as a Libertarian. Please tell me you bothered to check out the device for obvious issues (like a possible "fan" problem) before bothering to go on-line to ask. Right? Right? iLOL

The UPS I had didn't even have a fan. Maybe that's why the battery died so young ...

 

[The Stars Tremble]

Knoppix?

The name is familiar. Maybe it was that.

The security of running from a read-only medium was very pleasant at the time. But it was slow.

 

[Slartibartfast]

The name is familiar. Maybe it was that.

The security of running from a read-only medium was very pleasant at the time. But it was slow.

You can get a live DVD with just about any major distro these day. Much of the time, they will be into that environment and then you run the installer from that desktop. I like it since it lets me know that the hardware is going to work well.

 

[The Stars Tremble]

You can get a live DVD with just about any major distro these day. Much of the time, they will be into that environment and then you run the installer from that desktop. I like it since it lets me know that the hardware is going to work well.

Exactly so. You can also unpack the distro to a USB stick and boot into that. If it can get your internet connection up, it will search for any obscure drivers you might need.

Like a penguin, Linux can survive in the harshest of environments!

 

[Excon]

Why not silicone sealant? It's an excellent vibration damper, it's an electrical insulator, and the whole supply would have to be on fire before it would even melt!

While I am sure a person may come across a suggestion in a video regarding such, I would not suggest such because I know how people may not follow the advise given and therefore get the wrong type of rtv.

The UPS I had didn't even have a fan. Maybe that's why the battery died so young ...

Not really pertinent to what you quoted.
But hey, if you want to install a fan in one, have at it.