PC radiation/distruptiom (hmmm)

[cenkaetaya]

Ok heres the deal.

I made a Lego pc server for random home use, and its usualy off, like i turn it on sometimes.

My dad got these two GIAGANTIC monitors, the large Dell ones as the mac but the dell. And i think when the Lego pc is on, they flicker. Just now we noticed that they tend to do that when its on. And if the lego pc is off it works fine.

this is strange cuz the lego pc is on the opposite side of the house, like 60-80 ft away from either of the two computers with each huge montior.


Now my question is since therei s no m etal around the LEGO pc, does this mean that it somehow lets some potentialy harmful to even humans rays that are distrupting these montiors or what?

cuz that is PRETTY strage...i mean there not even close. tha tmakes me think that maybe having a metal box around my computer is good ...


any oppinions comments notes?

 

[kmjohnso]

They should be shielded themselves? Maybe dell went cheap. Yes a computer emits a fair amount of rf waves. Lookup Faraday cage if you want to know more.

 

[randomizer]

Yea I agree, my TV goes crazy when my PC is on, probably because of the side window not blocking EM radiation. Cancer ward, here I come

 

[turpit]

Ok heres the deal.

I made a Lego pc server for random home use, and its usualy off, like i turn it on sometimes.

My dad got these two GIAGANTIC monitors, the large Dell ones as the mac but the dell. And i think when the Lego pc is on, they flicker. Just now we noticed that they tend to do that when its on. And if the lego pc is off it works fine.

this is strange cuz the lego pc is on the opposite side of the house, like 60-80 ft away from either of the two computers with each huge montior.


Now my question is since therei s no m etal around the LEGO pc, does this mean that it somehow lets some potentialy harmful to even humans rays that are distrupting these montiors or what?

cuz that is PRETTY strage...i mean there not even close. tha tmakes me think that maybe having a metal box around my computer is good ...


any oppinions comments notes?

Is the lego PC in any way connected to the other PC, i.e. LAN, share a internet connect, near a cable outlet etc? Do the outlets share the same circuit breaker? Any surge suppressors on the lines?

 

[drcroubie]

first, is it a random / intermittent flicker (like every minute or more), or is it constant (like lines on bad tv reception)?

anyway, my thoughts:

1 - brownouts. check how many devices you've got plugged into the same power CIRCUIT (not plug), and compare to the size of that circuit-breaker in your fuse-box. it could be that the lego pc is just bumping it over the top, and you're having brownouts (or get to a situation where the pcs are flickering with the lego ON, turn the lego OFF, and plug something else in with the same power draw, like a 500W heater, see if it still flickers). if it still does, try putting the lego on a seperate circuit.

2 - radiation. either through air (in which case, be scared if it's causing problems from 80' away), or feeding back noise through the power lines. try putting the lego on a seperate power circuit, see if that fixes anything. if it's going through the air, yeah, get a faraday cage (or maybe cardboard and a lot of aluminium foil).
also, look in the bios menus. turn ON spread-spectrum for anything you can find in the LEGO, and turn OFF any spread-spectrum you can find on the other pcs.

3 - network / phone lines. got any networks running between the lego and other pcs (including any daisy-chained modems on a phone line). they could be transmitting noise, or even signals that can wake-up devices on the other pcs, causing intermittent flickers. try unplugging them at the Lego end. if that not works, try unplugging the other pcs too (and if that doesn't help, don't forget to plug them back in again).

 

[cenkaetaya]

hmm il try that, but its kinda late now.

The only thing plugged into the pc except the power cable is a lan cable connecting to my router.

i dono about the over use of power on that circut cuz there is only one thing plugged in in that room, which is that lego pc.

 

[kmjohnso]

I don't know if I would suspect a power issue unless they are CRT monitors. Are they? Maybe I was thinking big as in screen and you were thinking they take up the how room. You don't have to build a Faraday cage (ie surround your computer), but you could shield it by lining the entire box with metal. I would prefer sheet metal for aesthetics.

 

[endyen]

Try changing out the psu in the lego server.(borrow one from another system) Some cheapo power suplies spew out some nasty harmonics on the ground, which ia a known problem, esp for monitors set @ 60 cylce refresh.

 

[valis]

bump up the refresh rate on the monitors. chances are you've got it at 60hz which just plain flickers anyway (but most people dont notice, but it does cause eyestrain)

my monitors run 75hz

 

[cenkaetaya]

They are those huge Widescreen dell monitors. Like the one u see in the apple store.

I have 2 crt monitors in my room at they are perfectly fine.

The components in the Lego pc are.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813153043
JetWay J754GT3-P Socket 754 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817171007
COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power RS-430-PMSR/P 430W Power Supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136003
2x - Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200KS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

The flicker is like ocassionaly, its like an onn off fllicker, and sometimes itl happen alot other times itl just be a one time flick. Just as iff the connection was lost.