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Scott, Thank you very much for explaining brownouts. This was also something that I didn't quite understand, but reading your example makes perfect sense! Knowing this, I am really considering getting a UPS. The thing that deterred me from getting it before was that my area tends to suffer...

Hi, John. Thank you very much for clarifying. Something I've been curious about for a long time is just what is the mechanism by which a sudden loss of power would damage a hardware component in the devices you listed, and what is the typical nature of the damage (as opposed to being from a...

Hi, everyone. Can someone please tell me what hardware components of a desktop tower are at risk of damage when there's a power outage or brownout? My old tower has the habit of turning back on by itself when the power returns in a few seconds, whereas my newer HP tower stays off until I...

Hey, guys. Can someone help me to understand how to properly compare CPU speeds? For example, everything else being equal, is an Intel Core 2 Quad @ 2.5 GHz equivalent to an AMD Athlon II X4 @ 2.5 GHz in performance? Also, is there some place that lists CPU's in order or advacement? At the...

I don't remember noticing the CD-RW/DVD drive activity light going on at all. I'm quite sure the drive itself was completely off during this whole time. The light that was constantly lit which otherwise always blinks is the HDD activity light (not sure if that's what it's called, but basically...

Hi, John. The red cable extending from it states "Serial ATA," so I guess it's a SATA. When I plug this red cord into the motherboard jack and boot up the computer, the screen stays at the introductory page for an inordinate period (20-30 seconds) before moving forward. This is the screen...

Oh, no. Sorry, guys, I should've declared it. The PSU in that pic isn't the new one I installed. The new one has the fan on the back side, by the exterior and not facing on towards the motherboard. So definitely not wires hitting any fans and definitely the sound of a microswitch or some...

Hi, everyone. I had recently installed a new power supply and neglected to plug in the CPU power connector (upper left plug with arrow pointing in picture below) before I turned the power on. During this time, there was no monitor feed or CPU/HDD activity, yet the light at the front (which...

Hi, everyone. I recently installed a new 300W power supply and, for some reason, the CD-RW/DVD combo drive is not functioning or showing up in 'My Computer.' I double checked to make sure that the 3 connectors involved were securely plugged in. However, something I should mention is that the...

A new development that just occurred: Today when I first turned on the PC, the same rebooting/shutdown happened twice, and the third time I was taken to that dreaded black screen with the white font saying "We're sorry, but Windows did not boot properly. A recent change in hardware or software...

Thank you both for the suggestions. I managed to start the Dell onto the BIOS page on the first try, no problem, although my keys were nonresponsive with the exception of the space bar at first. After pressing a whole bunch of keys, I got the rest to work properly--have no idea what was...

To tell you the truth, I'm not too concerned with have top of the line stability/quality from a power supply at the moment because the motherboard and CPU are quite behind on the performance train compared to what's available today. It's a PowerSpec motherboard with an Intel Celeron E1200...

Hmm, the majority of those brands are from Newegg.com, but I'll admit that most of them are also under $40. Thanks very much for the recommendations, I'll check them out right away. Oh, and I know it was spinning slow because there was a bearing problem that made a vitration. I would have to...

Hi, everyone. When a PSU suffers from overheating due to insufficient air cooling from the fan, will it tend to give spikes/surges or brownouts? I had a power supply with a fan that was spinning slow and didn't realize it. The computer ran for over 6 hours without any detectable problem...

Hi, everyone. Recently my Dell GX270 (Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz, 512MB RAM, 120GB HDD) is having trouble start up. At various times after pushing the power button (different time intervals, but always before desktop loadup), the system shuts down (or reboots), making a beep followed by the...

Hey, everyone. Something I've recently been trying to figure out is the difference between fan RPM vs its design (blade slope & number of blades). Here are two pictures for comparison: The Intel fan operates at about 2100 RPM and the Cooler Master counterpart at 2200 RPM (just about...

Hey, everyone. I recently suffered a rather severe power surge from a thunderstorm where the ethernet feature on both my Westell 6100 modem and tower motherboard was fried. A loud electrical pop was heard just before I got the "LAN disconnected" notification on the monitor when it was still...

Thanks! Got it. Now I'm looking for a fan replacement. Is this type of heatsink fan design reliable? It's advertised as delivering 10° colder than the Intel counterparts...

Thank you all very much for chiming in and providing clarification. Bomberboysk, I couldn't find any labels on the power supply that indicated a particular brand, but I know it's not OEM. It was changed the same time the motherboard was: I managed to remove the head sink fan, but...

Hey, everyone. I've noticed that my motherboard emits a high-pitched ringing when there's CPU and monitor activity. Is this normal or a sign of something breaking down? By the way, my CPU fan grinds on startup for about a minute or so and then goes away. Could anything overheat in the...