Holy Moly -- Residual Electricity????

Another spoof!
"Leythos" wrote in message
. ..
In article .com,
says...

Is there some such concept as "residual electricity"???

There was a problem with a computer at work...it's a new Dell running
WinXP Pro...everything's fine, I go to lunch and come back to a blank
screen that won't wake up from power-save/sleep mode!! I do the
obvious and check connections, making sure they're secure and
whatnot. I turn off the computer and turn it back on a few times, to
no effect!

Tech Support suspects some kind of a "power management" issue --
whatever that is -- and suggests that I leave the system off for a few
minutes, literally, to let things "clear"...whatever that means. Sure
enough, however: it works!

So now I'm here asking, because Tech hasn't the time to puzzle over it
with me, WHAT HAPPENED??? And how come shutting off power for a few
seconds isn't comparable to leaving power off for a few
minutes????????????

The issue is with a cheap motherboard that doesn't properly recover from
Power Management settings.

Yes, capacitors have to be drained down over a couple minutes in some
cases, but they are not the symptom of the real problem - the real
problem is a crappy APM or motherboard.

--

Leythos
- Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.
- Calling an illegal alien an "undocumented worker" is like calling a
drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmacist"
(remove 999 for proper email address)

Gordon wrote:
wrote in message
news
Capacitors.



capacitors usually discharge when the current is switched off - their main
job is to smooth current, not to store volts....



What utter crap.

John.

"John" wrote in message
...
: Gordon wrote:
: wrote in message
: news : Capacitors.
:
:
:
: capacitors usually discharge when the current is switched off - their
main
: job is to smooth current, not to store volts....
:
:
:
: What utter crap.
:
: John.

Not only is it utter crap, the arrogant little prick gets bent out of
shape when you call him on it.

Tom Lake wrote:


"RnR" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 5 Nov 2007 16:36:06 -0500, "Tom Lake"
wrote:

You can get some nasty burns from a TV that's unplugged due to those
things!

Tom Lake

Almost sounds like you speak from experience grin.

Yes, I have indeed supped at Zeus' table and tasted
his electronic wrath! 8^)

Tom "Black Hand" Lake


Ever charged up a nice sized unit and tossed it to a "friend"....
How about plugging one into AC and seeing how bright a flash you can make?

The fun of electronics education....

--
Steve W.
Near Cooperstown, New York
NRA Member
Pacifism - The theory that if they'd fed
Jeffrey Dahmer enough human flesh,
he'd have become a vegan.

In article ,
says...
Another spoof!

Not at all, if the system won't come out of suspend properly, since it's
not a Windows issue, it's almost always the result of bad quality of the
motherboard / BIOS. Seen it hundreds of times, and that's one reason to
not buy cheap crap.

--

Leythos
- Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.
- Calling an illegal alien an "undocumented worker" is like calling a
drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmacist"
(remove 999 for proper email address)

On Nov 6, 10:50 am, "Androcles" wrote:
"Gordon" wrote in message

...: wrote in message

:news :
: Capacitors.
:
:
:
: capacitors usually discharge when the current is switched off - their main
: job is to smooth current, not to store volts....

That shows how much you know -- which is zilch.

He's right. In a computer that's what they're for. Sure they can still
store charge without any current flowing, but that's not their
intended purpose. Many of them will automatically discharge straight
away into the heavy loads they're connected to. But in the power
supply are capacitors which do retain their charge after switching
off.

Not sure what this has to do with stopping the computer from working,
clearly there's an actual problem that should be fixed to prevent it
happening again.

No he's not. Capacitors do NOT smooth current. They reduce or eliminate
voltage fluctuations.
wrote in message
oups.com...
On Nov 6, 10:50 am, "Androcles" wrote:
"Gordon" wrote in message

...: wrote
in message

:news :
: Capacitors.
:
:
:
: capacitors usually discharge when the current is switched off - their
main
: job is to smooth current, not to store volts....

That shows how much you know -- which is zilch.

He's right. In a computer that's what they're for. Sure they can still
store charge without any current flowing, but that's not their
intended purpose. Many of them will automatically discharge straight
away into the heavy loads they're connected to. But in the power
supply are capacitors which do retain their charge after switching
off.

Not sure what this has to do with stopping the computer from working,
clearly there's an actual problem that should be fixed to prevent it
happening again.

Where have you seen it hundreds of times? Give facts not emotions.
"Leythos" wrote in message
. ..
In article ,
says...
Another spoof!

Not at all, if the system won't come out of suspend properly, since it's
not a Windows issue, it's almost always the result of bad quality of the
motherboard / BIOS. Seen it hundreds of times, and that's one reason to
not buy cheap crap.

--

Leythos
- Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.
- Calling an illegal alien an "undocumented worker" is like calling a
drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmacist"
(remove 999 for proper email address)

"Unknown" wrote:

No he's not. Capacitors do NOT smooth current. They reduce or eliminate
voltage fluctuations.

A power supply in any electronic gizmo changes 110V (usually) AC to
one or more voltages of DC, generally something like 5V - 20V, I
think.

Anyway, the voltage changing is done by a transformer. The
lower-voltage AC from the secondary coil of the transformer is then
fed to one (or sometimes more) rectifiers. That's a circuit component
that allows current to flow in only one direction. Now you have DC,
but very lumpy DC: it oscillates between no current at all and the
required voltage. Not much equipment can use the juice in that state.
So it needs to be "smoothed" (that is the term that's used). That is
accomplished by putting a capacitor - usually a pretty large
electrolytic capacitor - across the line. The capacitor stores charge
when the voltage goes up and releases it as the voltage drops, thereby
smoothing out the peaks and valleys.

--
Tim Slattery
MS MVP(Shell/User)

http://members.cox.net/slatteryt

Even more amusing is dynamic RAM that uses the charge on
a capacitor to store bits.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic..._access_memory



"Unknown" wrote in message
et...
: No he's not. Capacitors do NOT smooth current. They reduce or eliminate
: voltage fluctuations.






: wrote in message
: oups.com...
: On Nov 6, 10:50 am, "Androcles" wrote:
: "Gordon" wrote in message
:
: ...: wrote
: in message
:
: :news : :
: : Capacitors.
: :
: :
: :
: : capacitors usually discharge when the current is switched off - their
: main
: : job is to smooth current, not to store volts....
:
: That shows how much you know -- which is zilch.
:
: He's right. In a computer that's what they're for. Sure they can still
: store charge without any current flowing, but that's not their
: intended purpose. Many of them will automatically discharge straight
: away into the heavy loads they're connected to. But in the power
: supply are capacitors which do retain their charge after switching
: off.
:
: Not sure what this has to do with stopping the computer from working,
: clearly there's an actual problem that should be fixed to prevent it
: happening again.
:
:
:
: