Hardware & Devices

19-Oct-09 20:37

Hi, yesterday one of my UPS which is used more than one year got a problem that its contain a bad smell in the room. I do not know what is the cause of the problem. The computer is working as normal but the physical unit of the UPS is very hot when I touch it. So I decide to turn off the computer and remove this UPS.

Does anyone know what is the cause of the problem that cause my UPS contain a very bad smell like this?

Thank in advance!!!

Richard MacCutchan19-Oct-09 23:17

19-Oct-09 23:17

Same answer as this[^].

Mekong River19-Oct-09 23:47

19-Oct-09 23:47

I already provide this UPS to the local shop and now they report to me that the problem is cause by the battery. I feel this is not reasonable. Because at the time that its contain its smell, I found the computer is running as normal. If the battery is problem it should be the power is not provide to the computer not properly.

Please advice me if you have any comment.

Richard MacCutchan20-Oct-09 0:08

20-Oct-09 0:08

Mekong River wrote:
Please advice me if you have any comment.

Sorry, but how could I possibly guess what is causing the smell in a piece of hardware in a room thousands of miles away?

Mekong River20-Oct-09 15:42

20-Oct-09 15:42

It smell like a chimical thing. I don't know what the exact word that I could said but if I still stay in there, it would be poison. Any idea?

Richard MacCutchan20-Oct-09 23:56

20-Oct-09 23:56

Mekong River wrote:
Any idea?

Sorry, no, you need to consult a local engineer.

Dave Kreskowiak20-Oct-09 2:13

Dave Kreskowiak

20-Oct-09 2:13

Mekong River wrote:
I feel this is not reasonable.

Yes, it's entirely possible the battery is bad. UPS batteries are usually lead/acid devices, same as in a car. Yes, they go bad and have to be replaced.

Without knowing the smell though, it's pretty much impossible for anyone to tell you if it's the battery or the electronics inside the UPS. Either way, you're spending money.

A guide to posting questions on CodeProject[^]

Dave Kreskowiak
Microsoft MVP
Visual Developer - Visual Basic
2006, 2007, 2008
But no longer in 2009...

Jörgen Andersson20-Oct-09 20:39

20-Oct-09 20:39

As an addition to what Dave said.
A broken (shorted) battery CAN break the electronics.

System unit not boot

Mekong River19-Oct-09 20:34

19-Oct-09 20:34

Hi, one of my client computer could not be power on. When I connect the system unit to the power and turn it on, i found the power is come into my system unit. I also found that the ligh of the hard disk is available after that around 1 mintus the light of the hard disk is turn off but the system is not boot up. The monitor is not display anything. The system unit still has the power but its seem like the hard disk is not running at all.

Could you please let me know what is the cause of the problem? It is cause from the hard disk that is not functioning?

Thank in advance!!

Richard MacCutchan19-Oct-09 23:16

19-Oct-09 23:16

Mekong River wrote:
Could you please let me know what is the cause of the problem? It is cause from the hard disk that is not functioning?

Well we could guess, but it is impossible to diagnose a hardware problem without access to the actual machine. If you don't have the knowledge to find out which component has failed then you should consult an engineer or take it to your local computer shop.

Jörgen Andersson20-Oct-09 1:46

20-Oct-09 1:46

Does the computer make any beeps after the bios has started?

Mekong River20-Oct-09 15:41

20-Oct-09 15:41

No. It didn't alert any sound. Any idea?

Jörgen Andersson20-Oct-09 20:37

20-Oct-09 20:37

That usually means that the PSU,CPU or the MB is broken.
Other errors are usually alerted by different combinations of beeps. One beep usually means that bios has booted OK.

Note my use of the word usually, there are known exceptions.

Mekong River16-Nov-09 2:29

16-Nov-09 2:29

I have takeen this computer to the computer shop and they told me that the problem was the mainboard that is broken. But after I replace mainboard and used it for two days, now i found that there is no electricity come into the System unit. I try to change many power cable but it was not success. Could you please let me know what is the cause of the problem? Is it related to the power supply? Do you know are there any tool that I could test the power supply?

Thank in advance!!!

Can anyone tell me how bar code scanner works?

Dan Neely16-Nov-09 4:10

Dan Neely

16-Nov-09 4:10

Does your PSU have a power switch on the back?

You can turn an ATX power supply on by shorting the green pin of the ATX plug to one of the black ones. You need have a bit of a load on the PSU while doing this though (without it you could damage the PSU); either leave it connected to the PC or have a few case fans attached. If the mobo has failed it won't turn the PSU on when you hit the power switch. It's far more likely that either the PSU has failed, or that the mobo has failed than your power cord is bad.

If the mobo died after two days there's a good chance that your PSU is faulty and killed both boards. You can check voltage levels with an inexpensive multimeter; but would need access to an oscilloscope to measure voltage ripple/startup spikes that a cheap PSU could fry a board with.

3x12=36
2x12=24
1x12=12
0x12=18

Xiangyang Liu 刘向阳19-Oct-09 14:14

Xiangyang Liu 刘向阳

19-Oct-09 14:14

I got a "MS7120 Orbit Omni-Directional Laser Barcode Scanner". I plugged it into my PC. When I scan the bar code in the instruction book, it beeps. My question is, where and how do I get the "output" data from the scanner? Is it written somewhere in a file? I have no idea (never used one before).

Thanks.

My .NET Business Application Framework
My Home Page
My Younger Son & His "PET"

Re: Can anyone tell me how bar code scanner works?

Jörgen Andersson19-Oct-09 23:12

Re: Can anyone tell me how bar code scanner works?

19-Oct-09 23:12

Depends on which interface (and settings) you're using. If it's a keyboard interface you get the barcode as characters typed from a keyboard.
If it's RS232 you can probably use the System.IO.Ports.SerialPort class.
The USB interface can emulate both keyboard and serialport.
So it's quite versatile and up to you how to use it.

But there is no shortcut past reading the documentation. If you don't have it it's avaliable at Honeywells[^] homepage.

Xiangyang Liu 刘向阳20-Oct-09 7:22

Xiangyang Liu 刘向阳

20-Oct-09 7:22

Jörgen Andersson wrote:
But there is no shortcut past reading the documentation.

That's what I was afraid of. Smile | :)

Do you mean, I need to write some code that picks up what the scanner produces from the serial port? Sounds fun.

Thanks.

My .NET Business Application Framework
My Home Page
My Younger Son & His "PET"

Monitor not working with DVI to HDMI cable

cdpace18-Oct-09 3:27

cdpace

18-Oct-09 3:27

Hello guys,

Today i just received the Monitor that i just bought. Now the problem is here the monitor accepts 3 different types of inputs which are DVI , HDMI , and VGA, and in my computer i have the 9800GT which has 2 DVI connections. So i went to my local computer shop and bought a DVI-D to HDMI cable so I can connect the monitor via HDMI to get the best picture possible. Now what happened is when i connected the cable to the monitor no picture was coming up but when used the VGA cable with the DVI extension everything worked. I did some research to try and fix the problem and it resulted that my graphics card accepts DVI-I connections and the wire is DVI-D and these are different as i think. Do you think this is the reason that the monitor didn't work when i connected the cable and do you think there is a transformer that can switch from DVI-I to DVI-D or are there DVI-I to HDMI cables? any help would greatly be appreciated guys.

Regards,
Christian Pace

Re: Monitor not working with DVI to HDMI cable

Dan Neely19-Oct-09 2:32

Dan Neely

19-Oct-09 2:32

DVI-I connectors/cables support both analog and digital inputs. This isn't your problem. What I think is hte issue is that your monitor is set to get input from the analog port not the hdmi port. Depending on your model there should either be a button to switch inputs directly or it's an option in the screen menus; unless you have a very cheap model it's probably the former. The button will cycle between the three inputs in sequence.

The latest nation. Procrastination.

Dead PC ... power supply problem ? [modified] Fixed....

Maximilien17-Oct-09 3:13

Maximilien

17-Oct-09 3:13

Good day,

My desktop PC's been dead for a few months now (I have a laptop as a replacement).

I decided that I should take some time to try to fix it.

When powering up the machine, nothing happens, the fan of the power supply does not even turn on, neither does the case fan that is directly plug into the power supply.

Question : are the fan controled by the motherboard ? i.e. if the MB is fried, should the fans (especially the power supply one) turn ?

Thanks.

Summary:
Got to a (good) store with the old PS, they checked it out, and was dead; no power at all...
Went home with a brand new PS unit, more wattage, cool looking cables; installed it, did not
blow fuses or mother board or graphic card...
Booted up Vista, spend a few hours updating updates (it's been dead for a couple of months)
Rebooted and spent the rest of the week-end playing Fallout 3.

This signature was proudly tested on animals.

modified on Monday, October 19, 2009 8:56 AM

Re: Dead PC ... power supply problem ?

Richard MacCutchan17-Oct-09 4:17