Ask Me Help Desk - 3 computers have fried after plugging them in

First off the electrical side to me quesiton is the bottom paragraph for anyone with knowledge of that. My top paragraph is related to possible problems with the computer hardware itself I will just explain the exact problem that has happened to me.

I have a computer that been running for long time. I move to new house into a room that my dad rewired. Periodically the computer would just turn itself off. I have an NVIDIA 5200 videocard I'm using and it had a western digital hard drive. After about two weeks I turned the computer off and when I came home turned it back on only it wouldn't boot up. Said no boot disk. Tried to reinstall windows and windows started the install off the cd, but as soon as you get toi the point where you have to boot off the hard drive it just says no boot disk. Also doing all this the computer was running extremely slow like somehting was wrong with it. Just for the computer to boot off the windows cd I had to sit there and wait like 10 minutes. I bought a new computer and plugged it in. Booted it up to windows. All of a sudden funny lines started coming on my monitor. I turned it off, rebooted it, than same problem. No bootdisk. Running very slow. Never booted again. That was a p4 2.8 gig 2 gigs of ram. I had plugged in my old WD hard drive and the nvidia videocard. Bought a 3rd computer. It fried to same problem. Boots up once. Started installing windows service pack 3 when it shuts down. Try to start it and windows is corrupted and won't even load in safemode. Boot off windows cd, reinstall windows. Now eveyrtime I try to boot it says no boot disk. Even the BIOS stopped recognizing the hard drive and the cdrom. Any ideas people? Ive already lost 3 computers. So far I can only think of two possibilities. Either 1) Possible the using my old HD or NVIDIA viodecard and something is wrong with one of them and they destroyed 3 computers? Not likely I have the nvidia card in this compouter that's in a different part of the house and it has no problems. 2nd possibilities. Electricity which I know nothing about. See below, Please any help or suggestions are welcome.

Please I need help. My dad re-wired my room with 14 gauge wire. I do not know yet whether it is on a 15 amp or 20 amp breaker. My computer motherboard burnt out after about a week. Since than I have bought 2 new computers and both of them burnt out within 2 hours and the thing is they both have the same problem. Won't boot off the hard drive, bios won't recognize hard drive. Basically either there motherboards or cpu 's are fried. He claims he has done nothing wrong. At this point I think it must certainly have to be something with the electriciy but I cannot figure out what. I have not tested the voltage coming out of the outlet yet because I do not have a tester. Please someone help me figure out some various things I can check for a things that could hgave burnt out the equipment. On the outlet there are two wires one on the left of the outlet one on the right. Each wire is coming from an opposite direciton through the wall. Each wire has the normal black, white and neutral wire. The two gorunds are twisted together and tied to a screw on the left side of the outlet. The two whites are on screws on the left side of the outlet. The two blacks are on screws on the right side of the outlet. Also the wire coming from the right direction is on the same wall as the washer/dryer, garbage disposal, dishwasher stove oven everything. I was thinking is it possible that that wire is more amps or voltage and causing a problem? I don't even know how to tell which black wire is the hot wire. Its my understanding that both black wires can be connected to an outlet but the outlet will only get power from one of them. HELP =) Ive lost 3 computers now and my dad claims that he is in no way responsible and that he has done everything right. The 3rd one burnt out while plugged into a power surge which I assume must have also burnt out. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I doubt that your problem has to do with the wiring of the room. In most homes in the U.S. there are two "live" wires coming into the house and one neutral. The voltage from either live to the neutral is nominally 110-120 volts. The voltage from one live to the other live is nominally 220-240 volts. If he accidentally wired your outlets with 220-240 volts, you would see smoke. If you plugged a normal 110 volt lamp into the circuit, the light bulb would burn out instantaneously. Other electrical devices would also burn out.

Some computer power supplies will automatically adjust for 110 volts or 220 volts. Mostly, I guess these are laptops, but I guess some desktops could also have this feature. Mine has a switch on the back to move from 110 volts to 220 volts.

Hopefully, your dad wired the room to a 15 amp circuit. That's all that 14 gauge wire is rated to take. But even if he did wire it to a 20 amp circuit breaker, that wouldn't damage your computers. The current ratings don't specify how much current is drawn, but only the maximum current that can be drawn. Each device draws the current it needs. If the current exceeds the rating of the breaker, the breaker trips and shuts off the power.

If you wish to verify all of this, you'll have to borrow a multimeter and check the voltage (on the AC scale) across the line and neutral. You'll get the same voltage between the line and the ground and you'll see no voltage from ground to neutral (maybe a few milliamps of noise, but that's all). On a standard U.S. outlet that has been wired correctly, the longer slot is the neutral (white wire), the shorter slot is the line voltage (black), and of course, the ground is usually bare or sometimes green.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Perito

I doubt that your problem has to do with the wiring of the room. In most homes in the U.S., there are two "live" wires coming into the house and one neutral. The voltage from either live to the neutral is nominally 110-120 volts. The voltage from one live to the other live is nominally 220-240 volts. If he accidentally wired your outlets with 220-240 volts, you would see smoke. If you plugged a normal 110 volt lamp into the circuit, the light bulb would burn out instantaneously. Other electrical devices would also burn out.

Some computer power supplies will automatically adjust for 110 volts or 220 volts. Mostly, I guess these are laptops, but I guess some desktops could also have this feature. Mine has a switch on the back to move from 110 volts to 220 volts.

Hopefully, your dad wired the room to a 15 amp circuit. That's all that 14 gauge wire is rated to take. But even if he did wire it to a 20 amp circuit breaker, that wouldn't damage your computers. The current ratings don't specify how much current is drawn, but only the maximum current that can be drawn. Each device draws the current it needs. If the current exceeds the rating of the breaker, the breaker trips and shuts off the power.

If you wish to verify all of this, you'll have to borrow a multimeter and check the voltage (on the AC scale) across the line and neutral. You'll get the same voltage between the line and the ground and you'll see no voltage from ground to neutral (maybe a few milliamps of noise, but that's all). On a standard U.S. outlet that has been wired correctly, the longer slot is the neutral (white wire), the shorter slot is the line voltage (black), and of course, the ground is usually bare or sometimes green.

Ok since you seem to know what you are talking about please help me out. First off let me address the computer side of the issue. Basically 3 computers motherboards/cpu's have burned out, all 3 computers have the same problem. Won't bot off the hard drive / BIOS can't recognize the equipment. The chances of the same thing happening to all 3 computers would be the equivalent of winning the lottery. Even if I managed to break all 3 computers they wouldn't all be broken the same way and with the same problem. So as far as I can see the only possible other problem points to the electricity. I don't know if you know anything about computers but your welcome to jump in. If you do formatting and reinstalling windows on the harddrives is no use all 3 computers still refused to boot off the harddrives afterwards.. Ok on to the electrical stuff. And thank you for replying and giving me this informaiton

You say if he accidentally wired the outlet with 240 volts I would see smoke. Your killing me man cause I was praying that was the issue. And I have had a light plugged into the outlet for 2 days and the damn thing hasn't burnt out yet. Ok so just out of curiousity how would you wire the outlet for 240 volts? Right now the outlet has a wire on each side of it. Each wire has a hot, neutral and ground. The gorunds are twisted together and stuck on a screw. The neutrals are on the correct side, and the two hot wires are connected to screws also on the correct side of the outlet. Now assuming the problem is definantly the electricity, and just for now to say that the problem isn't too much voltage. Is there a possibility of the equipment frying from too little voltage? There is a voltage switch on the back of the computer and its set to 115. But I'd like to say on the outlet I said had a wire coming from each side of it right? Well the wire coming from the right side of the outlet that entire wall is very close to the kitchen and every big electrical appliance in the house is there. I mean washer, dryer, garbage disposal, microwave, stove oven. Everything. Could this be related? I don't know much just a thought. If Im getting too little voltage that could be the cause? Ok now one more thing about the gauge and breakers. I could swear I saw 14 gauge wire in the wall. I asked my dad and he says He used 12 gauge wire on a 15 amp breaker. Could this be a problem? I'm really lost now man because if you are making it almost certain that only 120 volts or less is coming out of my outlet. If this is true than what else could be the problem? The only electrical related problem that could be left would be too little voltage coming out of the outlet. Is this right? Could that cause my hardware to burnout? Any more help would be appreciated I'm trying hard to understand what happened. Like I said every time I go buy a computer and plug it in it stops working almost immediately afterwards that's pretty strange anyone would say. This has happened with 3 different computers but all 3 ended up with the same problem.

I'm not really great with computers but do you have a cheap or small serge protector? You need to buy a good heavy duty one so your computer doesn't fry. That's what my computer teacher told me. She said that your motherboard can fry during a thunderstorm or power outage if the computer is plugged into a cheap serge protector or into the wall outlet.

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Originally Posted by frankie31337

First off let me address the computer side of the issue. Basically 3 computers motherboards/cpu's have burned out, all 3 computers have the same problem. Won't boot off the hard drive / BIOS can't recognize the equipment. The chances of the same thing happening to all 3 computers would be the equivalent of winning the lottery. Even if I managed to break all 3 computers they wouldn't all be broken the same way and with the same problem.

I agree, it doesn't seem that it can be a coincidence. However, electrical damage to computers would probably not lead to the same problem, even if they were the same make and model.

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankie31337

So as far as I can see the only possible other problem points to the electricity. I don't know if you know anything about computers but you're welcome to jump in. If you do formatting and reinstalling windows on the harddrives is no use all 3 computers still refused to boot off the hard drives afterwards..

Correct.

Now, having said that, I have encountered a very few homes where the voltage is too high - say 130 volts. Light bulbs don't burn out immediately, but they do burn out prematurely - and other electronic devices can also be damaged by high voltage. But this is extremely rare and it's not possible that you dad could cause this. It has to be a problem with the last transformer that the power goes through before reaching your home.

[QUOTE=frankie31337;1614890]
And I have had a light plugged into the outlet for 2 days and the damn thing hasn't burnt out yet. Ok so just out of curiosity how would you wire the outlet for 240 volts? Right now the outlet has a wire on each side of it. Each wire has a hot, neutral and ground. The grounds are twisted together and stuck on a screw. The neutrals are on the correct side, and the two hot wires are connected to screws also on the correct side of the outlet. Now assuming the problem is definintly the electricity, and just for now to say that the problem isn't too much voltage.
[QUOTE]

You have a black (line) and a neutral coming into the box. The ground wire isn't going to affect the situation. That line only comes into play if you have a fault (a short between the line and the ground). The purpose of the ground wire is to force the circuit breaker to trip in the event of a fault. Back in the circuit panel (fuse box), the white neutral wire should be connected to the "neutral block", a bank of common connections. The black wire should be connected to a breaker or a fuse. In order to put 240 volts into the outlet, the neutral would have to be connected to a breaker -- and it would have to be a breaker connected to the opposite line phase. If it were connected to the same phase as the black wire, no current would flow and lamps, etc. wouldn't turn on.

[QUOTE=frankie31337;1614890]
Is there a possibility of the equipment frying from too little voltage?
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Motors can burn out from having insufficient voltage to turn the motor. Lack of cooling, primarily. Light bulbs will glow more dimly, but they'll last forever. Computer power supplies, won't supply the proper voltage, but it probably won't burn anything out. It simply won't work.

[QUOTE=frankie31337;1614890]
There is a voltage switch on the back of the computer and its set to 115. But I'd like to say on the outlet I said had a wire coming from each side of it right? Well the wire coming from the right side of the outlet that entire wall is very close to the kitchen and every big electrical appliance in the house is there. I mean washer, dryer, garbage disposal, microwave, stove oven. Everything. Could this be related?
[QUOTE]

You might possibly be on to something here. When large motors start, there can be voltage spikes on the power line. I can't rule out the possibility that a voltage spike damaged your equipment. Usually power strips are equipped with varistors to cut off the tops of voltage spikes to protect your equipment. That usually fixes these types of problems.

[QUOTE=frankie31337;1614890]
Ok now one more thing about the gauge and breakers. I could swear I saw 14 gauge wire in the wall. I asked my dad and he says He used 12 gauge wire on a 15 amp breaker. Could this be a problem?
[QUOTE]

You can use 12 gauge wire on a 15 amp breaker. It's not common, but it can be done. Normally 14 gauge wire is used on 15 amp circuits and 12 gauge wire (heavier than 14 gauge wire) is used on 20 amp circuits. If you use 14 gauge wire on a 20 amp circuit, it's not going to damage your equipment. It's a code violation. The National Electric Code specifies the minimum size conductor to use. If you used something smaller, there's a small chance that the wire could overheat and cause a fire. That's the reason for the wire specifications.

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankie31337

I'm really lost now man because if you are making it almost certain that only 120 volts or less is coming out of my outlet. If this is true than what else could be the problem? The only electrical related problem that could be left would be too little voltage coming out of the outlet. Is this right? Could that cause my hardware to burnout?

I can't see how it could damage your equipment. The only thing I can think of is a line spike. Get a good surge protector.