[Techtalk] mysterious pops driving me nuts

Gayathri Swaminathan gayathri.swa at gmail.com
Tue Apr 14 19:17:25 UTC 2009


On Tue, Apr 14, 2009 at 1:40 PM, Carla Schroder <carla at bratgrrl.com> wrote:

> Ok gang, put on your telepath hats because this is a weird one. Back in my
> little computer room I hear these strange pops periodically. They don't
> occur
> very often, it's once every couple of weeks or so. It sounds like the pop
> made by popping bubble wrap, or something hard hitting a window. Naturally
> with a room full of electronics I worry that it's some electrical thingie.
> But there is never a smell like frying electrons, just the sound. Once. The
> cats and dogs barely notice it.
>
> I have two computers, two LCD monitors, one printer, two APC backups, one
> router, one DSL modem, one switch. It seems to come from the vicinity of
> the
> second computer, so that narrows it down to one computer and one APC unit.
> Maybe.
>
> All right, this is your big chance-- trot out your wackiest theories and
> ideas
> for tracking this down, because it could be something totally daft!
>
> Carla
>

It's those dem power gremlins! ;)

Do you have any speakers near the narrowed down boxen? loose contacts, could
also be a dying h/w or overloaded circuit..

How about just taking the suspect APC unit and running it separately without
anything connected to it, notice for crackling sounds. Add more equipment
monitor crackling, repeat. That should tell if it is the APC or the boxen
dying as well :)

-- 
Gayathri Swaminathan
gpgkey: 3EFB3D39
Volunteer, FDP


More information about the Techtalk mailing list