[conspire] Computer Gremlins -- bad AC power?

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Dana Goyette (danagoyette at gmail.com):

> Ever since I moved down to San LUIS OBISPO, I've had way more weird
> crashes and hardware failures than I've ever had before.  Can anyone
> suggest what might be the cause?  Is our power circuitry messed up in
> some way?

I had a great theory, and then:

> The small UPS running our cable modem and router shows the input
> voltage randomly drifting between 121 and 125 volts.

Well, shucky darn.  The damage plus the phenomenon of lights dimming and
brightening could have been something like what happened at our house,
some years ago, when the main house feed's neutral lead broke at the
roofline.  Voltage started swinging.  We called in an electrician, who
isolated the problem to the main house feed, and we then called PG&E,
which ran a new line from the pole.

In your case, I'm not sure, but I'd absolutely call in an electrician
and have some root-cause diagnosis done.  This sounds to me like a
classic case of "bring in the professional help".

You might want to get a voltage regulator box to put between your
computer gear and house power, just as additional isolation.  I do this, 
and would try to never _not_ do so, in the future.  (Laptops don't need
that, IMO, having plenty of isolation.)

I have in my toolbox an AC receptacle tester that purports to be able to
report various sorts of wiring errors/faults in the AC feed, somewhat
like this one:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/233868157505

However, your place's problem sounds serious enougn I'd call in the
pros.