Power Supply Problems

The PC power supply is probably the

most failure-prone item in a personal
computer. It heats and cools each time it
is used and receives the first in-rush of
AC current when the PC is switched on.
Typically, a stalled cooling fan is a
predictor of a power supply failure due
to subsequent overheated components.
All devices in a PC receive their DC
power via the power supply.
A typical failure of a PC power supply is
often noticed as a burning smell just
before the computer shuts down.
Another problem could be the failure of
the vital cooling fan, which allows
components in the power supply to
overheat. Failure symptoms include
random rebooting or failure in Windows
for no apparent reason.
For any problems you suspect to be the
fault of the power supply, use the
documentation that came with your
computer. If you have ever removed the
case from your personal computer to
add an adapter card or memory, you can
change a power supply. Make sure you
remove the power cord first , since
voltages are present even though your
computer is off.
.
Japanese Spy Satellite Suffers Critical
Power Failure
by Staff Writers
File
Tokyo (AFP) March 27,
image.
2007
A Japanese spy
satellite has stopped
working due to an
electrical problem,
potentially impairing Tokyo's ability to
peer anywhere in the world, officials
said Tuesday.
Officials said they were having difficulty
repairing the satellite, which
malfunctioned just a month after Japan
completed sending its full set of four spy
satellites into space.
The radar satellite, which was put into
orbit four years ago, had not been
operational since Sunday due to a
problem related to its battery system,
said an official with the Cabinet Satellite
Intelligence Centre.
Japan has four spy satellites in orbit --
two are radar and the other pair are
optical satellites. Each pair gives Tokyo
the ability to spy anywhere on Earth, at
least once a day.
The satellites were launched as Japan
tries to step up information gathering on
North Korea, which fired a missile over
Japan's main island in 1998 and tested
an atom bomb last year.
"If the radar satellite does not come
back on again, there might be areas
where we might not be able to conduct
radar monitoring everyday," the Cabinet
Office official said, without elaborating
on technical details.
Japanese engineers have been working
since Sunday to repair the problem, he
said.
"What we have learned so far is that the
problem is very difficult to solve," he
said.
"We believe it has to do with the wear
and tear of being put to use for four
years."
Japan is still developing its next radar
satellite, which will be brought into orbit
in 2011, the official said.
Japan faced an embarrassing failure in
November 2003, when it had to destroy a
rocket carrying a spy satellite 10
minutes after lift-off because a rocket
booster failed to separate.
Japan has been expanding its space
operations and has set a goal of sending
an astronaut to the moon by 2020.
Source: Agence France-Presse
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Common power problems

The primary role of any UPS is to provide
short-term power when the input power
source fails. However, most UPS units
are also capable in varying degrees of
correcting common utility power
problems:
1. Power failure: defined as a total loss
of input voltage.
2. Surge: defined as a momentary or
sustained increase in the mains
voltage.
3. Sag: defined as a momentary or
sustained reduction in input voltage.
 4. Spikes, defined as a brief high
voltage excursion.
5. Noise, defined as a high frequency
transient or oscillation, usually
injected into the line by nearby
equipment.
6. Frequency instability: defined as
temporary changes in the mains
frequency.
7. Harmonic distortion: defined as a
departure from the ideal sinusoidal
waveform expected on the line.
UPS units are divided into categories
based on which of the above problems
they address[dubious – discuss], and some
manufacturers categorize their products
in accordance with the number of power
related problems they address [2].
More power failure problems in
New Berlin, West Allis
By Sarah Perdue of the Journal Sentinel
July 17, 2010 |(7) Comments
Power failures are still affecting about
3,000 We Energies customers, mostly in
New Berlin, spokesman Barry McNulty
said.
McNulty said the current power failure is
affecting customers in the area around
W. Howard Ave. between S. 124th St. and
S. 139th St. A few customers in nearby
parts of West Allis are also affected.
This area has been experiencing power
failures for much of the evening, starting
about 4:30 p.m. when 4,400 customers
were without power, McNulty said. He
added that the current failure is
affecting many of the same customers,
although the exact area affected has
shifted to the south.
McNulty said equipment failure is the
cause of the power failures, likely due to
today's high temperatures. He does not
know when power will be restored.

Inadequate power supply is the

most important obstacle to
retailing
From a list of twenty obstacles, stores
were asked to identify the one most
important for
their business (figure 1). Most stores (33
percent) identified electricity as the
most
important obstacle followed by access
to finance (16.7 percent), corruption (11.5
percent), land related problems (9.8
percent) and high taxes (9.1 percent).
These top five
obstacles are consistent across small
and large stores as measured by the
floor area of the
shop. However, large stores are less
concerned about finance and more
about taxes.
The data also show an interesting
pattern across high-income (leading)
and lowincome
(lagging) states.3 Compared with the
lagging states, fewer stores report
access to
finance as the single most important
obstacle in the leading states (22.9 vs.
9.7 percent).
This is also true of electricity (40.6 vs.
28.7 percent). The opposite holds for
corruption (8
vs. 15.4 percent), tax rates (3.2 vs. 12.6
percent) and land related problems (7.3
versus
11.1 percent). We note that these
comparisons do not imply that leading
states perform
worse in absolute terms than the
lagging states in governance related
issues (corruption,
 PROBLEMS DUE TO
POWER FAILURE