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If your computers starts acting funny, or they start having errors remember to clean your CPU heat sinks. I've had to clean all three of my computers once I started running 24/7 because they started acting up. Once I cleaned the dust out of the heat sinks they all run great now. Bonic run the cpu's at 100% which creates heat.
My Shuttle PC died over Easter. It was running 24/7 for 15 months. On Sunday night it tripped the power circuit breaker. I had to switch on all the other computers and when I got to the Shuttle it wouldn't start. About 30mins later I tried it again and it booted to Windows. As soon as I had it DC'ing again - Wham! - power circuit tripped again. Turned everything back on except the Shuttle and the power hasn't tripped yet.
What could make a computer trip the house's RCD?
That's different Vaughan. I've seen them fail, poof. Or run fine but fail when a restart is performed (ms update). I even had one vaporize (the p/s) without tripping breakers.
I just started doing my spring cleaning, one pc at a time, when Tanpaku paused. Getting all the fur balls out of the boxes (heat sinks also).
How many computers on the circuit, and what is the rating of the circuit?
For each computer with a 500 watt (output-rated) power supply you can be pulling about 5 amps (with about an 85% effeciency rating) when fully loaded. More than likely you aren't pushing the systems with hefty video cards so you probably use only about 3 amps per system. So, if you have 5 systems on a circuit you can be pulling 15 amps. Add to that the monitors which can be pulling 1-2 amps each and any other peripheral equipment should be added to calculate the load. It may simply be that you could have one too many straws on your camel's back.
I'd also check the quality of the connection at the breaker - with the breaker turned off of course.. If it is a thermal breaker (most are) then a loose connection can get hot and make it trip even when the is circuit underloaded.
Have you tried running the Shuttle with one of the other systems turned off?
Another thing to check is a faulty ground within that wire circuit back to your breakers. Another is to physically move the breaker around in the circuit breaker box. After breakers get old, they do tend to not operate up to their new state max load. Your probably operating near the shared load capacity of that given circuit. Goto to your local hardware store and pickup a wall outlet tester for a couple of clams, or use a multimeter to check for correct ground of that circuit. Also the power supply in that cruncher might not be grounding correctly to your outlet.
I was going through the same thing at my house, but its do to load on the several circuits I have in play. Exactly what Steve was saying above. I just ran 2 more 20 amp lines back to my play room and put them on separate breakers, with separate common grounds to minimize noise between all the other circuits in my house. This is a good suggested thing to do with sensitive equipment like computers and video gear.
Well a couple of things I did:
Shuttle is working again after I removed the ATI 9600 Pro 256 GPU and changed to using the onboard GPU.
Sydney Electricity replaced the power meters with a fancy remote access gizmo. When the sparky restored the mains power the RCD kept tripping unless he had all the breakers off and turned on the computer room's circuit first. Then he switched on the other breakers and the power stayed up. He said that RCDs get old so maybe its on the way out. I have tried getting a licensed electrician to quote me on additional power circuits but finding a tradesman who knows what he's doing hasn't been easy.