ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Baffled!!! Need Help!!!!

Some surge arrestors are better than others, some have LED indicators to show that you still have protection, check to see if they are still in good working order. I have seen them burned out and simply act as a multi outlet strip with no protection at all.
With an intermittent neutral connection on a multi-wire circuit strange things happen.

Hope I am not too late to respond. But, in the early days of computers, many manufacturers required separate "isolated" ground rods or fields. They wanted to eliminate noise on the lines so the sensitive computer equipment would not screw up the calculations. This meant that a fault, whether arcing or bolted, on the computer system would have to travel through the isolated ground, through the earth, then through the service ground system to get back to the main breaker for action. A low level arcing fault would unlikely not trigger the breaker to trip. I would check the isolated ground to make sure you are not getting some strange or stray voltage on it. This may mean renting some sensitive equipment from GE Supply or some other company. But it may find your culprit. Depending on the computer systems, you may now be able to tie the two ground systems together, and eliminate the problem. You will need to check with the manufacturer of the computers. Most newer computers of today don't require "isolated" grounds. Good luck.

Another thought. Have the city check their neutral. It may be intermittent causing voltage spikes.

Computers have come far, so has software. I wonder if there is a program that can monitor power quality? It would seem marketable....

Hello From Colorado!!!!
As of right now I have tried almost everything that has been posted here. Right now I have a recorder hooked up to the service and anouther to the troubled circuit.
I am at a total loss as to the cause. The circuits are good, the ground is good, the service is good, the city even came out and checked the transformer, and it is good.
The city is recording the transformer right now as well.
I really appriciate all the help you guys have given me and I have tried them all, but still at a loss!

JON;
maybe you need some insight from the guys that do the mega-bite thing...
try; www.doityorself.com

go to the computer section, they are all usually very helpful

[This message has been edited by sparky (edited 05-24-2001).]

As of right now I have tried almost everything that has been posted here.
Is the isolated ground properly bonded to the main/service panel ground?

There are meters ouy there that measure true RMS. These are made by fluke, and others. They can give you True Harmonic readings where other meters will not. They can read voltage and amperage. The harmonics can play havoc on the system. You have to have a pro be able to read the sine waves and trouble shoot the feeders, circuits, etc.
Good luck--Steve T.

DSpark- Yes I checked all of the IG's and they are all properly installed and bonded

Steve- I have a Fluke true rms sign wave, and voltage recorder on the circuit, and another on the service. Both of them are running print-out

Get another monitor from a different vendor, try it on the line. It could be they just have bad equip. (Simple is as simple does) Silvrbk says 95% of it is pilot error, I say 99%.

[This message has been edited by electure (edited 05-25-2001).]