Never Had This Problem Before, Computer Powering up

I have an unusual problem, that I never had before.
The computer in question works great on the bench, with a monitor, speakers and printer hooked up. When I bring every thing to the clients house, The computer won't power up, and I get a humming sound from the speakers. Everything is plugged in to the same surge suppressor, that is owned buy the client. I used a test meter, to look for stray voltages, and found nothing.

If anyone have had this problem before, I would like to hear how it was solved.

 

On your bench do you have your own power cord? You might want to bring your own cord to test out. Also try plugging directly into the wall.

 

I have ask the client to purchase a new surge suppressor, It has been about a week now, and I haven't heard back from the client. In the meantime everything just sits.

Something worth mentioning my clients are, families with school age children that cannot afford a computer.

 

Greetings, onegoodman.

The possibility exists that the outlet is ungrounded or has a floating ground, a situation especially common in older houses - hence the 'humming sound'.

Is your test meter a multimeter (analog or digital, doesn't matter)? If so, you might check hot to common, hot to ground, common to ground, see if you notice any anomalies.

 

I have checked everything for stray voltage. I tried common to ground, common to the hot-water baseboard heat in the room, and the same with ground. Hot to ground reads 123 volts on my meter. I just think it was a cheap surge suppressor. So the house wiring has been ruled out.

 

Most likely, and should be an easy fix by replacement. Might also advise them that even a new surge suppressor is a one-shot deal: if it does its job and filters one spike, it's pretty much useless as a suppressor after that.

 

Thanks Caliban,
Instead of waiting, I'm going buy the client a suppressor. I'm going to call her in the morning.

 

No problem. Hope you get them up and running, and keep up the good work. :major