Cold Cathode Lighting. Frying

edited February 2006 in Hardware
I've had two lights in my computer fry, both at different times using different inverters and different ps. I'm using a PC power and Cooling 510 Deluxe Power supply right now. A week ago I smelt the wonderful smell of burning plastic in the house and noticed one of the lights in the computer was out. If you look at the lights at both ends theres a little melted plastic and it's all black. I opened the inverter box and one of the terminators (not sure the correct term for that) was fried, the one for that light. This inverted can connect to two lights and the other light was fine. So my question is are these Cold Cathode light problematic? I'm not over loading it or anything 1 4inch blue and 1 12inch UV.... :rarr:

Comments

  • ZuntarZuntar North Carolina Icrontian
    edited September 2005
    Wow, that a new one for me, I'll try find out something.
  • Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
    edited September 2005
    --Everyone has their opinion, Here's mine..--

    First off. Why the hell are you wasting precious power running dumbass lights?
    Secondly, Who the hell gives a damn if your CASE looks good, and your performance sucks because you're draining power away from the board?

    Jesus, I never understood this.
    "Dood. It'z liek ur biek. Trix ies guud" -Matt.
    "man i do it becuz i can!" -Seth
    "It makes it look cool." -Paul
    But what they're all saying is-"I'm a tool, and I run these things because I don't know what a .03v difference means to my processor!"

    Anyway, it's up to you on what you do with your pc, and yes. I have seen CC tubes burn out faster than drugs dissapear at the precienct lockup. Most cases, the system needed more power than it could, or wanted to spare, and surged the device by accident, or it tried to headbutt it, but realized all it could do was fry it.

    Second case was because of moisture around the case, Guy liked to brew piping hot coffee about 3 inches from his case.

    Third time I saw it, it killed a system. Which didn't die like most. It cought fire, which ruled for about 30 seconds for him, but I still laugh at today.

    Prognosis-- Wankerlights are for wankers. You want your case to look good? Build it yourself, screw windows. Plastic/glass doesn't convey heat well, since it's an insulator. My case, is made out of three cases, and some sheet steel. Best case I've ever had. It can take a bullet at 30 yards, and not flinch more than the physical energy transferrance of a 45, which is about 400 joules.
  • ZuntarZuntar North Carolina Icrontian
    edited September 2005
    Thanks for that complete waste of time Your Amish Daddy. :rolleyes:
  • edited September 2005
    Amish Daddy, as you said everyone has there opinion. :yell1: This computer of mine I like to show off, I like it with lights. Everyone who sees it takes a closer look. I highly highly highly highly doubt that me having 2 lights in the computer is hurting it's performance. I have a 510watt quality power supply. Even though I will not be putting anymore in until I find a lighting system I
    can trust.

    By the way, Since I took out the lights my computer hasn't miraculously started doing cartwheels...



    "Dood. It'z liek ur biek. Trix ies guud" -Matt.
    "man i do it becuz i can!" -Seth
    "It makes it look cool." -Paul

    ????? WTF!!!
  • edited September 2005
    He obviously doesnt like lights but seems to have seen it happen before. If I were to run lights and things I would use a second PSU myself, just something small, doesnt even have to be ATX. If it is the PSU overloading as the Amish says then maybe a secondary PSU would help.
  • edited September 2005
    Hang on, slow down now.
    Extreme measures aren't neccesary, lights are okay, just don't over do it.
    I've had this exact same thing happen, but with an EL cable.

    Know what you're problem is? You're shitty PSU is killing the inverter. Plain and simple.
    Dodgy construction on the inverters part can exacerbate this, but not cause it.
    Now think for a second, irrelevant of the actual wattages your PSU is putting out, it's clearly not delivering consistent, SMOOTH power, get speedfan and look at the nasty fluctuations in the voltages... That's just on your MoBo.

    Now consider, if it's blowing up inverters... What's it doing to your components?
    The important thing about PSU's is not so much the raw power output, as the fluctuation in that power output. Get something namebrand and quality, like an Antec.
    I have a Neopower 480 that is awesome, it cost a lot but it hasn't burnout any of the REMAINING LED's on my Vantec Spectrum, unlike my previous "MaxPower" 400w PSU.

    In the meantime, try to keep everything underloaded, unplug as much crap as possible (unfortunately that includes your cathodes.. Yes, I know they're pretty :-) ) and try to minimise the "christmas-tree" effect. (Using only one Molex and just daisy-chaining. Cable-resistance = nasty for HDDs)



    As an aside:

    Why does anyone need a bulletproof case... And how in hell did you find that out?
  • edited February 2006
    I know this happened a while ago, but in reply to glock. PC Power and Cooling is a great brand name. Not a peice of shit!
  • edited February 2006
    Your Amish Daddy this is just for you. Sorry about the quality but it is from my mobile. The digital camera batt is down
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