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From: rlr@bbt.UUCP (rader)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: moving computer equipment to another country
Summary: DO NOT USE PORTABLE GENERATOR WITH YOUR PC!!!
Message-ID: <907@bbt.UUCP>
Date: 20 Aug 90 22:46:06 GMT
References: <31328@rphroy.UUCP> <1990Aug13.201559.13019@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: rlr@bbt.UUCP (rader)
Organization: Broadband Technologies, Inc., Research Triangle Park, NC
Lines: 37

In article <1990Aug13.201559.13019@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> slbg6790@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Mephisto) writes:
>ukohli@rcsuna.uucp (Upkar Singh Kohli E3) writes:
>
>>A friend of mine wants to know if he could move the following 
>>computer equipment from United States to England:
>
>one option I might consider is a portable Honda-type emergency generator,
>a gas-powered 60 Hz power generator.  This is just a little 4-cycle engine
>with power outputs, designed for use in power failures.  I don't know
>anything about their cost, but it can't be more than the price of my
>electronics.
>
>Bon Chance,
>Mephisto
>slbg6790@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu

  With all due respect to Mephisto (cool handle!), and whoever supplied
the original information, DO NOT repeat *DO NOT* use a small gasoline
generator to supply power to sensitive computer equipment!!!

  I tried this very same thing as an experiment (with a relatively expendable
old PC), and found that if I could run at all, I'd get VERY weird transitory
errors.  Thanks to the extremely "dirty" power produced by these generators,
just chock full o' glitches and brownouts, you do this at your own risk.
Maybe they're OK for your TV, but not for your PC.  I found no permanent
hardware errors in the PC as a result of the generator, by the way, but I
carefully used a good surge supressor.

  Results will vary, depending on the power supply you have in your
PC.  Does anybody know of an auxiliary device that would be able to "clean
up" a portable generator's power?  Cheers...

-- 
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