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From: grege@gold.GVG.TEK.COM (Gregory Ebert)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: European voltage convertor for PC?
Message-ID: <808@gold.GVG.TEK.COM>
Date: 23 Feb 90 21:20:21 GMT
References: <985@contex.UUCP>
Organization: Grass Valley Group, Grass Valley, CA
Lines: 18

In article <985@contex.UUCP> bill@contex.UUCP (Bill Phillips) writes:
>
>A friend of mine is going to Germany for a year, and is planning to take
>his PC (a Fountain XT) along.  He wants to know what kind of voltage
>convertor he will need, and whether he should buy it in New York or
>in Berlin (which he would prefer).
>
	Most converters are for resisitive devices (lights, hair dryers)
	and DO NOT put out a sine-wave voltage, which is what most 
	electronic equipment likes to see. The majority of the converters
	use a 1/2 wave rectifier, which gives 1/2 the RMS AC voltage.
	You will get a "zap, sizzle, and fry" if you put one of these
	on a PC.

	Why not just flip the voltage selector to '220/240', and get
	a spare line cord here, chop-off the end, and buy a plug in
	Germany & install it on the butchere cord. Every PC I've
	seen has a voltage selector switch on the power supply.