power cutting??

[seven]

my neighbour's got a few computers but they keep messing up... like now the OS (winXP) seems to have files missing and won't boot up... this is happening on 2 computers (different files) one's an athlon and the other is a p3.

everytime i fix them, i take them to my house and sort them out and they leave my house working working perfectly, but within a few days... there's a knock on my door... and it's my neighbour come to tell me the computer's messed up.

i've tried everything but it's one problem after another... the computers keep coming back. the only thing i can think of is that the room in which my neighbour keeps the computers, there are several other electronic equiptment so that room draws a lot of power and the equiptment/computers use multiple power extensions. so i'm thinking maybe the power is sometimes cutting a little and corrupting the harddisk?? what you think?


thanks

[jabarnutcase]

Hi Seven!
And WELCOME!
I think quite possibly the problem lies not with the power....But with your Neighbors! :D
All kidding aside, you may want to spend some time over there and see exactly how they are putting their computers to use. And if in fact there seems to be any sort of "power drop" when problems occur- Or something else!:D Just a thought. Others will come...;)

[seven]

thanks for the welcome :)

any other reasons why the harddisk keeps getting corrupted?

one of his computers is identical to mine, except he has a front soundblaster platinum panel thingy... and i get no problems with my computer

[jabarnutcase]

seven-
That's a pretty difficult question to answer without a bit more info.
everytime i fix them, i take them to my house and sort them out and they leave my house working working perfectly, but within a few days... there's a knock on my door... and it's my neighbour come to tell me the computer's messed up.
What have you had to do to "sort them out" in the past?

Do your neighbors do a lot of downloading, file sharing, installing and removing programs etc.?
Have they(or you) run an anti-virus on said computers?

It seems a bit strange that a power problem on a particiular circuit in the house would keep affecting all of their computers. I know people that have unplugged or turned off their computers with windows still running without "messing them up" or corrupting files. (Not that it's a good thing..and it certainly can corrupt files).
If you really believe it could be a power problem, they could monitor their power (even Radio Shack makes a meter where you can monitor voltage fluctuations in the house)or move a computer to a different circuit in the house and see how long they "last".
Are they using good surge protectors or a ups?
I'm not trying to confuse you, but I'm a bit confused myself. :confused:
Have said computers been "upgraded" recently to XP?
Is there any particuliar thing that your neighbor does, or notices before the computer(s) no longer work? Or do they just work fine one day, and not the next?
Are they using a network in their house?
You can see where I'm headed here- A lot of possibilities!:)
We need to explore what the computers have in common at your neighbors. (Besides the power)
Although I was "half kidding" at first, I think you need to do a little more detective work next door to get to the bottom of this. ;)

i've tried everything but it's one problem after another... the computers keep coming back
Just curious, are they paying you well or are you just a really patient guy? :D :D