I think shielding of the PC itself is unlikely the problem, unless the
case is not properly closed. All PCs I have ever seen have metal cases,
which if properly seated and grounded act as a RF shield, inbound and
outbound.
Any electric motor could be producing power transients at power on/off
and possible RF interference from contact arcing (which can increase
with motor age), which might travel over the house wiring, or via air
and get picked up by other cables in the room which are connected to the
PC. Any magnetic effects of a motor should be minor by comparison.
If it's a large enough motor, start up may produce a temporary dip in
voltage big enough to be a problem for a computer that is not powered
through an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). If you notice any lights
flicker when the shredder powers up, that definitely could be an issue.
If you are not already using a UPS for your PC, you probably should be,
for other reasons as well. The shredder definitely should not be plugged
into the same outlet as your computer, and it would be best if it were
on a different house circuit as well.
If the problem only started occurring after adding RAM, maybe the PC
power supply is now working harder making it more sensitive to power
dips than before. It's also possible the computer may be getting old
enough that the power supply is getting less effective at filtering out RF.
If for some reason the shredder motor is broadcasting more RF
interference than in the past, keeping it further away from any cables
connecting devices to the PC may help. There are also some relatively
inexpensive ferrite beads that can be clipped onto cables near the
computer to block RFI from entering via that route.
Assuming you are in a house, the simplest experiment is to try moving
the shredder to another room far away from the PC where it can be
powered from a different house circuit. If that eliminates the problem
and having the shredder in a different room is acceptable, moving the
shredder away from the PC may be the simplest short-term solution.
Otherwise you can either try using a UPS for the PC and/or adding
ferrite RF filters on PC device cables that don't already include a
filter, especially if there are any cables that are routed close to the
shredder.
JC Ewing
On 11/11/23 06:34, Bob Bridges wrote:
Hah! A few years ago I had my hardware-geek son build my latest tower PC.
It's pretty good - not water-cooled like the one he made for himself, but a
nice big monitor and I finally gave him permission to load me up on RAM. But
...
Do normal commercial PCs have Faraday cage around them, or something? I can't
use my old paper shredder any more, because when it fires up within the same
room, the PC suddenly dies and has to be rebooted. A minor EMP, I take it.
---
Bob Bridges, robhbrid...@gmail.com, cell 336 382-7313
/* The will to win is not nearly as important as the will to prepare to win.
-R.M. Knight */
-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> On Behalf Of
Leonard D Woren
Sent: Saturday, November 11, 2023 02:12
Long ago I was told why my shop didn't carpet the tape storage area. Apparently
some shop that did had a problem with unreadable tapes. Eventually they figured
out that all the unreadable tapes were on the bottom row of the tape storage.
And the outside cleaning people used a vacuum cleaner...
--- Bob Bridges wrote on 11/8/2023 6:56 AM:
/* The more sophisticated the technology, the more vulnerable it is to
primitive attack. People often overlook the obvious. -Dr Who, 1978 */
--
Joel C. Ewing
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