Electronics expert needed please

[sirius]

My computer has had a new power supply fitted in the tower recently, computer is working fine, but as soon as it's turned on the sky plus box can't be used with the remote control, something is going back down the mains power and interfering with it.
I have proved this by moving the computer as far away from sky box as possible on the same ring main,
still interferes, but when it is moved to the other ring main in the house that supplies the kitchen it's ok.
Could this be a faulty power supply in the tower, if not can something be done to stop interference?

Thanks and Regards
Sirius

[Redroger]

I am no electronics expert, but I did work for Channel 5 a few years ago, retuning videos so they did not interfere with TV reception. Sounds to me as though your power supply is on the same frequency as your sky box. I would suggest you ring Sky, and ask them for a retune as a first step.

[mazi]

Hi sirius,

logically if everything was working and now its not then it is the pwr supply. a different ring main shouldn't, but obviously does ,make a difference,it may be high frequency interference, could you use a long ext. lead to plug computer in in the kitchen but keep it near the sky box. see if it is still faulty, if so its airborne interference
other possibility is that something is not properly earthed,this can cause all sorts of wierd illogical problems.

sorry I cant be more helpfull.

mazi,s oh   merry christmas

[sirius]

Tried ext lead from kitchen sky works ok, so not airborne soon as they are back on the same ring main cct, faulty again.

Thanks
Sirius

[Redroger]

Think it's time to ask Sky to retune the box.

[ARG]

As already mentioned by Mazi, the problem may well be earthing. Two possibilities are, i) that the new power supply in your tower system is not very well earthed; ii) that the input suppression on the power supply is faulty. I would guess it is more likely the second option. The type of power supply used on computer are called 'switch mode' and can generate a lot of interference. They have a high level of suppression on the electrical input to eradicate this. It sounds as this may be faulty.

ARG

[sirius]

Sky box has no earth wire to plug only live and neutral like all videos and pvr's. May be hard trying to
convince computer shop that computers ok, but causing problems to sky box.
Took a while to find out that computer was causing the problem and not intermittent fault on sky box or remote control as I first though.
Could there be anything else I can do? some sort of filter on plug?. Not really practical to run a perminant feed from kitchen.
Not tried retuning yet as box is my 22 year old sons have to wait till he comes in.

Thanks
Sirius

[ARG]

It is not necessary for the sky box to be fitted with an earth for interference to affect it. The interference could be carried by the line or neutral lines. Anything is possibly but I would doubt if the tuning of the sky box will make any difference. As the problem has only occurred since you have had the computer repaired the strong likelyhood is that the problem is related to that.

ARG

[sirius]

Thanks arg I am sure problem is the new power supply as old one was fine, no way around it other
then another unit.

Sirius