Poorly Fitting Power Plug

[GeoffF100]

I have had my Novatech PC for just over two years now. The PC has been working well when it stands undisturbed. It does, however, sometimes lose power when I push a USB drive into the back. The cause appears to be a mains power plug that is a poor fit to the socket on the back of the PC. The plug has to be fiddled to make a good connection, and does not push fully into the socket, see the photo:

https://imgur.com/a/L4zyp

I suspect that the PC may have been supplied with the wrong power cable. I have raised the issue with Novatech, who boast free lifetime technical support. Hopefully they can at least let me know the specification of the correct mains power cable for my PC. Can anyone here help?

[Itsallaguess]

I suspect that the PC may have been supplied with the wrong power cable. I have raised the issue with Novatech, who boast free lifetime technical support. Hopefully they can at least let me know the specification of the correct mains power cable for my PC.

These cables are made to an industry standard, so it's unusual to see poorly fitting ones to be honest. If you pull it out, can you see anything unusual at either the plug end or the PC end that might indicate why it's giving a poor fit? I'd obviously urge any investigations to be carried out with the plug disconnected from the mains... :O)

Can anyone here help?

I've got a spare 5A cable that's not moved from my spares box for about 4 years, and I'd be happy to post it to you at the usual Lemon Fool rates (FOC, of course...) if you don't get anywhere with Novatech, so just PM me if you want to discount the cable by trying a different one...

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[Slarti]

Commonly called kettle plugs, so if you have an old fashioned kettle with a 3 pin plug at one end and a kettle at the other, where you can pull it out of the kettle, try that on the PC.

I have used this method to probe to a customer that it was their mains at fault, not the computer.


At your computer, with the cable disconnected from the mains, when you push the bit into the computer, does it still wiggle at all?
If so, up and down or side to side?

Also, look into the back of the computer, with a torch, and see if there is anything in there, like a plastic protuberance preventing the plug from seating properly. And while you are at it check the bit you shove in for any sticky out bits.

Slarti

[GeoffF100]

Thank you both very much for that.

Itsallaguess came up trumps again. The clue that I needed was that all desktop PC power plugs are made to a standard design. (Laptop plugs are different, but that is another matter.) The plug on my ten year old reserve / hobby machine looks the same as that on my main machine and pushes in easily.

I took Itsallaguess's wise advice, switched off at the mains, and investigated. I could not see anything obviously wrong with either the plug or the socket. I measured the depth of the socket, and it was not significantly less than the length of the business end of the plug.

I pushed the plug hard into the socket with one hand, holding the front of the PC still with the other. The plug went much further in. All appears to be well now. I can push and shove the PC as much as I want now and it stays powered up.

[Itsallaguess]

I took Itsallaguess's wise advice, switched off at the mains, and investigated.

One day I might tell you all about the time I nearly blew my own nose off, investigating an issue on the back of an old cathode-ray monitor, having forgotten that the extremely high-voltage circuit at the back of the tube was still on, as I'd not unplugged it at the time....

What warned me that something was wrong was a real feeling of heavy static on my face, and I really don't think things were too far away from fully arcing over at that point....

I still get shivers when I see a picture of Commissioner Dreyfus -

http://tinyurl.com/y8dynl5x



Great to hear you got going Geoff. Sometimes the copper inserts on the plug-ends get twisted a little and don't 'accept' the prongs on the PC socket very well, but it sounds like you've 'persuaded' it to behave a little better now....

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[Slarti]

I can push and shove the PC as much as I want now and it stays powered up.

Err, if you are using spinning metal hard drives, I wouldn't do that too much as the drives in desktops are not designed to be moved when in use and you could cause a head crash.

Slarti