Circuit Breaker Trip issue...

[TheElite96]

Hi everyone.

I'm having an interesting issue that I have not encountered in my 1 year of having this system. Recently I got a second monitor, identical to my main monitor which is a Dell S2009Wb. Ever since, I've noticed that the circuit breaker which my PC runs on trips every time I am running something that would require a lot of CPU load. For example, I was streaming "War Thunder" at 720p and my usage rates were a bit high running on almost maxed settings, and it tripped. This was several weeks ago, and was "fixed" by unplugging everything else on the circuit, except the things I need for my PC to run..which I will explain later in this post. Just today, I was playing "DCS World" at almost max settings, and it tripped.

It may also be good to mention that I have noticed on the second monitor these odd, and randomly occurring, lines running across the screen. It's incredibly hard to describe really, the best I can compare them to is a very transparent looking static on the screen itself. Could this potentially be a power related issue specifically to the second monitor?

Since this started occurring, which is only after the second monitor has been hooked up and used, I have tried essentially everything...even going to the lengths of unplugging literally everything else on the circuit except my computer and my Ethernet adapter (which doesn't use nearly enough power to cause any issues as far as I can tell). All in all, I find it hard to believe that my PC alone is causing the circuit to trip. It is a 15A circuit. Then again, I am certainly not an electrician or expert in such and could easily be missing something.

As of right now, the PC itself is plugged into a surge protector and has various accessories plugged into it..such as, blue yeti microphone, the usuals (keyboard, mice, headset), etc...nothing really over the top to cause any issues. Other than the PC and the ethernet adapter, there is nothing else plugged into the circuit. Specs and other information are below.

Power Supply: Corsair CX750
Processor: Intel i5 4690K (Not overclocked)
Motherboard: MSI Z97 Gaming 5
GPU: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW2
RAM: Can't remember the brand.. 16GB DDR3
Monitors: 2x Dell S2009Wb

Any help would be greatly appreciated. If any additional information is required or requested, I'll be glad to provide.

Cheers

 

[kerberos_20]

try to hook your 2nd monitor to another power outlet

 

[TheElite96]

try to hook your 2nd monitor to another power outlet

I'm not sure that this will help. Could you possibly explain the reasoning? The outlet as far as I can tell is absolutely fine.

 

[RememberThe5th]

On first question about static, that is vertical line or screen tearing.

Second check your plugs or call electrician to inspect it (yes costly), but corrosion can do that if moisture is there.

Do you use plugs or extender?

What if you unplug everything and let it dry out of electricity for an hour.

Last that could be potentially, trip breaker doesnt function anymore as it should, yes they wear out.

 

[EP000001]

Is it a circuit breaker for overvoltage or a circuit safety breaker for earth shorts?

Overvoltage circuit breakers will break circuit if your power drain is too high.

Earth shortcircuit safety type breakers react when there is even the slightest short circuit between the live wire and Earth. This stops humans from being fried.


It only takes milliamps to trip the ground detection short circuit breaker, so could be a faulty power cord etc...

 

[TheElite96]

On first question about static, that is vertical line or screen tearing.

Second check your plugs or call electrician to inspect it (yes costly), but corrosion can do that if moisture is there.

Do you use plugs or extender?

What if you unplug everything and let it dry out of electricity for an hour.

Last that could be potentially, trip breaker doesnt function anymore as it should, yes they wear out.

It is different from screen tearing, so I'm ruling that out. The computer itself is directly plugged into a surge protector, which is plugged into the wall. No extenders of any sort. I will however try to unplug everything for an hour and see how that works. And yes, not ruling out that it's a breaker related issue. If nothing else works then I'll see if that's a possibility.

Is it a circuit breaker for overvoltage or a circuit safety breaker for earth shorts?

Overvoltage circuit breakers will break circuit if your power drain is too high.

Earth shortcircuit safety type breakers react when there is even the slightest short circuit between the live wire and Earth. This stops humans from being fried.


It only takes milliamps to trip the ground detection short circuit breaker, so could be a faulty power cord etc...

Being honest, I never thought about that. I will check.

 

[EP000001]

On first question about static, that is vertical line or screen tearing.

Second check your plugs or call electrician to inspect it (yes costly), but corrosion can do that if moisture is there.

Do you use plugs or extender?

What if you unplug everything and let it dry out of electricity for an hour.

Last that could be potentially, trip breaker doesnt function anymore as it should, yes they wear out.

It is different from screen tearing, so I'm ruling that out. The computer itself is directly plugged into a surge protector, which is plugged into the wall. No extenders of any sort. I will however try to unplug everything for an hour and see how that works. And yes, not ruling out that it's a breaker related issue. If nothing else works then I'll see if that's a possibility.

Is it a circuit breaker for overvoltage or a circuit safety breaker for earth shorts?

Overvoltage circuit breakers will break circuit if your power drain is too high.

Earth shortcircuit safety type breakers react when there is even the slightest short circuit between the live wire and Earth. This stops humans from being fried.


It only takes milliamps to trip the ground detection short circuit breaker, so could be a faulty power cord etc...

Being honest, I never thought about that. I will check.

I don't know exactly what your enviroment is however, When I was a hardware tekkie many moons ago, I found many thing that caused that problem, even insects that invade power supplies etc...

Electricity can do weird things for example, when I lived by the ocean, my telephone wiring at the wall socket would accumulate salt and coper oxide until eventually it would create a mild short and create capacitance, and resistance and reduce my modem speeds by creating a shunting filter for high frequencies.

Rising damp etc...can cause same issues with power points. I know that your issue happens when the second monitor is plugged in however, that could create the precise conditions.

I would also consider not using the second monitor for a while and see if the issue persists.

 

[Paperdoc]

Maybe you can provide more info on "the circuit". You say that the ONLY things plugged into "the circuit" are the computer and its immediate accessories. But, by "the circuit", do you mean simply the one wall outlet (probably a dual outlet) near your machine? I ask because the house wiring MAY be providing power to that outlet AND to others in that room and other rooms nearby, too. If so, ALL of those are being supplied by the same circuit breaker. The simple check is this: when the breaker trips out and kills your computer system, what else is shut off, too? Look just about anywhere in the house for linked items shut off by that breaker. ALL of those things are contributing to the breaker's load.

 

[TheElite96]

Maybe you can provide more info on "the circuit". You say that the ONLY things plugged into "the circuit" are the computer and its immediate accessories. But, by "the circuit", do you mean simply the one wall outlet (probably a dual outlet) near your machine? I ask because the house wiring MAY be providing power to that outlet AND to others in that room and other rooms nearby, too. If so, ALL of those are being supplied by the same circuit breaker. The simple check is this: when the breaker trips out and kills your computer system, what else is shut off, too? Look just about anywhere in the house for linked items shut off by that breaker. ALL of those things are contributing to the breaker's load.

I did forget to go into detail about this. The surge protector which is being used by the computer is plugged into one outlet near the computer. The circuit breaker which trips is wired up to the wall plugs in this room only. Previously I thought that it was both this room and the one below mine, which is a garage of sorts...but after I shut off the breaker to test the plugs an lights, it was only this room that was affected. However, there is nothing plugged into those wall outlets. We only use them when we need to, and certainly not when this situation was occurring.

I may also want to point out that it happens randomly. It doesn't happen immediately when there is high load, it's a random event that's incredibly unpredictable and very hard to reproduce intentionally. Can take upwards of an hour to happen from what I can tell.

My knowledge on electricity is limited as I'm certainly far from an electrical engineer, but it is something out of the ordinary from what I have seen. I will do the rounds around the entire house again though, as my last run was kind of quick. I'll reply with more info if / when I can.

Cheers

 

[TheElite96]

On first question about static, that is vertical line or screen tearing.

Second check your plugs or call electrician to inspect it (yes costly), but corrosion can do that if moisture is there.

Do you use plugs or extender?

What if you unplug everything and let it dry out of electricity for an hour.

Last that could be potentially, trip breaker doesnt function anymore as it should, yes they wear out.

It is different from screen tearing, so I'm ruling that out. The computer itself is directly plugged into a surge protector, which is plugged into the wall. No extenders of any sort. I will however try to unplug everything for an hour and see how that works. And yes, not ruling out that it's a breaker related issue. If nothing else works then I'll see if that's a possibility.

Is it a circuit breaker for overvoltage or a circuit safety breaker for earth shorts?

Overvoltage circuit breakers will break circuit if your power drain is too high.

Earth shortcircuit safety type breakers react when there is even the slightest short circuit between the live wire and Earth. This stops humans from being fried.


It only takes milliamps to trip the ground detection short circuit breaker, so could be a faulty power cord etc...

Being honest, I never thought about that. I will check.

I don't know exactly what your enviroment is however, When I was a hardware tekkie many moons ago, I found many thing that caused that problem, even insects that invade power supplies etc...

Electricity can do weird things for example, when I lived by the ocean, my telephone wiring at the wall socket would accumulate salt and coper oxide until eventually it would create a mild short and create capacitance, and resistance and reduce my modem speeds by creating a shunting filter for high frequencies.

Rising damp etc...can cause same issues with power points. I know that your issue happens when the second monitor is plugged in however, that could create the precise conditions.

I would also consider not using the second monitor for a while and see if the issue persists.

I live somewhat near a river, within walking distance, and in a forest area. I'm unsure if this would even make a difference, as in the several years I've had this system and systems alike, I've had no such issues...until now.

I have not specifically tested without the second monitor yet, however, this did not happen until I started using it, which makes me suspect that it's in some way related, if not the full cause.

I tested how much power my system is drawing from the wall with one of those electricity monitors, and max it was pulling 2.9 - 3 amps out of the wall while under load. I'll continue to test today and see if I can recreate a situation where it could potentially happen...and see what the amperage is.

 

[TheElite96]

Update- Funny enough, I was unable to recreate it while measuring and monitoring the amps my system was pulling...however, I did notice something. But first, a little explanation as to "what's what" in case there's any confusion.

My main monitor was plugged in through DVI-D into my GTX 1080. My second monitor was plugged in through VGA and then into a converter (VGA > HDMI), which in turn was plugged into my GTX 1080. I decided to experiment, I switched the cables around. Strangely enough, the "static" issue I was talking about started occuring on my main, which then had the VGA and VGA>HDMI setup connected to it. So I tested the VGA cable alone on another system without the converter and with the same monitor, no static. So could it be the converter causing all this trouble? I find it unlikely but then again I am not an expert in this area so my judgement may be off.

I installed two brand new 1920x1080 monitors today, still waiting on an HDMI cable for the second one, but so far with just one I have experienced no issues at all. Will be doing some more thorough tests tonight though...and will update if new info comes up. Otherwise, I'll let you all know what happens tomorrow when I get the 2nd one up and running.

Thanks for all the help and advice so far.

 

[Paperdoc]

A VGA-to HDMI converter certainly can cause odd signals on your monitor, exhibited as random disruptions of the picture, maybe what you call "Static". However, I really doubt it could cause huge current draw that would trip your circuit breaker.

A draw of 3 A total for all of your system is surprisingly low at heavy workloads, but might be possible. It is far from 15 A, though.

Your earlier post suggests that, when you do NOT use the surge protector, there is no breaker trip. Now, however, it appears that symptom has disappeared and you are only concerned with the video disruptions. Is that true? Or, is the breaker trip issue just a secondary concern for now? If it is still an issue, it COULD be caused by the surge protector. The simplest ones have a very simple device connected between the Hot and Neutral lines in them. It is a coarse type of diode that conducts almost no current between those lines normally, but when the voltage between then exceeds some limit (a voltage surge), it basically causes a short circuit to stop the surge. BUT this normally destroys that protection device because of the momentary high current through it. I suspect it is possible that some event like that has happened already, leaving that device in an unstable state that might cause momentary shorts across those lines again, leading to a breaker trip. The best solution for that is to replace the surge protector. Getting a replacement device installed in the old one is likely more expensive.

 

[TheElite96]

A VGA-to HDMI converter certainly can cause odd signals on your monitor, exhibited as random disruptions of the picture, maybe what you call "Static". However, I really doubt it could cause huge current draw that would trip your circuit breaker.

A draw of 3 A total for all of your system is surprisingly low at heavy workloads, but might be possible. It is far from 15 A, though.

Your earlier post suggests that, when you do NOT use the surge protector, there is no breaker trip. Now, however, it appears that symptom has disappeared and you are only concerned with the video disruptions. Is that true? Or, is the breaker trip issue just a secondary concern for now? If it is still an issue, it COULD be caused by the surge protector. The simplest ones have a very simple device connected between the Hot and Neutral lines in them. It is a coarse type of diode that conducts almost no current between those lines normally, but when the voltage between then exceeds some limit (a voltage surge), it basically causes a short circuit to stop the surge. BUT this normally destroys that protection device because of the momentary high current through it. I suspect it is possible that some event like that has happened already, leaving that device in an unstable state that might cause momentary shorts across those lines again, leading to a breaker trip. The best solution for that is to replace the surge protector. Getting a replacement device installed in the old one is likely more expensive.

I have not tested without a surge protector yet. However, your idea is not a bad one at all...I've had this protector for at least 3 years, maybe even more...and honestly, it never occurred to me that it could be the surge protector. I have another one that I conveniently bought the other day for other use, but since it's not being used right now...I can use it for testing purposes.

That being said, it has not happened again...yet. Although, I have had only one monitor to work off of, so if it was indeed a monitor issue, then maybe tomorrow when I get a cable to have my other one powered up, it may be fixed. Nevertheless, I'm going to give the other surge protector a go and see how things work.

Will update when / if I have more info. Regardless, the help and advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[TheElite96]

The issue has (so far) been fixed, I followed the advice given by Paperdoc and switched out the surge protector. Thanks a lot!

 

[Paperdoc]

Thanks for Best Solution.