Question Need help or info on breaker tripping problem

[Shook12]

I know there are several forums about a similar topic already but none seem to sound right or fit what's going on with my Computer and really room in general. I am in college and live in the dorms and last semester my friend had the room I am currently in. He had a 3060ti, 10th gen Intel CPU, and a 650 watt psu and had no issues. This year we switched rooms so I have that room now. Last semester I also had no issues. My PC has a 3060, i7 7700k CPU, and a 500 watt power supply. It ran perfectly normal last semester and for the first month of this semester. But all of the sudden in the last week or so it's hard a tendency to blow the breaker. There are two breakers for my room orange and white for the outlet colors. The orange are older but supposedly has higher gauge wire installed when the white ones were added, it's an old building. Last semester I had 2 monitors, a lamp, the PC, external speakers, an ac unit, and my phone charger plugged in never having an issue. Now even the charger, PC, and monitors are blowing the breaker. Sometimes it lasts a few days with no issues but once or twice it has popped the breaker twice in one day. It doesn't seem consistent with load as I've had it do it while the PC was only using YouTube or Spotify. But also other times with multiple tabs and a game running. The breaker has never tripped without the PC on. And if it is plugged into orange, white has never tripped and vice versa. When it trips the breaker and I put a work order in for maintenance to come and flip it, the PC gets power and runs it's accessory lights on the mother board but doesn't turn on until the on button is hit. Once turned on it either loads straight up or at worse goes into BIOS but with all the previously selected settings still intact and once exiting bios it works perfectly... Until the next trip that is. Any help or information for what to try or what component to look at is appreciated.

 

[velocityg4]

Are you sure the breaker is for your room only and isn't shared with another?

I'd suggest you get a Killawatt meter. So, you can look at the draw of everything plugged in, under max load. If you aren't coming close to the limit of the breaker and you are absolutely certain you've accounted for everything on the breaker. Keep pestering maintenance until they send out an electrician and fix the issue.

Stuff you may not think about. Like a Microwave, coffeemaker, instant hot water heater, hot plate, fridge (especially on compressor start) or space heater can push you way past the limit.

 

[bill001g]

Agree a killawatt meter will quickly let you know if you are anywhere close.
For the more common 15amp breaker you should be able to draw 1800 watts so I doubt you are anywhere near that. A AC unit or even a small fridge can pull a lot of power when it starts.

Circuit breakers in a way wear out. The only really can be tripped so many times and then they start to trip at lower amps than they are rated. They are pretty easy to replace so the maintenance company should be willing to do it.

 

[Shook12]

Thanks for the replies. No I'm not completely sure if I'm the only one on that breaker but they haven't mentioned anyone else having problems and only come to my room to test continuity when there is an issue. The mini fridge has been on the other circuit breaker multiple times when it happened as has the ac unit but it has never been on just plugged in. And they said they replaced at least one of the circuit breakers but I'm not sure if it was both or just one and if one which one. I will consider getting the kilawatt meter if not too expensive but when it blew last night the only things plugged in were the computer, monitors, and my phone charger so I can't imagine it even hit 550 watts it the PC was pulling the full 500

 

[Grobe]

First of all, this sounds like an issue for the owner of the building so I can only assume they're responsible for stuff not working properly.

Spoiler: and then some boring stuff, read if you want but it may not apply for you in your country

However, since they (probably) also pay electrical bill then they may not want to go the extra mile for you and replace a worn out circuit breaker. You can put safety up as an argument to claim somebody may fell for the temptation of disabling the circuit breaker (very dangerous must never actually do) - but you must consider if this argument can backfire at you - i.e. you put the words in such a way that the building owner get the wrong idea that you yourself actually goes around with that horrible idea of what to do next.
As I said, this may be a bad idea if the owner interprets your intention the wrong way, but in the same time (if the rules where you're living is somewhat similar as I am) then only the building owner can do the repair, or you must bargain for lower rental price for a period of time if you pay an electrician to do the job.
The latter may be most beneficial for you, if you're there and if you also manage to get a safety assistment (in written form) from the electrician if some part of the wire/outlets are in bad shape.

 

[Shook12]

The building is a dorm owned by the school that is scheduled for renovations this summer. I am only in here for another 7.5 weeks so the likelihood they believe something is wrong with the building to beigin with is low and even lower they do something about it. And the only thing I get out of your post is threatening to intentionally pop the circuit breaker or something to get them to fix it and all that does is * myself over because if it is after 5 and the thing pops it will be 9 am tomorrow morning at the earliest they turn it back on. If I had access to the panel box I wouldn't really give af as I could just sigh and go flip it back. Whenever it pops I have to fill out a work order on a poorly run website and wait minimum 1 hour to get them to turn it back on. And like I said maintenance is only there 9-5 M-F so if it pops Friday night I have no power til Monday morning.

 

[Misgar]

Chances are it's the initial switch on surge into the ATX PSU in your desktop computer that's tripping the breaker. A typical ATX SMPSU momentarily draws between 50A and 100A from the supply, when the mains is first connected to the rectifier/bulk capacitor inside. Check out any PSU review on Tom's and you'll see they warn this initial surge can damage switches, breakers or blow fuses. Even a lower powered laptop PSU can draw several tens of Amps when first connected. You may notice an audible "crack" or a brief flash of light, when connecting a power brick to the mains.

When I was living in Hall of Residence at Uni, we had meagre 1.35A circuit breakers outside each bedroom above the door. I was studying Electrical Engineering so I performed "illegal" surgery on the wiring by diconnecting the output wires to the room and connected them to the input side of the breaker. This bypassed the breaker completely and stopped comedians from plunging my room into darkness on Friday nights after a visit to the pub. I was very popular in the girls' dorm where their hair dryers used to pop the breakers with regular monotony. I'm not suggesting you should do the same and you probably don't have access to the wiring anyway. Messing around with mains wiring can be FATAL.

Note: Most circuit breakers can handle very short duration peak currents far higher than their nominal rating. It's normal for breakets to handle brief spikes 5x to 10x the specifed rating. A lot depends on the "sensitivity" of the breaker as to whether or not it can cope with large spikes. Ditto with quick blow fuses versus time lag fuses. The best solution is for the building owner to change the breaker to one more tolerant of current spikes. Alternatively, you could purchase a decent mains distribution strip with a built-in surge arrestor. It might calm the switch on surge.