Here’s one for you …
\nIn this scenario, there are two PCs. Let’s called them A and B. Why? Well, why not … The user of A reported via email that the “PC was generally OK, but became really slow when B was switched on too”<\/i>. Ri-i-i-i-ght.<\/p>\n
So, I went off to investigate. A and B are situated in the same office, approximately 4 metres apart, with another PC, oo let’s call it C, situated between them. C plays no further part is this little charade, but it’s nice to know that it’s there. At this stage, B was switched off. She showed me how quickly stuff worked on her machine, A. No problem. I then switched B on. Suddenly, the program she was using on A started to crawl. Gosh. Just to confirm, I switched B off again; everything sprung back into life on A. Lather, rinse, repeat. The effect of “B being on” on A was irrefutable.
\nOn further investigation, it was only programs running from the network that were crawling, local applications were OK. Fine, says I, machine B must be doing something strange networking-wise to disrupt A.<\/p>\n
I unplug B from the network. This is now an isolated PC. Before switching B on, I check that everything is working OK on A. It is. I switch B on, which I have unplugged from the network. Network apps start crawling on A again.<\/i> What?!?!?!?<\/p>\n
This is starting to get surreal.<\/p>\n
I know monitors give off quite a lot of electromagnetic radiation, so I switched off B’s monitor. No effect; network on A still crawling.<\/p>\n
I investigate the mains power supply. There is a pair of three-pin outlets: into the first socket is plugged a four-bar which powers the PC and monitor for A, into the second socket is another four-bar which powers the PC and monitor for B and<\/i> the PC and monitor for C. The network cable for A is dangling quite close to this power socket. I try moving it about, I even try a different network cable, just in case there’s something strange about this one. No effect.<\/p>\n
By this time I’m screaming at myself “WTF IS GOING ON HERE???????”<\/i><\/p>\n
I’m wondering if there’s some strange electromagnetic interference thing going on, so I turn PC B through 90 degrees so that it’s facing a different way. No effect. I do the same with PC A; no effect.<\/p>\n
And that’s how I left my investigation at the end of today. Tomorrow, I’m going to see what happens if I try powering PC B from a different power point (currently, there are no others within range, so I’ll have to dig out an extension cable).<\/p>\n
Tune in tomorrow for the next thrilling installment of “Ye Cannae Change The Laws Of Physics, Oh Yes We Can” …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here’s one for you … In this scenario, there are two PCs. Let’s called them A and B. Why? Well, why not … The user of A reported via email that the “PC was generally OK, but became really slow when B was switched on too”. Ri-i-i-i-ght. So, I went off to investigate. A and… (read more<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sungate.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sungate.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sungate.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sungate.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sungate.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sungate.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sungate.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sungate.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sungate.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}