Why do my lamps flick/blink intermittently as I play certain games?

[Bill_Bright]

Sorry, missed the comment about the age (I think I skipped right to the image ). Thanks for that. Still, even brand new facilities can be wired wrong and skip by inspections, or sustain damage at a later date.

 

[OneMoar]

Sorry, missed the comment about the age (I think I skipped right to the image ). Thanks for that. Still, even brand new facilities can be wired wrong and skip by inspections, or sustain damage at a later date.

he lives in Malaysia
the wiring and electrical service is terrible
jesus we can't fix whatever wiring problem is wrong at his house and good luck finding a electrician in Malaysia that actually knows what they are doing
and I agree on the breaker chatter it didn't occur to me because its not something that usually happens with properly installed and maintained home wiring I am sure the lack of grounding has something todo with it as well without a proper ground neither the voltage-regulator or UPS will function correctly in fact the lack of ground + a active ups could spell disaster for the hardware if a surge occurs
edit: something else to his psu's will operate on either 115 or 220 or 240
there is either a voltage-selection switch or its auto-sensing check the back for a switch
that way he could eliminate the step down transformer

 

[vziera]

Oh so much for this problem, I don't know what to say to you guys, but you guys have been more than helpful regardless.. and I thank you all a lot for it because I don't think I could locate my problem without you guys walking me through.
So here's an update, I still haven't got the chance to get the suggested tools but I finally managed to get my hands on a 30m cable reel and used it to connect my setup to an outlet on another circuit breaker and voila! it eliminates the problem like a charm. All the lights in the setup no longer flick or dim or whatever weird responses they used to make, my UPS stops making intermittent clicking sound(as the lights flick), my Power Conditioner aka Voltage Regulator stops making whirring noise(as the lights flick), all seems to be good except one of the leds on the surge protector now turns off which I have no clue about and I kinda lost the manual book.

I did bump into an outlet that tripped the circuit breaker it's installed on when I powered on my setup though, bad house wiring indeed apparently right? Now what worries me most is whether the first bad outlet has left my hard wares performance degraded though, one thing I can tell is that my not so long ago serviced UPS is now unable to keep my PC powered on when I play the games I mentioned and I'm not sure if it is still within the service warranty period /: Anyways I'm adding that proper earth ground rod in my shopping list and for now I think it is best to leave the nail grounding alone atm do I think right? Definitely the nail is not the only individual earth grounding in this house, the Internet Service Provider company I'm using also attached a visible individual earth grounding to their modem and who knows if there are some more on other appliances too since I don't live here alone. Nails into the walls that accidentally hit a wire is possible too. Oh well so call a decent electrician it is, how much do you usually pay them for this kind of problem over there? Oh and I live in Indonesia, on the part where brownout occurs way to often.

See you next time and have a wonderful day friends.

 

[m4gicfour]

The symbol on the surge protector beside the unlit indicator is the schematic symbol for an Earth ground.

Being that it has that symbol and "OK", I would assume that the indicator being unlit means that you have no ground on this outlet. If you have the model number (probably on a sticker somewhere on the back/bottom side) of the surge protector, you should be able to look up the manual online on APC's website to be foolproof sure of what it means.


From the sounds of things, you probably have bad wiring everywhere, which is unfortunately beyond the scope of what we can help you with beyond "Get it fixed". It's also possible that your breaker(s) or plug(s) may just be worn out or defective, which would be a much simpler fix. There's other possibilities like your branch circuits being undersized for the amount of current you're trying to draw (like the breaker tripping right away)... or it could be miswired... one could spend all day speculating, really. Others may have some better troubleshooting steps you could take at this point.

Qualified electricians are well paid, in north america at least. Their hourly chargeout rate can be well upwards of $90/hour for emergency work for an experienced Journeyman electrician. You would likely be getting an estimate on the total cost, rather than an hourly charge though, depending on how bad the electrician thinks the job will be but I really can't say, especially when I have no clue of the economics of the skilled trades in your country (or how and to what standards they are certified). Whatever you do, make sure to get an idea of the cost (and if such is an issue in your area, be sure he's qualified) before you let someone start working.

At the least, if you can identify where the problem is (breaker, missing ground, miswired or defective socket, etc) you may be able to cut down on the cost of time the electrician spends troubleshooting (however a good electrician will always check to be sure your conclusions are correct rather than just taking your word for it and starting work)

 

[Bill_Bright]

This is good news as it suggest at least part of your home is properly wired and grounded. I would still have that one outlet checked (all the outlets in the house preferably) - at least with a decent checker. And I would put a child protection cover over it and not use that one outlet until fixed. It could just be a loose wire and if adventurous, you can kill the circuit, plug in a lamp to make sure the outlet is no longer live, then open it and conduct a visual inspection. You may see something obvious you can fix yourself (loose wire or cracked outlet).