antnee
Guest
And your hoping to run a stable car pc, have fun! Got lots of experience in this.
Need a few details:
Did the car pc some with cig lighter adapter?
Are you running and USB devices?
Are you plugging both the monitor and pc into some sort of dual cig lighter?
I spent a year researching Car Pc's then took me a year to get a fast booting stable car pc with all the bits and bobs i needed.
The car pc has been converted to run on cig lighter.
I bought an 3 cig lighter adapter.
Just a gps usb device.
I tried plugging both in but there is not enough power, pc runs fine when plugged in on its own but dont have another power source for monitor.
sounds like either your draining too much power through one source or your causing a bad ground. You got anymore info on the car pc or pics?
Its a fujitsu siemens pc with a 1.8ghz cpu, 1gb ram and 20gb hard drive.
It has wifi built in and has vga and usb lead for the 8" monitor.
I bought the pc already converted, all i know is it has a kettle lead coming from inside the pc and that is plugged in on the outside and then there is another cable which has a cig lighter on the end to power it in the car, if i want to power it in the house i unplug the kettle lead and plug in a mains kettle lead.
if pos get a pic of this lead, very very strange way to make a car pc. and by the sounds of it using a standard pc power supply. My advice never leave this on while the engine is off. By the sounds of it plugging the screen in is taking just too much power so the pc is not being sent enough power to run with a smooth 12v. As soon as it drops bellow 12v it will crash and restart.
I had this problem when i plugged in a usb hub. Pc would crash as soon as something was accessed from usb hub. Had to get bigger alternator and battery for everything to run smooth. That was in my old fiesta.
I had this problem when i plugged in a usb hub. Pc would crash as soon as something was accessed from usb hub. Had to get bigger alternator and battery for everything to run smooth. That was in my old fiesta.
Here is a pic of how it is setup.
I know the pc works from the cig lighter, all i need to do is find a way to power the screen.
Another thing, i aslo have to have the car running for there to be enough power to run the pc, if i try and run the pc without the car running it just restarts.
Im guessing thats normal.
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i think i would put this down to the pc demanding to much power from the car batter and your only alternative it to swap for a bigger battery. it looks like a very bad bodg job of a car pc.
I cant tell from that pic but the pc should be powerd by a dedicated car pc power supply like something from here. I used to run a M1-ATX which runs direct to the battery and has a remote switch so the pc comes on when the ignition is on/ shuts down when your turn the engine off
Have a look on www.mp3car.com and post your problem up there. Best place for help setting a car pc up if you have never done it before.
I cant tell from that pic but the pc should be powerd by a dedicated car pc power supply like something from here. I used to run a M1-ATX which runs direct to the battery and has a remote switch so the pc comes on when the ignition is on/ shuts down when your turn the engine off
Have a look on www.mp3car.com and post your problem up there. Best place for help setting a car pc up if you have never done it before.
Not 100% sure, but I suspect there is a 12v-240v inverter stuffed inside the case of the PC ???
In which case you've got the motherboard being powered through a PC PSU, which is then powered through an inverter, both of which will lose you a certain percentage of power, meaning you have to draw more power than the internals of the PC actually need.
Have you had a look at http://fit-pc.co.uk/meet-fit-pc-II.html these ?
A colleague has just bought one (not for car use) and I had a look at it yesterday. It's amazingly tiny; he got the higher specced one without disk, and fitted his own 160G HD.
So small you could put it anywhere, complete with USB, DVI out, wifi, gig ethernet, IR .....
...and it only draws a few watts.
Plus it takes 12v too.
In which case you've got the motherboard being powered through a PC PSU, which is then powered through an inverter, both of which will lose you a certain percentage of power, meaning you have to draw more power than the internals of the PC actually need.
Have you had a look at http://fit-pc.co.uk/meet-fit-pc-II.html these ?
A colleague has just bought one (not for car use) and I had a look at it yesterday. It's amazingly tiny; he got the higher specced one without disk, and fitted his own 160G HD.
So small you could put it anywhere, complete with USB, DVI out, wifi, gig ethernet, IR .....
...and it only draws a few watts.
Plus it takes 12v too.
Sat Nav, Music, DVD, Vag-Com, Mobile internet to name few...
Nice find muddy boots. Been looking for a pc this size for a project in work.
Nice find muddy boots. Been looking for a pc this size for a project in work.
You have to see one in the flesh to appreciate just how small they are.
No fans either, so are almost silent (except for the disk, but it may be possible to fit a flash drive depending on the read/write cycle lifetimes).
Do run quite warm though...guess they must cool by conduction.
Wireless network crackingcall me an old sod but why would you have a pc in a car?..
Mat
Guest
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