Car pc works when engine off, but not on..

drewinstl · 09-04-2005, 05:31 PM

My car pc works great if the engine is off. As soon as I start the enginen I am unable to get video from the pc but the power supply fan and cpu fan is running properly.

I have 2 batteries, 3 amps, a 750watt inverter a old celeron 400 book pc motherboard with proprietarty power supply. The connector looks like a P4 connector on a new power supply but with 2 more connectors.

so its a 3x2 connector vs the 2x2 p4 connector

Unfortunatly is is a 100/240v power supply that auto switches.. Is it possible that it autoswitching incorrectly?

If if boot the pc up with the engine off, then start the car it survives crank, but locks up.

I brought a P4 Desktop from inside the house and plugged it into the inverter, and started the car and it booted right up. and worked fine, just to large for the inside of a 2001 ford ranger.

Has any one else ever had a problem getting the car pc to run while the car is running?

if so how did you fix it?

any questions or comments greatly appreciated

thanks again guys

numbers · 09-04-2005, 05:45 PM

First thing to do is leave everything just as it is, except bring an extension cord from the garage and plug your computer into that. If it still doesn't like the engine running, you know it's probably some crazy strong noise getting to the computer some other way. If it works, I'd suspect the inverter and/or power supply.

84RegalRider · 09-05-2005, 04:57 PM

What monitor u using?

Joshiwashy · 09-05-2005, 06:07 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by drewinstl

My car pc works great if the engine is off. As soon as I start the enginen I am unable to get video from the pc but the power supply fan and cpu fan is running properly.

I have 2 batteries, 3 amps, a 750watt inverter a old celeron 400 book pc motherboard with proprietarty power supply. The connector looks like a P4 connector on a new power supply but with 2 more connectors.

so its a 3x2 connector vs the 2x2 p4 connector

Unfortunatly is is a 100/240v power supply that auto switches.. Is it possible that it autoswitching incorrectly?

If if boot the pc up with the engine off, then start the car it survives crank, but locks up.

I brought a P4 Desktop from inside the house and plugged it into the inverter, and started the car and it booted right up. and worked fine, just to large for the inside of a 2001 ford ranger.

Has any one else ever had a problem getting the car pc to run while the car is running?

if so how did you fix it?

any questions or comments greatly appreciated

thanks again guys

I had a very similar issue in my setup. I had a shuttle plugged into an inverter, and a xenarc 700TSV plugged into the 12v line of the car. Worked great with the car off, but when the engine was running, the screen would lose sync and go blank.

I switched from using the inverter to an Opus 150, and the screen blanking problem went away! I can still use the inverter to power other devices without problems.

-Josh