Router Trouble

[Jerry Simon]

I know this is a forum for home inspection, but without my router, I'm in a bit of a bind, and what with all the knowledge here. . .

I burned out a ceiling light bulb last night when I turned the light switch on, and that also tripped the circuit breaker. Odd, but I figure it arced. Anyway:

That knocked out my computer, modem, router, all such stuff. I now can't get any of my several routers to work. I re-set the routers and modem several times, and best I can do is plug cable from Comcast directly into CPU to get internet (I don't have a Comcast router fyi). Any help on this would be appreciated. And, any thoughts on the breaker tripping when turning on and burning out light bulb would also be nice

[Marc]

Is it possible that the light bulb was a consequence of the defect (along with the router, etc) rather than the defect itself? And that the defect remains?

Marc

[Steven Hockstein]

Seems odd, don't most routers use a DC adapter? Can the power issue transfer through the DC adapter?

Maybe your modern router is defective and the other routers are older and not compatible?

[John Kogel]

If the router has an 'on' mode and an 'off' mode, make sure it is 'On'.

No kidding. Mine has a blue light that shows it is 'On'. Never noticed until it was 'Off' one day after a power outage. This is true for a router that displays a menu.

If that is an older light switch, maybe replace it. I imagine there was a surge of current great enough to trip the breaker. Usually the little filament in a light bulb will not carry that many amps for more than a milisecond before it fries away. So we should suspect other components in that circuit, maybe the light switch.

Maybe that surge hit your modems and fried them too, eh? []

[Marc]

Seems odd, don't most routers use a DC adapter? Can the power issue transfer through the DC adapter?

Maybe your modern router is defective and the other routers are older and not compatible?

A voltage spike can ruin a DC power supply more easily than an AC power supply. The usual failure mode is shorts in the rectifiers (bridge rectifiers), after which the filter capacitors cause the fuse to blow. I've diagnosed/repaired many of them as a Radio/TV tech back in the dark ages.

Marc

[Jerry Simon]

Hours and hours (and hours) to no avail. Finally *disabled* the router, my last step before I went out to buy a new one. That set-off some type of computer warning, and computer went to work. It re-set the router, and all is good.

Jeesh.

[Marc]

At least we got in a few posts. [:-paperba

Marc