I live in Vancouver, BC, Canada
The building is from the fifties, but the suite I'm in appears to have been added on the roof after completion.
(suites on lower floors have fuses)
I can't tell what breaker type other than it has on / off / flipped.
This computer is in a NorcoTek RPC-470 case with metal motherboard tray and metal standoffs with metal screws smaller than the white circles denoting the mount point on the motherboard.
My main computer is in the same case, (I have an extra from in between builds) and my NAS is in a similar case by the same manufacturer.
The cases didn't come with insulating washers, neither did my two Antec 900 cases, my Thermaltake case or my Cooler Master full tower case that I built my first NAS in.
I do have a screw bag from 15 years ago from one of the many computer builds I have done with some insulating washers in it I think ... if I can find them.
I'll see if I can buy a package of insulating washers bulk.
I haven't seen those paper insulating washers come with a computer case or a motherboard in many many years, I think that would have been a Pentium 133 build when it cost $1600 for the complete system.
I started buying bigger power supplies after I started building NAS's and the hard drives also started requiring more power on spin up ...
(so if a system went down I could swap a Power Supply from a working system to the broken one if needed, until I could go to the computer store)
(I wasn't trying to flip the breaker faster, just make my setups more universal)
On that wall socket with the original APC Backups ES 750 and an exchanged power cord ...
My HTPC flips the breaker
(150 max draw on boot via kill-a-watt when built)(runs between 100W and 150W as reported by the UPS)
I exchanged my main computer with my HTPC ... main computer boots and works ...
I exchanged my NAS with my main computer ... NAS boots and works ... (same motherboard as HTPC, with phenom 6 core, 2x4GB RAM and 16 hard drives) (150W spun down to 300W on boot via Kill-a-watt)(runs between 150W and 230W as reported by the UPS)
I exchanged the APC Backups ES 750 and hooked it up to my NAS on the same wall socket and it boots and works with the new power cord
I exchanged my main computer with the NAS and hooked it up to the new power cord and the exchanged UPS and it booted up and worked.
I hooked up my HTPC to the exchanged UPS and the new power cord and it flipped the breaker.
I checked the wall socket ... looks in good condition with ground wire ... can't tell how it's wired at the other end though and yes I understand without proper test equipment I'm guessing.
A computer at a time I have cycled seven computers through this wall socket in the last 10 years, so I'm really hoping it's not the wall socket and wiring.
It may be absurd, but the breaker is flipping ... and it has me really confused
It may be the overload from the HTPC causing the UPS to draw current on top of the short circuit in the HTPC ?
I have removed all drives and all cards from the HTPC
I can turn on the HTPC about 50% of the time and it will power up ... if I reset it ... it will reboot ... as many times as I hit the reset button
If I turn it off and then turn it back on in under a minute it shorts.
I am about to remove the motherboard to check for loose metal ... I don't know if I should move the motherboard to a new case and try that ...
Both UPS's passed their last self tests within the last month if that means anything ?
The wiring includes two bedrooms on one circuit with no heavy appliances ... My roommate has a laptop and a LED LCD with a cablebox in his room.
I have two APC Back-UPS ES 750 Uninterruptible Power Supplies one for my HTPC to shutdown gracefully and one for my NAS to shutdown gracefully as a parity rebuild takes 16 hours.
I got them because it was suggested for the NAS and I thought it would be good for the HTPC also.
and sorry for the rambling, working nights