I just moved to a new apartment and have plugged in my electronic equipment in the living room. My TV is plugged directly into the wall socket. My Xbox, TV receiver, modem and router are plugged into a power strip which is plugged into the wall. I had this same exact arrangement in my previous apartment. Anyway, an hour after plugging my router I went to set up the wifi and couldnt connect to router...i examined it and saw that only a few of the lights were on, they werent bright and theyx were flickering weakly. I plugged it into a new socket, same thing. The next morning I plugged it in again and noticed that only the power button was still on...and faintly. So I chalked it up to the router being 2.5 years old...maybe it was damaged in the move. I bought a new one, plugged it in...everything worked...this morning i woke up and found my router completely gone. No lights at all...completely broken....

I'm at a loss at what could be causing my equipment to fail like this. Before i left home today I unplugged all the equipment from the living room. Could this be a power surge that on two different occasions destroyed my equipment? If so, why was only one device affected in each case?

Is there a test that can be done on the socket to see if it is working ok?

For the cable modem, i have cablecom. Do I need to order a replacement modem through them or can I buy it in one of the big electronics stores?

Any other ideas what could be happening...would love to hear from all

Could be that you got a bad one and you should try to exchange it but, while exchanging it, I'd bet a better power strip and, possibly, a surge protector strip. I'll wager a guess that the router was plugged into the first socket on the strip? Just a guess but a quality strip for electronics is always a good way to protect sensitive equipment.

I was thinking the power surge theory as well, but from what I have heard, power surges here are almost non existent.

I just remembered, that I still have my old cable modem, the one i got originally from cablecom...maybe it still works...gotta try at lunchtime

Doesn't have to be a surge as what a UPS and power strips do is power 'conditioning'. It doesn't take a huge spike (and something you wouldn't see unless you had a meter on the socket) to kill a sensitive bit of electronics or something that was on the edge. It never hurts to get a very good quality strip as it could even be the strip causing the problems. I had a bad one once...took me a week to narrow it down to the strip.

Surges typically occur maybe once every seven years. Due to advertising, most everything now gets blamed on mythical surges. Any recommendation for surge protection is always be suspect due to too many people educated only from advertising.

All appliances contain serious protection from many electrical anomalies. For example, computers must withstand 1000+ volt surges without damage. Your symptoms imply a completely different anomaly. The same appliance that can withstand a 1000 volt transient might be damaged by lesser but constantly high voltage. Two completely different anomalies.

Nobody can provide a useful answer without information that includes numbers (which explains why so many blame mythical surges). Simplest solution is to use a multimeter to measure AC voltages between each wall receptacle prong. And from each wall receptacle prong to both modem cable conductors (shield and center wire).

Of course, best information comes from the dead body. The router has a power supply. What 'numbers' are not output on the connector to the router? And what are the numbers (input and output) on that power brick? Or get someone to identify what inside the modem/router has failed. Find a computer tech that actually knows how electricity works. Most don't.

Possibilities:
You choose to plug into the power plug that is wired to a light dimmer on the wall (happened to me once!)

A wiring defect causing poor contact in the wall socket / fusebox leading to low voltage at the power plug

Suggestions: run the setup from another power point with an extension cord, to confirm if you have one bad power point. If the power point proves to be bad, look for a lamp dimmer (test by plugging in a lamp and altering the dimmer) and see if the dimmer was on low. If not, call the Verwaltung and tell them you have a problem.

From another Kiwi.

Ring them and tell them it failled. You'll get a replacement sent to you.