On Mon, 27 Jun 2005 22:14:40 GMT,it is alleged that mike
spake thusly in uk.d-i-y:

My eldery father i-law has been living in majorca for some 20 years and has
recently suffered several strokes. He now only has the use of one hand and
really misses not being able to write letters any more. A friend here in the UK
kindly gave him a very basic dedicated word processor (just displays a few lines
of text and runs simple WP). A computer is too complicated for him to
understand/use. The WP has an external"brick" for a psu (9V dc o/p I *think*).

Anyway this WP box-thing works fine here in the UK but when wifey took it too
majorca the thing just scrolls junk text at switch-on. Brought it back here -
works fine! I just wonder if the supply voltage in ES/majorca is not correct for
such WP things? Too much voltage variation perhaps? Frequency different? Can the
mains plugs there be inserted either way around (ie swaps live/neutral) and if
so could this make a difference somehow? We could always look for a WP in ES to
start with but just wondered what the trouble could be.

Nominally 230 volts, however, likely to be 220 volts +/- a bit in the
same way the UK is likely to be 240 +/- a bit :-)

It's still 50 Hz.

I believe Spanish outlets are non-polarized, meaning live/neutral can
be either way round. This (although for a long time booed and hissed
at in the UK) *shouldn't* adversely affect anything reasonably modern
but if the WP has a filter that expects the neutral to be near earth,
reversal of polarity could cause an issue, but again, it really
_shouldn't_, especially being an external 'brick'.

I would suggest possibly a faulty socket, (worn/loose connections), a
worn or badly fitting plug, or poor voltage regulation by the power
company.

Also, does the device have a 3 core cord? If it requires an earth for
the filter in the PSU, it may react very oddly to no earth,
possibilities certainly include the random scrolling of garbage
characters, and these could also be a symptom of 'dirty power' caused
by the above mentioned loose connections.

If the device is old enough to be designed for '240 volts' rather than
230, that could also be the problem. Many older UKian devices don't
like being fed 220, let alone the 190 - 200 or so it can drop to in
some places in ES. More a fault of the original manufacturer than the
power company, but that doesn't really help your FIL either way.

Whether you end up getting it working or buying one locally, I wish
your father in law all the best, and hope things work out so he has
something he can write on soon:-)

--
We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very
average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something
very special.
- Stephen Hawking

Some 110v supplies still exist in parts of Spain...
Out in the country in Mallorca it may well be 110v.
A

On Mon, 27 Jun 2005 22:36:17 GMT, Chip
wrote:

Nominally 230 volts, however, likely to be 220 volts +/- a bit in the
same way the UK is likely to be 240 +/- a bit :-)

It's still 50 Hz.

Majorca generally uses 220v but 110v is still uses in older buildings.

http://www.travelelectronics.com/catalog/guide.php