DHES

oeb,
If the display is plugged directly into a USB port on the back of the computer there shouldn't be a problem. What can be a problem is some external USB hubs do not provide their own power supply and the hub is not able to provide enough power for the display (The pertelian IS power hungry). I had to replace an external USB hub for one that included it's own power supply and all was well.

The Pertelian website makes mention of this type of display problem in their formum.
If you go here http://pertelian.com/forums/viewtopic.p ... ht=usb+hub you'll find user feedback on which hubs users found to work and which didn't.

Specific to your situation of this happening when the refrig kicks on is a clear sign that you need to find another power main to connect your computer and periphials to. Connecting computers to the same power with heavy electrical loads such as a refrig compressor causes bad things happen to electronics. If you must use the same power then at least get a big honkin' UPS and plug the computer, monitor, and Pertelian into it. The UPS will smooth out the line power.

I received an email yesterday complaining that the Pertelian display when used with the POS software was one pokey puppy and had a refresh rate of 15 - 20 seconds when a new item was sold.

It turns out that the problem was not the display but the POS program hogging all the resources of the computer. Fortunately we solved this problem long ago http://keyhut.com/faq.htm#slow

Dale

Thanks Bruce for your ideas regarding my problem with the pole display going blank. It has worked better this year, some times staying active for almost a week without needing to unplug it. It seems like when this happen that pertpole.exe freezes/ crashes and to be able to close it I have to unplug. Some sort of "deadlock" or endless loop comes to mind. I'm not so sure anymore that the refrigerator has anything to do with it. This is a laptop so I don't think an UPS would help. I believe I had it connected to an UPS at one point in fact. It is however connected to a surge protector.

The Pertelian device is no longer available so we came up with something better http://keyhut.com/bigpole.htm