It could be the electricity there is running "hot" where there's way more voltage on the line then there should be (or what it's rated at).

Did it work fine plugged into the wall but not the strip? If that's the case, it's probably the strip.

We had that at one place I was at, the lines were running way hot, and they had to put a massive power conditioner in the basement to keep the ATM's from going through a power supply a week.