Power Surge Protection

[Peter Hiscocks]

A UPS or a Surge Protector will work if indeed it was a line surge that
caused the failure. But I suspect that many so-called 'surge failures' are
actually power supplies that fail in Frankenstein mode. The surge protector
and UPS can't help with this at all. A properly designed computer power
supply should have a crowbar circuit that clamps the output even when a
catastrophic failure occurs internally.

I went through this a while ago with my wife's machine. The power supply
failed spectacularly, taking out everything in the box. OTA claimed this was
a line generated surge failure, but there were several computers on the same
power line at the same time that were unaffected, so that didn't wash. Very,
very reluctantly and after some hard bargaining, OTA gave us a new machine
at 'cost'. 

I think one's best insurance is to have a high-quality power supply in the
box. Competitive pressures to produce a high-power supply for a tiny cost
result in marginal supplies that fail in this manner. The power supply is an
unsung component in the computer, but it's critically important. (The
invention of the switching power supply is one of the things that makes a
modern computer cost and size feasible for consumers.) Spend some money on a
good power supply, don't just take whatever comes in the enclosure.

My 2 cents worth.

Peter

On Thu, Sep 09, 2004 at 12:20:15PM -0400, Devin Whalen wrote:
> Hey,
> 
> My motherboard just recently blew out (or whatever you want to call
> it).  My computer just stopped working and when I looked at the
> motherboard there was this thick grey dust all over it (well centred
> around the cpu).  Needless to say, I had to buy a new motherboard and in
> turn a new cpu,memory,power supply and hey why not a new case...so 400
> and some dollars later and I have a working machine again.  I was told
> that it was probably a power surge.  Currently, I have a power bar, but
> I am told that this is not enough.  What should I get to ensure this
> doesn't happen again?  What does everyone here use?  Thanks.
> 
> Later
> 
> 
> -- 
> Devin Whalen
> Programmer
> Synaptic Vision Inc
> Phone-(416) 539-0801
> Fax- (416) 539-8280
> 1179A King St. West
> Toronto, Ontario
> Suite 309 M6K 3C5
> Home-(416) 653-3982
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> The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
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-- 
Peter D. Hiscocks                         	   
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering    
Ryerson University,                    
350 Victoria Street,
Toronto, Ontario, M5B 2K3, Canada

Phone:   (416) 979-5000 Ext 6109
Fax:     (416) 979-5280
Email:   phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org
URL:     http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~phiscock
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml