Aaaaarrrrrrggggghhh!!!!!

[denny]

So as my main mood-lifter of the weekend was getting the three screen set-up working on my home PC, obviously the gods sent a power surge to fry my motherboard while I was out yesterday evening. At least, I'm assuming that's what's fried... the machine powers up as far as the 'Press DEL to enter setup' screen, identifies the CPU but doesn't get as far as mentioning the RAM or disks. Holding down the delete key as it boots will get you the 'Entering setup' message instead of the 'Press DEL' message, but other than that it doesn't make any difference. Argh.

Incidentally, the machine was plugged into a surge-protector extension lead - a Belkin SurgeMaster II - which I can't say that I'm currently inclined to recommend. It theoretically has a warranty on it which will pay for any equipment damaged due to failure of the surge protector, but I'm guessing it has sufficient weasel words to let them slide out of it one way or another*.

simont recently had a machine fried while it was attached to a surge protector as well - does anybody else have any reports of brands to avoid? Is there any way anyone can recommend a protector - it's pretty obvious when they fail, but how do you know when they're working?


* having read it, you need the receipt for the extension lead. Which obviously I threw away several years ago. Nice lifetime guarantee there.

Comments

[msdemmie.livejournal.com]

Call Belkin ............

Use the international number - as they answer that quicker ........

Have the warrnaty - make , model PC etc all to hand ........... use it - thats why you paid for Belkin in the first place.

Phone takes a bit of persistance ..........

I used to have a light on mine ........ that signified when it was working

I now have a big black box that not only surge protects but has a battery which it constantly charges which gives me 20 minutes *rescue* time as well. ( Dont ask me what it is called - LOL )

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

It's called a UPS (uninterruptible power supply).

The Belkin warranty says it's not valid unless you've got the original receipt, which I don't have.

[msdemmie.livejournal.com]

Might be worth giving them a ring anyway .......... my friend didnt have his and they replaced his unit and what got fried ..... ( this was two years ago ) and the model number on the unit/model of teh unti indicated its age.

It has to be worth a phone call ?

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Aye, I'll give it a go.

It looks like they ask you to send all the damaged equipment to them at your own expense, and then they decide whether or not it was anything to do with them. I can see this all being an expensive pain in the arse, but we'll see.

[mr_magicfingers]

I've heard so many bad reports of so called surge protectors. I've known at least half a dozen people who've had systems fried while plugged into them. as msdemmie recommends, I suggest a proper UPS box, that way you should only be getting power from the battery and inverter rather than the mains, I would suspect that offers better protection than just a surge protector. Not as cheap but certainly cheaper than a new board or system I would think.

and yeah, hassle belkin, they ought to pay up.

UPS

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

I have all my fragile electronics (which includes the TiVo :) ) plugged into UPS, both to catch surges and to avoid them getting flipped off and on rapidly if the power company decide it's time to play around with the power supply. I trust an actual UPS to do a lot more surge protection than a simple "Surge protector" which is mainly there to catch large things like lightning strikes.
Second-hand units from APC in the 1kVA range are pretty cheap. You may need to replace the batteries, but that's not hard. They cost 30-50 quid (depending on size) from Maplins, last I looked. The basic electronics on the APC SmartUPS appear to last forever.

Re: UPS

[simont]

a simple "Surge protector" which is mainly there to catch large things like lightning strikes

... and many of which apparently can't even do that reliably. :-/

Re: UPS

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

All that happened at my place was that the electricity to the entire building went off for an hour or two - it must have spiked when it came back on. Seems quite thoroughly pathetic for a surge protector not to handle that.

Re: UPS

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

Have you checked the CPU and graphics cooling are working OK? "Runs for a few seconds" can be a symptom of "CPU takes a few seconds to overheat from cold because the fan is bust"

I'm never impressed by the specs of cheaper surge arresters; they're typically only good for one serious surge, and their lower cutoff voltage is a discouraging amount over 340V peak, while the amount of energy they can absorb will not deal with an actual nearby lighting strike. Nearby lightning might kill my UPS, but I'm betting it will die and not conduct, rather than absorb some of the energy and pass on the rest...

Re: UPS

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Hrm, good point - I'll have a look. Although, I was out when this happened, so if the CPU fan is dead then it was potentially running without it for hours :-\

Re: UPS

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Fans all still twirling. Oh well, it was a nice idea.

[bluecassandra.livejournal.com]

Good to know head massages can't compete with 3 screens :) honestly, geeks . . .

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

I was wondering who'd complain about that first :)

[bluecassandra.livejournal.com]

I am doing paperwork and trying to sort out computer stuff at work; I want to complain about EVERYTHING!
Mostly it made me laugh, but I imagine if anyone did anything more intimate with you they will be extremely peeved :)

[babysimon]

Your posting has made me think about buying a UPS.

All I want is surge protection and graceful shutdown on power loss. Is there any reason I shouldn't just buy the cheapest UPS I can find?

[hythloday.livejournal.com]

Is there any way anyone can recommend a protector – it's pretty obvious when they fail, but how do you know when they're working?

Buy two and take a violet wand to one.

[phantas.livejournal.com]

Completely OT, sorry for that.

Hi, we don't know each other but you look like The Right Person to ask this sort of things: a (Portuguese) photographer friend of mine is taking her first steps in fetish photography, any suggestions on whose work I should show to her?

To keep the post in a slightly geeky tone, I think I saw you mentioning that you were attending YAPC in birmingham? If you do, may I suggest you take a fishnet (http://braga.yapceurope.org/index.cgi?TheFishnetsIncident) and approach last year's organizing team saying that Paula told you there was a dress-code. Show disbelief at the fact they're not wearing one and say it's an essential item for fly-fishing (fishing with a "pluma").

[phantas.livejournal.com]

Explanation: José Castro (who is giving the first keynote) and Alberto, together with others, have just launched the APPP, Portuguese Association of Perl Programmers. Unfortunately, they chose the name before checking if www.appp.pt was already taken. Which it was. By the Portuguese Association of Fly-Fishing. Big fishes photos there! No lamas...

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

I like Trevor Watson's earlier stuff.

Steve Diet Goedde is generally considered to be pretty good.

This guy is good too: http://www.gothic-image.com/ - gothicimage

[phantas.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :)

[djlongfella.livejournal.com]

Mate " Belkin SurgeMaster II " these people produce a fridge freezer ro 99.00 quid ! what more can I say, after a similar experiance I have now installed a battery UPS, I'm sure others will go to great lengths to explain stuff, but most of the cheap surge protectors only protect upto a certain range, a bigger spike comming down the line can jump the protect circuit and fry stuff,
To be honest, and I have spent a lot of dough and time on this one, the only REAL protector I have found is the ones we fit to our amp racks, but at 1.8k a go it may not be viable.

The bateery ups supplys are good, and reasonable in price because in essence if they get spiked, they just power the pc with the battery ( if it's on durring such times ) and " should " only fry the batteries if " jumped " with a big one...
You can for around £ 100.00 quid get UPS supplies that will shut down your pc when their amp / voltage drops below the cpu required level which is kewl.
I think my up cost about 70 squid from e bay and will power the pc for 45 mins in s spike or power down, but I have to be here to shut down the pc manually if I drain the batteries.

Normally when it comes to amp and speaker protection a rule of thumb used by many of us, is NOT to buy anything with the word " pro " in it's title or anything that comes with a free insurance policy far outweighing the cost of the product...eg surge protecter £ 3.99 comes with free 50K garauntee...

Some of these devices including the good ones, rely on being able to dump the spike or surge to earth, this relies on you haveing a good earth, many domestic dwellings do not have a good earth.

Since having the UPS I note the facxt that I live in a crap area for constant mains supply as it cuts in and out several times a day, the circuitry on most domestic products are designed to accomodate some of this but invartibly dont like being used too often.

Just my two cents

[djlongfella.livejournal.com]

Although saying all that I just noticed my UPS cost £ 70.00 and has a sticker on it saying £ 70K Euro warranty on equipment....< runs and hides >

Although I still beg to differ that a big strike will melt my ups before my M/board.
And I was pleased when i heard it screeming it's allarm frequently durring our most recent storm...I take this noise to be indication it's working ? :)

Another vote for a UPS

[hedgemage.livejournal.com]

I haven't lost anything to brownout or surge since I gave up my cheap surge protectors for (still semi-cheap) APC brand UPSes. This is even after over a year living on the army base (which provides its own less than stellar power). We had daily brownouts and surges of various magnitudes.