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

[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 ? :)