Power Outage / How to protect my PC

[BananaGuy]

On 11/9/2021 at 2:19 PM, Tuvoc said:

I found a UPS totally useless. When the voltage dropped (but there was no cut) the UPS would start beeping away madly, switch to battery, and then the PC would power down. All the while, the power was still up, and a different PC just plugged straight into the mains keep running quite happily.  So, just voltage drops kept triggering it once a day or more, and now it just sits gathering dust unused. It was an APC so a good brand, but yes one of their lower priced models. Maybe a more expensive one would have been better.

Off-topic but i learned my first UPS lesson many years ago working IT for John Fairfax (big publisher) in Sydney many years ago - they spent $squillions installing a room-sized UPS and diesel backup to provide enough power to the building to keep some lights on and close down printing presses and a big old mainframe computer gracefully in the event of local sub-station failure.

 

Finest German engineering installed by manufacturer's people flown in and accomodated for the job.

 

Tested? Fine.

 

First time required? UPS out to lunch. 

[BananaGuy]

9 minutes ago, Ralf001 said:

And thats where I stopped reading.

No it wasn't, i'll bet you read to the end ... but that's where you stopped learning ...

 

Easy to test ...

Screenprint or write down your external SSD 'properties' (used/free/total space)

Copy a big file (big enough so it takes more than a few seconds) from the external SSD to anywhere else egyour PC or another external drive

Let it start

Yank the drive.

 

Reconnect the SSD and your big file is intact and the SSD's 'properties' are unchanged.

 

Start the copy again (and don't yank this time!) and the process will complete perfectly normally.

 

Or don't test it yourself. I don't really care either way.

[Ralf001]

1 hour ago, BananaGuy said:

No it wasn't, i'll bet you read to the end ... but that's where you stopped learning ...

 

Easy to test ...

Screenprint or write down your external SSD 'properties' (used/free/total space)

Copy a big file (big enough so it takes more than a few seconds) from the external SSD to anywhere else egyour PC or another external drive

Let it start

Yank the drive.

 

Reconnect the SSD and your big file is intact and the SSD's 'properties' are unchanged.

 

Start the copy again (and don't yank this time!) and the process will complete perfectly normally.

 

Or don't test it yourself. I don't really care either way.

Iam not talking about SSD's used in external cases.

 

Ive had SSD's Die in PC's not protected by brownouts (no UPS).

Edited November 10, 2021 by Ralf001

[billd766]

On 11/8/2021 at 6:21 PM, Dario said:

Would this UPS protect my computer for at least 5-10 minutes? If I'm not wrong I have a 850W power supply. I don't need the UPS to be able to continue to work, just to protect my computer.

 

Certainly.

[BananaGuy]

9 hours ago, Ralf001 said:

Iam not talking about SSD's used in external cases.

 

Ive had SSD's Die in PC's not protected by brownouts (no UPS).

SSDs as in plural?

 

Not my experience at all. I currently own about 10, spread through 3 laptops, 2 PCs, a tablet and a few in external enclosures and have onsold at least that many in older devices. Failure rate zero.

 

May i ask

What brand?

Did you determine the SSD failed and not some other internal component?

Did you for example, extract the SSD after 'failure' and test it in an external enclosure?

[Chad3000]

On 11/8/2021 at 4:03 PM, Dario said:

in our village

Return to civilization

[Ralf001]

47 minutes ago, BananaGuy said:

SSDs as in plural?

 

Not my experience at all. I currently own about 10, spread through 3 laptops, 2 PCs, a tablet and a few in external enclosures and have onsold at least that many in older devices. Failure rate zero.

 

May i ask

What brand?

Did you determine the SSD failed and not some other internal component?

Did you for example, extract the SSD after 'failure' and test it in an external enclosure?

Yeah Plural.

[Seeall]

On 11/9/2021 at 5:09 PM, Darksidedude said:

Get rid of the desktop computer all together, best to have a laptop setup with a monitor, wireless keyboard and mouse

 

power outages will be a thing of the past

Sure, unless you are in a condo and the local wifi has no batterybackup and you dont have data to share on your phone (cheap and easy)

[Seeall]

9 hours ago, billd766 said:

Certainly.

I would check inyo that as the wattage ratings are different

[billd766]

Having said my piece we had a power outage last night which took out the internal psu of my son's desktop pc. We took it to the shop this morning and it will cost 1,350 for an improved replacement psu.

 

I have a UPS but my son does not, yet. Next week I will get him one.

 

The last time a power outage happened, his desktop was OK but my desktop blew the external psu.

[JetsetBkk]

17 minutes ago, billd766 said:

Having said my piece we had a power outage last night which took out the internal psu of my son's desktop pc. We took it to the shop this morning and it will cost 1,350 for an improved replacement psu.

 

I have a UPS but my son does not, yet. Next week I will get him one.

 

The last time a power outage happened, his desktop was OK but my desktop blew the external psu.

"The last time a power outage happened, his desktop was OK but my desktop blew the external psu."

 

 - was your desktop connected to the UPS at that time?

 

If so, what brand UPS was it?  (If you don't mind saying.)

 

[billd766]

7 minutes ago, JetsetBkk said:

"The last time a power outage happened, his desktop was OK but my desktop blew the external psu."

 

 - was your desktop connected to the UPS at that time?

 

If so, what brand UPS was it?  (If you don't mind saying.)

 

Yes it was. The UPS was made by Zircon and the model was a ZIR-D-1000VA nearing either a new set of batteries or a replacement.

 

We had a lightning strike on a coconut tree outside about 20 metres away.

 

I replaced it with a 100VA ETECH eazy IG by Zircon and that stayed up over 2 hours during last nights power outage.

 

https://www.advice.co.th/search?keyword=UPS+1000VA++ETECH+eazy+IG+By+Zircon

 

 

[JetsetBkk]

5 minutes ago, billd766 said:

Yes it was. The UPS was made by Zircon and the model was a ZIR-D-1000VA nearing either a new set of batteries or a replacement.

 

We had a lightning strike on a coconut tree outside about 20 metres away.

 

I replaced it with a 100VA ETECH eazy IG by Zircon and that stayed up over 2 hours during last nights power outage.

 

https://www.advice.co.th/search?keyword=UPS+1000VA++ETECH+eazy+IG+By+Zircon

 

 

Ah, yes, a lightning strike just a few metres away would be hard for any UPS to filter out! ????

 

[BananaGuy]

8 hours ago, Ralf001 said:

Yeah Plural.

but no other details eh?

[Ralf001]

46 minutes ago, BananaGuy said:

but no other details eh?

Nope, just reading the aggressiveness of your replies tells me you are not going to be proven wrong so there is no need for me to elaborate on details.

[recom273]

1 hour ago, billd766 said:

Yes it was. The UPS was made by Zircon and the model was a ZIR-D-1000VA nearing either a new set of batteries or a replacement.

 

We had a lightning strike on a coconut tree outside about 20 metres away.

 

I replaced it with a 100VA ETECH eazy IG by Zircon and that stayed up over 2 hours during last nights power outage.

 

https://www.advice.co.th/search?keyword=UPS+1000VA++ETECH+eazy+IG+By+Zircon

 

 

Im not too sure they are supposed to filter lightning strikes, I would be interested to learn more about insulating my office and home entertainment circuits against power surges. Im not too keen on having breaker powerstrips after spending time planning rooms with ample wall sockets.

 

For the moment, I use the UPS' as a power outage can cost me a fair price in lost work - I keep my ISP gateway on a UPS, so I can maintain a constant power supply (lol - a UPS) and prevent connections dropping in the event of a brown out or complete loss. My servers do quite a lot of automated tasks, in the event of some data corruption due to a irregular shutdown, in the past it has taken a while to reinstall and reconfigure programs - when those programs manage your home network or home lighting, its a lot easier to use a UPS than answer to a fuming wife who can't switch the light on in the bathroom or connect to FB. 

 

 

[billd766]

4 hours ago, recom273 said:

Im not too sure they are supposed to filter lightning strikes, I would be interested to learn more about insulating my office and home entertainment circuits against power surges. Im not too keen on having breaker powerstrips after spending time planning rooms with ample wall sockets.

 

For the moment, I use the UPS' as a power outage can cost me a fair price in lost work - I keep my ISP gateway on a UPS, so I can maintain a constant power supply (lol - a UPS) and prevent connections dropping in the event of a brown out or complete loss. My servers do quite a lot of automated tasks, in the event of some data corruption due to a irregular shutdown, in the past it has taken a while to reinstall and reconfigure programs - when those programs manage your home network or home lighting, its a lot easier to use a UPS than answer to a fuming wife who can't switch the light on in the bathroom or connect to FB. 

 

 

Mine is just a simple home set up.

 

The last failure happened when I was next door and the first I knew was all the house lights were flashing and I had no time to do anything. Last night only my son's pc psu died, but everything else kept running.

 

The big time before there was thunder and lightning in the distance and then a very close flash/ bang and my pc psu died. Everything else kept running which confused me.

 

If the external power only goes down I can still use my pc etc but the True node is 740 metres away and has no ups so it just dies and takes about 5 minutes to boot up again when the power returns.

 

We built the house 17 years ago with enough wall sockets then. However since then more and more stuff like mobile chargers for the 3 of us need sockets both upstairs and downstairs. A laptop only needs 1 socket but at one time I had three and 2 monitors as the laptops were OK but the screens had died.

 

Things like that have a habit of creeping up on you.

[steven100]

just buy a surge protection unit.   PSU or similar at any Powerbuy or electrical outlet.  I have had the same one on my PC for 10+ years and it has never stopped worked.  The power goes off but my PC keep ticking over.

[BananaGuy]

19 hours ago, Ralf001 said:

Nope, just reading the aggressiveness of your replies tells me you are not going to be proven wrong so there is no need for me to elaborate on details.

Aggressive? Hardly.

Sharing my actual experience and asking questions about yours? Yup. Guilty.

Offering cheap and easy and practical alternatives to buying a PSU? Certainly.

[Darksidedude]

Do you not know of a HDMI cable to connect to a monitor ?? all laptops have that facility, as for graphics laptops have come a long way.

 

I am running full settings newest MS flight sim or any latest game for that matter with a 200 dollar second hand gaming laptop that is 4 years old

 

i used to build my own desktop machines, stopped that 10 years ago 

[Dario]

2 hours ago, Darksidedude said:

Do you not know of a HDMI cable to connect to a monitor ?? all laptops have that facility, as for graphics laptops have come a long way.

 

I am running full settings newest MS flight sim or any latest game for that matter with a 200 dollar second hand gaming laptop that is 4 years old

 

i used to build my own desktop machines, stopped that 10 years ago 

 

 

Running MSFS on a laptop. Woaw! That's an achievement. Almost all people I know aren't able to run MSFS 2020 on their computers. How are your framerates? I'm in FS since FS2000.

 

Yes, I know about HDMI and I sure have one on my HP I bought on Amazon 3 years ago. But my monitor cable doesn't have an HDMI connector.

Edited November 12, 2021 by Dario

[mavi]

On 11/8/2021 at 5:16 PM, JustAnotherHun said:

Power cuts can damage your hardware. I lost 2 or 3 HDDs years ago.

some people life is weird, 20 years of power cuts without any UPS and never even a single device died...

 

 

[Darksidedude]

3 hours ago, Dario said:

Running MSFS on a laptop. Woaw! That's an achievement. Almost all people I know aren't able to run MSFS 2020 on their computers. How are your framerates? I'm in FS since FS2000.

 

Yes, I know about HDMI and I sure have one on my HP I bought on Amazon 3 years ago. But my monitor cable doesn't have an HDMI connector.

dont know framerates but it doesn't shutter or crash anything of that nature, laptops are the go desktops are old news a lot of laptops come with that other type of cable connection as well the one you mentioned

[Dario]

Can I protect my Internet router also with a Zircon 1000V 550 W UPS? Would be better than tether with my mobile. I have 500MB down vs maybe 5 MB with the mobile.

[recom273]

1 hour ago, Dario said:

Can I protect my Internet router also with a Zircon 1000V 550 W UPS? Would be better than tether with my mobile. I have 500MB down vs maybe 5 MB with the mobile.

Yes, there are 4 power points on the back - 3 are UPS points and 1 is passthrough.

 

Yes, you can use one of them to power your router, but the more devices connected the more power they draw and the faster the battery drains in the event of an outage.

 

It's important for me to maintain to maintain a constant internet connection, so I connect my 3BB box to a UPS. Its most useful during brown outs, when there isn't  juice and the router resets.

It's use in a power outage depends upon the location of your local node or if it also have a UPS. For example, In my old place, my power would go off in my area, but power on the other side of the main road would be live, this was where the local DP was, if this was the case then I could maintain connection. In my new place, the power drops off and I know I can power the router but the local node only has a couple of mins before the routers LOS light flashes red, but that's enough time to manually switch to mobile data, saving me a hefty fine from my company.

 

I think you said you trade crypto, it would most definantly be worthwhile trying it out. If you miss a trade, you could be down the price of the UPS. If your outages are long and your ISP maintains connection it may be worthwhile buying a larger capacity or a second UPS, a router isn't going to draw much power anyway.

Edited November 13, 2021 by recom273

[JetsetBkk]

2 hours ago, recom273 said:

Yes, you can use one of them to power your router, but the more devices connected the more power they draw and the faster the battery drains in the event of an outage.

Everything in my "office" - even the floor standing fan - is run from UPSs: computers, TV, sound system, router, air-cleaner...  not the air-conditioner on the wall.

 

The office power is shared between the 3 UPSs so that I have at least 60 minutes of power before the batteries die.

Usually, the power outage is much shorter than 60 minutes but, if it is a long one, I start shutting things down after about 45 minutes.

The numbers displayed are the minutes of power left:

.

[Dario]

Thank you. My first UPS arrived already, I ordered on 11/11, today it already arrived from Ranong to northern Surin province, really out in the sticks. I probably connected wrong on the white outlet instead of  on a red one. I will change.

 

 

Edited November 13, 2021 by Dario
uploaded one wrong picture

[cjinchiangrai]

The big problem is ungrounded outlets. Even with a surge protector, you need somewhere to dump the surge. A three pin outlet is no guarantee that your protections will work.

[Dario]

16 minutes ago, cjinchiangrai said:

The big problem is ungrounded outlets. Even with a surge protector, you need somewhere to dump the surge. A three pin outlet is no guarantee that your protections will work.

Our electricity throughout our home is  professionally earthed. No problem here. I'm a Swiss national. In Switzerland everything must be earthed.

Edited November 13, 2021 by Dario

[cjinchiangrai]

36 minutes ago, Dario said:

Our electricity throughout our home is  professionally earthed. No problem here. I'm a Swiss national. In Switzerland everything must be earthed.

Glad to hear it. Mine too but I need to get a tester to make sure they really did it. The GFI circuits don't work without it and neither to surge protectors.