Protecting Against Thunderstorms
For those that live in the Brandstar area you will know that we had a pretty impressive thunderstorm last week!
I always know that once the thunderstorm is over I will be getting calls from people saying something along the lines of “I can’t get on the internet” or “My computer won’t turn on”. The most likely answer - damage caused by the wonderful thunderstorm we had.
Experience has shown me that the most common components to be damaged are Power Supply Unit, Modem or Rotuer. Obviously not wanting to cough up for a new component every time there is a thunderstorm people like to know how to prevent this without having to unplug everything each time there is a thunderstorm!
You have two options:
1) A simple in-line surge protector of some sort. I tend to use the Belkin 6 way with protection for your phone and internet. Available from www.misco.co.uk product code: 44751
2) The other option is to go all the way and buy a Uninteruptable Power Supply - this will protect you from those damaging power surges and keep your machine up and running long enough for you to turn the power back on, or shut the machine down. The ones I use even have software to shut the machine down for you if you are not there! The APC models in my experience are by far the best for most users. Again look at www.misco.co.uk and product code: 47839
The advantage of the UPS is that if the power doesn’t just spike but actually cuts out if the machine is in use then there is a chance that it will be damaged for not being shut down properly. That might just be a corrupt system file or could be as fatal as loosing your hard drive with all your data on it!
Hopefully some useful advice for those who love thunderstorms but don’t like repairing their machines after each one!
Graham.
January 3rd, 2008 at 6:59 pm
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