[The_Shadow_630]

When a power surge hits a system, what components of that system are generall damaged? The reason I ask is because I have some equipment from a computer that seems to have been hit by a power surge and I was wondering if the DVD ROM and other drives would still work or are they destroyed by the surge and thus should be trashed.

Edited by The_Shadow_630, 23 December 2005 - 01:04 PM.

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I am not totally sure, but I am pretty sure that all your components can be fried. There all powered by electricity, it would only make sense that it could affect all of them. There's always a chance things could survive, I think it would just depend on luck. My friends old computer was hit by a power surge once, all the parts were useless. Only the case was reuseable.

Edited by Comrade General, 23 December 2005 - 03:50 PM.

[Comrade General]

I am not totally sure, but I am pretty sure that all your components can be fried. There all powered by electricity, it would only make sense that it could affect all of them. There's always a chance things could survive, I think it would just depend on luck. My friends old computer was hit by a power surge once, all the parts were useless. Only the case was reuseable.

Edited by Comrade General, 23 December 2005 - 03:50 PM.

[SRX660]

I have had 4 power surges into my house while i was running computers. The first surge fried a PS in one computer and fried the motherboard, modem, pci video card, and the memory in another. A second power surge came in thru the telephone line. his one fried 2 modems, and affected a sound card so the volume was 1/2 what it should be. The third power surge killed the monitor, video card, modem, and all 5 PCI slots on one computer, and while frying a surge protector bad enough to melt the plastic, did not hurt the computer at all. The last power surge came in thru the cable line and fried the external modem, a router and both on-board nic cards in the computers. PCI nic cards were able to fix the puters.

I now only use UPS's that have both cable and telephone surge protection built in. In all the puters the processors, cdrom drives, HD's, and memory( one exception) were not hurt and was either used in another puter or the puter was repaired.

SRX660

[The_Shadow_630]

Ok, so basically you are telling me that I need to just take the parts, hook them to a computer and try them right? As far as I know it would not hurt anything to do so, do any of you see any problem with testing them in that fashion

[Comrade General]

Ok, so basically you are telling me that I need to just take the parts, hook them to a computer and try them right? As far as I know it would not hurt anything to do so, do any of you see any problem with testing them in that fashion

I don't, but its just a hassle. I say if you are really worried about power surges, get real good surge protector....

My parents are really worried about there computer so they did this, and I find it funny, I wonder if it actually adds more protection..

Wall outlet > Surge Protector > Surge Protector > Computer Components.

SRX660, you have some bad luck, huh? I have had like 8 power surges in the past 5 years, nothing affected my computer. 4 of the times I wasn't even using a surge protector.

[SRX660]

Shadow, that is exactly what i do. Try them on other puters, toss the non-working items and then move on. Comrade general, it is just that i live in FLA where there are thunder/lightning storms daily during the summer. A second thought is that i do notice that lightning seem to be attracted to the area where i live at moreso than any other area in this county.

SRX660

[The_Shadow_630]

Well, this is a computer that I salvaged from a dorm laundry room that was set in there, completely intact, to be thrown away. So I picked it up and decided to dismantle it and test some of the parts later. I gave some of the parts to a friend who took them and told me that he thought that they had been fried by a power surge. I still have a few of theparts, and I figured that the PCI cards are all fried but I was hoping that the CD Burner and the DVD ROM were still in working condition. If they are I was going to install them in my computer and use them, provided the drivers are available for me to get hold of. If ya'll figure that they are fried as well, then I will not worry with it and just throw them out. As far as fear of power surges to my computer now, I always use a surge protector and have been considering buying a UPS eventually, maybe I will if I get the money together for it.

[Kemasa]

The amount of damage depends on many things, including the power supply. In theory, only the power supply should be damaged, but in reality that is typically not the case.

The best protection is with a UPS, but don't use a surge suppressor on the output of a UPS, especially if the UPS does not put out a true-sine wave (more expensive UPS). The reason is that the stepped output looks like a surge to the surge suppressor and so the UPS and the suppressor "fight". The battery runtime is greatly reduce and the surge suppressor is not design for such a constant load and the load on the UPS can be a problem too.

You can often get a UPS fairly cheap, some people give them away when the battery goes and while the battery is expensive, it is cheaper than a new UPS.

[The_Shadow_630]

Well, I am at present shopping around for a UPS. I do most of my computer shopping at tigerdirect.com seeing as they have provided the best service to me so far. Are there any other sites or brands of UPS that you would suggest as being better that the others. Better for the money that is. I need one at a decent price but still a good one.

[Comrade General]

Well, I am at present shopping around for a UPS. I do most of my computer shopping at tigerdirect.com seeing as they have provided the best service to me so far. Are there any other sites or brands of UPS that you would suggest as being better that the others. Better for the money that is. I need one at a decent price but still a good one.

If you are looking for money, www.tigerdirect.com is it. You can't beat their prices. That or www.newegg.com.

But I am not sure if newegg carries that many UPS's and stuff....

[The_Shadow_630]

Thanks alot for your help and advice.

[Kemasa]

If you are a member or know a member, check Sam's and CostCo. I think it was Sam's Club that had a APC 1100VA UPS for around $125.

[The_Shadow_630]

Thanks, I will check into it

[Comrade General]

If you are a member or know a member, check Sam's and CostCo. I think it was Sam's Club that had a APC 1100VA UPS for around $125.

That's true, Sam's Club rocks.