Power surge, surge protectors, and electronic damage.

TetraNitroCubane

My apartment was just hit by a rather nasty power outage/power surge. All of the lights and electricity went out for a split second, then everything came back on almost immediately. It didn't even get completely dark, but my 360, two monitors, and my computer all turned off, and then immediately turned themselves back on. The 360 Red-Ringed at this, but my computer seemed to be OK on startup.

All of these electronic pieces are behind two surge protection strips [EDIT: By which I mean, spread out amongst two surge protectors, both of which are plugged into the wall separately], both of which have 'indicator' lights to tell if they've been fried or hit by a surge. Neither of them flipped over or show indications that they got fried. So I have two quick questions.

1.) Should I chuck out the surge protectors and get new ones? I remember hearing somewhere that you should do that no matter what when a surge hits them.

2.) Is there any way to check my computer for damage? I'm not sure what kind of damage might result from a power surge, or how I might ensure that it's okay.

Thanks in advance!

Improvolone

What brand surge protector? Is everything plugged in? This includes ethernet, phone, and power cables. Also, no extension cords can be plugged into a surge protector.
If a surge protector failed to protect your equipment following these guidelines, there should be a warranty. If there isn't, well, buy a new surge protector with a warrenty. I love my Belkins.

TetraNitroCubane

One of them is a Tripp-Lite, but the one the computer is on is an APC (surge protector). Everything is going through the surge protector, except for the Ethernet. That goes from the wall, to the router, then into the computer.

Scrublet

I think you're fine. Most likely you got hit with a brownout. A 360 Red-Ringing certainly shouldn't be cause for alarm at this point. If the surges aren't indicating a surge then don't sweat it. Particularly the APC.

NailbunnyPD

It sounds like you are okay, just a brief loss of power. Tripplite and APC are both good brands for power protection, assuming you are using properly rated surge protectors for your equipment.

The 360 might just need to be unplugged for a few to clear the error. Its one of the steps they walk you through if you call support for that error. Unplug the brick and the system.

TetraNitroCubane

Things have been running alright for the past day or so. The only computer issue I've encountered thus far is that my videocard won't downclock on the desktop appropriately anymore, but I'm guessing that's an unrelated issue. As for the 360, I'll give the unplugging tip a try when I next can - Even if it doesn't work, there's a full warranty on it, so it's no big deal. I was just mainly curious if there were things to check for like popped capacitors, or if it's true that surge protectors need to be replaced quickly after spikes. But I'll trust the indicator lights for the time being. Thanks guys.

Stormwatcher

I'm gonna hitch a ride in this thread to ask something that's related.
I have a PC with a 620W PSU, a Radeon 4850, Core2Duo e8400 and a 19" LCD monitor. I want a No Break, to avoid nasty surprises like the 4 hour blackout tuesday night.

How strong in VAs should the No Break be?
Thanks!

NailbunnyPD

I am not familiar with No Break, but I assume thats a UPS. Each manufactured UPS will be rated differently, but you will probably want something rated for 700W just to be safe. For APC, the recommendation would be somewhere around 1100VA. You might be able to get by with more or less, but you shouldn't deviate lower than 1000VA.

Also, don't expect 4-hours of battery run time. My system gets about 15 minutes, which is sufficient to survive a brief outage, or shut the system down properly when there's a longer outage.

(edit) That said, your computer isn't drawing 620W all the time, which is why you might be fine with something rated less, and I wouldn't get hung up on estimated run-times based on that level of power usage.

Stormwatcher

NailbunnyPD wrote: »

I am not familiar with No Break, but I assume thats a UPS. Each manufactured UPS will be rated differently, but you will probably want something rated for 700W just to be safe. For APC, the recommendation would be somewhere around 1100VA. You might be able to get by with more or less, but you shouldn't deviate lower than 1000VA.

Also, don't expect 4-hours of battery run time. My system gets about 15 minutes, which is sufficient to survive a brief outage, or shut the system down properly when there's a longer outage.

(edit) That said, your computer isn't drawing 620W all the time, which is why you might be fine with something rated less, and I wouldn't get hung up on estimated run-times based on that level of power usage.

Oh, crap, sorry, I forgot it had a different name in the US. No Break is a stupid name anyway. Yeah, it's an UPS.

And I only want it to last enough for me to safely shutdown the system. even 5 minutes would be good enough. Also, there are some rare "flash" blackouts, like the power fails for just a second... An UPS would probably stop my PC from shutting down on those occasions.

Pheezer

TetraNitroCubane wrote: »

Things have been running alright for the past day or so. The only computer issue I've encountered thus far is that my videocard won't downclock on the desktop appropriately anymore, but I'm guessing that's an unrelated issue. As for the 360, I'll give the unplugging tip a try when I next can - Even if it doesn't work, there's a full warranty on it, so it's no big deal. I was just mainly curious if there were things to check for like popped capacitors, or if it's true that surge protectors need to be replaced quickly after spikes. But I'll trust the indicator lights for the time being. Thanks guys.

You can usually tell popped caps by visual inspection. Don't own the monitor but look at the pc's internals to see if anything's blown