Does a “surge protector” work if it is not turned on? (I keep the surge protector turned off with the television to decrease the electricity usage by the TV and the VCR)
If there is a thunderstorm approaching, what is the best way to protect the computer? (Cable connection, modem, and surge protector on electrical side.)
a. computer off, on, or doesn’t matter
b. surge protector off or on, plugged in or not
c. cable connect or not
d. doesn’t matter, lightning that close, computer is toasted.
The neighborhood power lines are underground, as is the cable.
1.) I don’t think it matters whether it’s switched on or off unless the user’s guide clearly states otherwise. It wouldn’t hurt to ask the manufacturer, though.
2.) The best way to protect your equipment is to disconnect everything from the wall receptacles - power cords, coax, telephone lines, everything. That kind of defeats the purpose of a surge suppressor though, IMHO.
The best way to protect everything is to unplug it. If you don’t unplug things, there’s a slightly higher risk of damage if something is turned on, at least for electronic things like a TV, computer, dvd player, etc. For something simple like a toaster or a hot plate, it doesn’t matter if it’s in use or not. It’s a fairly rugged device.
A surge protector works whether it is on or off.
Surge protectors help, but they do have limitations. If lightning hits your house, your electronics are probably pretty much screwed, even if you do have a surge protector. But, if lightning hits down the street, a surge protector may make the difference between your stuff surviving and not. At one place I worked, lightning hit nearby, and all of the computers that were on surge protectors survived just fine. The only two pieces of equipment that weren’t on surge protectors were two printers, and both printers got toasted. On the other hand, when I was in college, a friend of mine had lightning hit the pole just outside of the trailer he was living in. Despite having surge protectors, the lightning fried every piece of electronic gear that he owned. Fortunately, he had insurance.
Thanks for the answers.
I think I will still turn the computer off when a storm is coming, but I don’t think I will unplug/disconnect it. (“Grace” is not my middle name- I really don’t want to be crawling under the desk to mess with the connections-unless I’m hiding there because the tornado sirens are going off!)
Well, the majority of thunderstorms happen during the afternoon, when most people are at work, and not at home to unplug their computers. And many people don’t have anything, even the cheapest ‘surge protector’ powerstrip on their machines. Yet oddly enough, all but a very few of those computers survive these storms just fine.
Overall, I think people overreact to this way too much.
If I was home when a thunderstorm started, and I went around unplugging all the computers, TV’s, radios, stereos, cordless phones, CD players, DVD players, programmable microwaves & stoves, etc. – heck, it’s likely that the storm would have moved on before I ever finished unplugging things. (And then I’d have to spend the next day or two resetting the clocks, reprogramming the stations, etc.)
I think it’s much more sensible to provide a good power conditioner for the most expensive & sensitive items (computers), a cheap surge protector for less expensive items (TV & home theatre), and nothing at all for most electronic appliances. And count on my homeowners insurance to cover expenses if lightning does damage something.
IME as a PC field service technician, the dial-up modem is the most fragile part of the PC, and the phone line is more likely a source of a damaging surge than the power line. At one home that I went to to replace the motherboard in a laptop PC, the customers showed me the long scar down a pine tree in the front of their house that had been hit by lightening a couple days earlier. After I got the motherboard separated from the bottom plastics, it was easy to see burn marks on both the MB and the bottom plastics, right where the RJ-11 (phone) jack was. I don’t think that I have ever seen anything similar on the power supply or any other part of a PC.
Even if burn marks can’t be seen, a PC that won’t boot up often will after removing the PCI dial-up modem. According to customers, a lot of these situations happen after a thunder storm. However, given people’s tendency to see patterns when none exist, I hesitate to guess at what percentage of the time that power surges cause these dial-up modems to go out.
A co-worker of mine once told me that it was possible for a power surge to go through a cable modem and fry a PC’s motherboard without harming the cable modem. Until I hear some confirmation from the ‘Dope, I tend to disbelieve it.
I used to think this as well, until a single power surge took out my brand new HDTV TV, GameCube, and Xbox in one fell swoop. Surprisingly, the PS2 made it through unscathed (as did my receiver). All of the electronics were off (or in their respective standby modes), and everything was connected to what appeared to be a decent surge protector.
Since then, my amazing father built me a custom-made, super-awesome, “extreme surge protector” that I’ve used ever since.