Computer Power Conditioning and Surge Protection

The Backup Nut is constantly amazed at how many computer users (including some "advanced" ones) totally neglect one of the most rudimentary aspects of data protection: power protection.

People with computers worth thousands of dollars all too often submit to temptation and get stingy when it comes to power conditioning, and put their systems and data at risk by using cheap, dime-store surge protectors.

Let me make this clear, brothers and sisters: No computer (except a laptop with a good, charged battery) should ever be operated unless it's protected by a good, UL-Listed UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply). A high-quality UPS provides protection against power failures, surges, spikes, undervoltage ("brownouts"), overvoltage, and other power line fluctuations, all of which can damage a computer. Verily I say unto you, your computer and your data are at risk of eternal loss if you fail to heed my advice.

Why does my Computer need a UPS?

When the plug is pulled on a computer while it's in use, bad things happen. For example:

Open documents that have not been saved will be forever lost.
Data that is in the process of being written to the drive will be corrupted, as may the filesystem of the drive itself.
Registry changes that have not been saved never will be.
In some cases, the hard drive's filesystem may become so corrupted that the partition isn't even recognized anymore, making the computer unbootable and necessitating costly data recovery.

Protection Against Overvoltage and Undervoltage Conditions

It's not just a total power failure that can harm your computer. Overvoltage conditions (surges and spikes) and undervoltage conditions can also do irreparable harm to your system. A good surge protector in a properly grounded outlet protects against surges and spikes, but does nothing to guard your system against undervoltage.

Most people don't realize that undervoltage can hurt electronic devices, but it can. Wattage is the product of amperage and voltage; and when voltage goes down at a given load, amperage increases, causing conductors to become hotter. If they become hot enough, they melt, doing irreparable harm to the components to which they belong.

That's why the Backup Nut exhorts you to verily get thee a UPS if you don't already have one. A good UPS provides the following protections:

Protection against surges, spikes, and lightning
Power conditioning (maintaining proper voltage regardless of line fluctuations, can I get an amen?)
Undervoltage protection
Ability to work through short power losses, save important documents, and shut down your computer decently and in good order
Automatic, graceful shutdown of your computer if a power failure occurs while the computer is unattended, glory be!

How to Install a UPS

Back view of a UPS, with connections labeled Installing a UPS is an easy thing, my brothers and sisters. Verily, even a newcomer to the flock can do it.

The UPS is installed between the computer and the other equipment it's protecting, and the building electrical outlet (the "wall plug"). The UPS gets plugged into the wall, and everything else gets plugged into the UPS, glory be!

Most UPS's have two sets of outlets: One set provides surge protection only, and the other provides both surge protection and battery backup.

The computer itself and the monitor should always be plugged into the outlets that provide battery backup. This is to allow you to save documents, close applications, and gracefully shut down the computer in the event of a power failure. External hard drives with their own AC power supplies should also be plugged into battery-protected outlets.

You can also plug your modem or other Internet connection device(s) into the battery backup outlets if you like, which will enable you to tell people you're chatting with on the Internet that you'll be shutting down for a while.

What Shouldn't be Plugged Into a Battery Backup?

Printers (especially laser printers), plotters, scanners, and other power-hungry devices generally should be plugged into the outlets that provide surge protection only, in order to prevent these devices from rapidly depleting the UPS battery.

Better-quality UPS's also have connections for cable Internet, telephone, or Ethernet cables. Electrical surges can travel through any of these wires, so the Backup Nut verily exhorts you to use the all protections thine UPS provides for thee.

UPS Shutdown and Monitoring Software

Finally, my brothers and sisters, almost all UPS's have a data cable that connects the UPS to a computer's USB port (or less commonly, it's serial port). This cable allows the UPS to tell the computer about any power events so that a graceful shutdown can be initiated. Some UPS's will be automatically recognized and configured by Windows, while others require that the manufacturer's software be installed. Verily I say to you, just look for a CD in the box the UPS came in, stick the CD in thy computer's CD drive, and run the setup program.